Alpine Elite: German Mountain Troops of World War II

London: Jane's, 1980. Presumed First U. S. Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good/Very good. Format is 6.25 inches by 9 inches. 226 pages. Illustrations. Charts. Bibliography. Index. DJ is price-clipped. Ink notation inside of the front cover. Some front board weakness noted. James Lucas was an acclaimed historian specializing in Germany during World War II. His publications include Last Days of the Reich', 'Das Reich', 'Kommando' and 'War in the Desert'. He worked as the Deputy Head of the Department of Photographs at the Imperial War Museums. This book "Alpine Elite: German Mountain Troops of World War II" by James Lucas remains one of the best English Language sources on the German mountain divisions of WWII. Gebirgsjäger are the light infantry part of the alpine or mountain troops of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. During World War II the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS raised a number of mountain infantry units. An entire corps was formed in Norway by 1941. These mountain infantry were equipped with fewer automatic weapons than regular infantry, however the MG 34 or MG 42 machine gunners were provided with more ammunition than their regular infantry counterparts. Mountain infantry were identified by the edelweiss insignia worn on their sleeves and their caps. Mountain infantry participated in many battles, including Operation Weserübung, Operation Silver Fox, Operation Platinum Fox and Operation Arctic Fox, the operations in the Caucasus, the Gothic Line, the invasion of Crete and the battles in the Vosges region.