The Forgotten Battles of the Cold War – Cold War History Ebook

Britain won the Second World War in 1945. But for British soldiers, the fighting was far from over.

From the frozen hills of Korea to the jungles of Malaya and Borneo, from the streets of Cyprus and Aden to the mountains of Oman, British servicemen fought a succession of conflicts that have largely faded from public memory.

The Forgotten Battles of the Cold War: Britain’s Military Engagements After 1945 tells the story of the wars, emergencies, interventions and confrontations that transformed Britain’s armed forces during the turbulent decades after victory in Europe.

Follow British and Commonwealth troops through the Malayan Emergency and the desperate stand at the Imjin River. Discover the political and military disaster of Suez, the hidden mountain war in Oman, the rapid intervention that protected Kuwait, the Brunei Revolt, the secret cross-border operations of the Indonesian Confrontation, and the violent final years of British rule in Aden.

Behind them all stood an even greater threat: the possibility of war with the Soviet Union. While soldiers fought across the remnants of empire, the British Army of the Rhine prepared for a battle in Europe that might have escalated into nuclear war.

Drawing these seemingly separate campaigns together, Martin Swan examines how Britain transformed from an imperial military power into a smaller, professional force operating through NATO, alliances, rapid deployment and specialist units.

This is not simply a history of battles. It is a story of jungle patrols, airborne assaults, mountain warfare, counter-insurgency, secret operations, deterrence and withdrawal—and of the soldiers who fought wars that Britain has largely forgotten.

Some campaigns ended in victory.

Others ended in withdrawal.

And Britain's most dangerous Cold War battle never happened at all.

For readers of British military history, Cold War history and forgotten twentieth-century conflicts, this is the story of the wars Britain fought while the world waited for World War Three.