Pen Sword Military imprint: 1157 books

The campaign that led to the first Battle of Newbury in 1643 represents a vital phase in the English Civil War, yet rarely has it received the attention it deserves. In this compelling and meticulously researched new study, Jon Day shows how the campaign was critical to the outcome of the war and...

A seemingly unnecessary raid made by men of the 10th Battalion A.I.F. on Celtic Wood, Broodseinde on the 9th October 1917 resulted in the unrecorded deaths of 37 of the raiding party. The mystery of how they died has never been solved. The conclusion reached in this book prompts thoughts as to why...

Major General Julian Thompson first wrote No Picnic when the momentous events of April - June 1982 were fresh in his mind. As Commander of 3 Commando Brigade, he was at the heart of the planning and conduct of the War. Under his direct command had been the Royal Marine Commandos and the two battalions...

When war was declared in August 1914, Northampton was swept by a wave of patriotism. Men clamoured to join the ranks and fight in a war they believed would be short lived. There was a sense of excitement, with everyone wanting to do their bit for the country. They believed it was to be a glorious...

When the Second World War was declared in September 1939, Northamptonshire was better prepared for the years that followed than it had been twenty-five years earlier. Lessons had been learned from the First World War, and people were far more aware of the impact modern warfare could have on their...

Covering nearly one hundred years of Zulu military history, this book focuses on the creation, maintenance, development, tactics and ultimate destruction of the Zulu army. It studies the armies, weapons and tactics under the rule of the five Zulu kings from Shaka to Dinizulu. The rule of each of the...

Warwick in the Great War is a detailed account of how the experiences of war impacted on the garrison town from the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, to the long-awaited Armistice in 1918, and its immediate aftermath. The troops went off to war, cheered and supported by their friends and family,...

In the Middle Ages the castle was an important military and administrative centre, essentially utilitarian in its design and in the purposes it served. Because it played so central a role in medieval history, and because the wealth of material is so great, the author has concentrated on English seiges...

Many books have been written about Napoleon and his campaigns, but very little about the soldiers of his armies and of the organization and conditions under which they lived and served. In this classic study, now reissued in paperback, H.C.B. Rogers examines Napoleon's army in terms of its staff systems,...

The office of justice of the peace has existed since the twelfth century, when ‘good and lawful men’ were first appointed to sit in judgment of their peers. Unpaid and untrained, these lay magistrates were the backbone of the English judicial system, dealing with the vast majority of criminal...

General Gordon’s death in Khartoum on 26 January 1885 – and the fall of the besieged city to the forces of the Mahdi – was a crucial episode in British imperial history. It was deeply controversial at the time, and it still is today. Gordon has routinely been depicted as the hero of the story,...

Wingate Pasha is the first biography of an eminent Scottish soldier-statesman who contributed much to the development of the Sudan and Egypt during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It tells the story of a man from an impoverished background with a rudimentary education who nonetheless mastered...

This is the most complete guide to the First World War Battlefield of Ypres that has ever been published. Tonie and Valmai Holt, have condensed the knowledge gained from almost a quarter of a century of researching, writing about, visiting and conducting groups around Ypres into this remarkable book....

A “well-researched, well-written, humorous and engaging” exploration of soldiers’ rations during World War I (Destructive Music).   Napoleon Bonaparte is often credited with saying that “an army marches on its stomach.” A hundred years after his time, the soldiers of the Great War would...