Osprey Publishing imprint: 2000 books

From November 1942 through to May 1945, the backbone of the USAAF's medium bomber force was provided by the clutch of bomb groups equipped with the B-25 Mitchell. First seeing action in North Africa in the wake of Operation Torch, and in the Battle of El Alamein, the 'bombing twin' proved to be one...

Where was the Luftwaffe on D-Day? Following decades of debate, 2010 saw a formerly classified history restored and in it was a new set of answers. Pointblank is the result of extensive new research that creates a richly textured portrait of perhaps the last untold story of D-Day: three uniquely talented...

The German A-4 ballistic missile, better known by its propaganda name of V-2, was the world's first successful ballistic missile, breaking through the atmosphere to reach its target quicker. It was a forerunner of Cold War ballistic missiles and its combat use in 1944-45 set the pattern for the use...

Although the Fifteenth Air Force was dismissed as 'minor leaguers' by the Eighth Air Force, strategic bombers from this outfit had done a 'major league' job on Axis targets in southern Europe following its formation in Italy in November 1943. And the heavy bombers employed by the Fifteenth were of...

More than three and a half centuries have passed since the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War (1618-48); but this most devastating of wars in the early modern period continues to capture the imagination of readers: this book reveals why. It was one of the first wars where contemporaries...

The most famous admiral in history, Horatio Nelson's string of naval victories helped secure Britain's place as the world's dominant maritime power, a position she held for more than a century after Nelson's death. A young officer during the American Revolution, Nelson rose to prominence during Britain's...

Upon the outbreak of war, the British Royal Navy was deployed globally, whilst the Imperial German Navy was concentrated in two areas – Home Waters and Tsingtao, the home port of the crack East Asia Cruiser Squadron which, under the command of Admiral von Spee contained some of Germany's most modern...

By the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 Britain was the undisputed master of the seas, owing to the power and strength of the Royal Navy. Its fleets, comprising ships of the line, frigates, and gunboats, had doubled in size since the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, totalling almost...

In August 1745 Charles Edward Stuart, the 'Young Pretender', landed in Scotland and sparked the Second Jacobite Rising. The Jacobite forces seized Perth, then Edinburgh, where they proclaimed the Young Pretender's father King James VIII; they trounced their Hanoverian opponents at Prestonpans and...

Fighting in every theatre from the burning sands of North Africa to the icy wastes above the arctic circle the German Army's Gebirgstruppen troops were some of the most effective in the whole of the Wehrmacht. Their esprit de corps and morale were extremely high and their commanders, men such as Eduard...

In World War II a number of German Army units and divisions were classed as élites, and were distinguished by special insignia of various kinds. For some this status was simply a matter of lineage e.g. the Infantry Regiment 'List', which traced its identity to the Bavarian unit with which Hitler...

Despite being disdained by the German Army's professional officer corps, the military branch of the Nazi SS security organisation grew from an initial strength of only a handful of battalions at the outbreak of war in 1939 to hundreds of thousands of troops in dozens of divisions. The battlefield...

The German Police were an essential arm of the Nazi regime; as soon as Hitler achieved power the previous decentralized provincial system was unified into a single state apparatus, integrated at the command levels with the SS. While it may have been centrally controlled, it was still separated into...

When a soldier must face multiple opponents at close quarters, few weapons can match the effectiveness of the shotgun. From World War I to the War on Terror, the shotgun has been a devastating weapon in the hands of US troops. For urban combat, prisoner control and shipboard operations, it remains...