Books published by publisher Osprey Publishing,2009

Although the story of the German Fall Gelb offensive against France, Belgium, and Holland in May 1940 is well known, most accounts tend to stop with the conclusion of the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk on June 4, 1940. The German operation that actually conquered metropolitan France, Fall Rot (Case Red), is usually glossed over in brief. Nor are many people aware today that there was a second BEF in France, which was also successfully evacuated by sea. The current literature on the Western campaign of 1940 essentially spotlights the German drive to the English Channel and the Dunkirk evacuation then skips ahead to the French armistice, skipping over the military, political, and human drama of France's collapse in June 1940. Indeed, some of the most interesting military operations of the 1940 campaign were conducted in June 1940, as the Allies mounted a vigorous counterattack at Abbeville (including the British 1st Armoured Division--the first time that the British Army employed an armored division in combat) and then mounted a tough defense along the Somme River. Unlike the easy breakthrough at Sedan, the Germans had to fight hard to break through the Weygand Line. Churchill decided to send a second BEF to France to support the French, but the Germans finally achieved a decisive breakthrough before it could be effectively deployed. The British were forced to mount a second evacuation from the ports of Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, and St. Nazaire, which rescued over 200,000 troops, although the transport RMS Lancastria was sunk by German bombers, with the loss of over 4,000 troops. While France was in its death throes, politicians and soldiers debated what to do--flee to England or North Africa or to seek an armistice.The drama of the final three weeks of military operations in France in June 1940 has never effectively been captured on paper, but this is a story that needs to be told since it had great impact on the course of World War II and inter-Allied relations. This book will also address the initial German exploitation of France and how the windfall of captured military equipment, fuel and industrial resources enhanced the Third Reich's ability to attack its next foe--the Soviet Union.

Aleutians 1942–43 is the full story of the forgotten battle to liberate American soil from the Japanese during World War II.It is often forgotten that during World War II, the Japanese managed to successfully invade and conquer a precious part of American home soil--the first time this had happened since 1815. Capturing the Aleutian Islands, located in Alaska territory, was seen by the Japanese as vital in order to shore up their northern defensive perimeter. Fighting in the Aleutians was uniquely brutal. It is a barren, rugged archipelago of icy mountains and thick bogs, with a climate of constant snow, freezing rains, and windstorms. These geographic conditions tended to neutralize traditional American strengths such as air power, radar, naval bombardment, and logistics. The campaign to recapture the islands required extensive combined-ops planning, and inflicted on the United States its second highest casualty rate in the Pacific Theater. Featuring the largest Japanese banzai charge of the war, first use of pre-battle battleship bombardment in the Pacific, and the battle at the Komandorski Islands, this is the story of America's forgotten war.

Sweeping from frozen mountaintops to dusty city streets, and everything in between, this is the gripping and deeply personal account of an elite Ranger who nearly lost his life "leading the way" in America’s secretive global wars.As part of an elite special operations unit at the fighting edge of the Global War on Terrorism, Nicholas Moore spent over a decade with the US Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. In this compelling biography, a detailed narrative of grueling life on the ground combines with accounts of some of the most dramatic search and rescue operations of the period to tell the true story of life on the line in the War on Terror.Charting his rise from private to senior non-commissioned officer, this title follows Moore as he embarks on a series of dangerous deployments, engaging in brutal street combat and traversing inhospitable terrain in pursuit of Taliban fighters and Iraq's Most Wanted. Including never-before-published first-hand accounts of high-profile special operations missions including the tense rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch and the search and rescue mission for US Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell, Moore recounts, in vivid detail, the realities of life on the front line.

Initially designed as a fast medium bomber, the Junkers Ju 88 was also used as a Zerstörer heavy fighter by the Luftwaffe. It saw its combat debut over Poland in 1939, and heavy fighter variants saw action on every front up to VE Day. The ultimate Ju 88 fighter variant was the G-model of 1944, which boasted a FuG 220 or 227 radar, an astounding array of cannon and machine gun armament, and advanced Junkers Jumo or BMW engines. A dedicated nightfighter, the first Ju 88G-1s entered service with the Nachtjagd in the summer of 1944, replacing Ju 88C/Rs as well as some Bf 110Gs. Despite suffering heavy losses in the final months of the war, Ju 88Gs also inflicted serious casualties on Bomber Command right up to VE Day.Illustrated with original artwork, Ju 88 Aces of World War 2 tells the story of the aces who menaced Allied aircraft and shipping throughout the war, whether patrolling over the Bay of Biscay, to the Arctic circle opposing Allied convoys and, most successfully, as radar-equipped nightfighters engaging RAF heavy bombers during defense of the Reich operations from late 1941.

Since 1987 the US Special Operations Command has used a wide array of sophisticated weapons in action around the world. Fully illustrated with specially commissioned artwork, this absorbing study explores the origins, development, and combat record of the distinctive weaponry carried by these elite forces, from pistols to assault rifles.Assessing the technology and capabilities of these combat weapons, as well as how they have been used in modern combat, this fully illustrated study lifts the veil on some of the most distinctive hand-held weapon systems of US special operations forces since 1987.The units and formations of the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) have privileged access to the finest weaponry in the world's arsenal. Whether Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines, the SOCOM troops select weapons that match their mission requirements, but which also sit at the cutting edge of combat technology. This means that, while SOCOM troops frequently use standard-issue weaponry, they also adopt many specialist pieces of kit that are not so accessible to the broader armed services, including sniper rifles, battle rifles, and machine guns, as well as high-tech tactical accessories used to transform standard weaponry into something exceptional.

Inch'on was probably the most significant campaign in the Korean theater, as well as being the last major amphibious assault of division-size conducted in the history of warfare. The odds were stacked against the US troops, with virtually no time for training and many of the divisions unprepared for the conflict. The success of the Inch'on campaign is a testament to the sheer initiative of the officers and NCOs conducted it. This book details the strategy and tactics that led to the operation's success, as well as narrating the experience of the battle in fascinating detail.

As the war began to swing in favour of the Allies, it became clear that no final defeat of the Third Reich would be possible until the armoured monsters of the Panzerwaffe were defeated. But who would, or even could, take on the mighty Tigers and Panthers, just a handful of which could stop entire formations in their tracks? The answer lay with the formation of a new type of unit, the Tank Destroyer Battalion. This is the story of the men and machines that made up the very first Tank Destroyer Battalion, the 601st, from their unique training and formation, to the final, desperate battles in the heart of Nazi Germany. Packed with rare material, letters, diaries and previously unpublished photographs, and now available in paperback, this is an intense and intimate chronicle of the men who fought the Panzers in an astonishing 10 campaigns and 546 days of lethal combat.

The units and formations of the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) have privileged access to the finest weaponry in the world's arsenal. Whether Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines, the SOCOM troops select weapons that match their mission requirements, but which also sit at the cutting edge of combat technology. This means that, while SOCOM troops frequently use standard-issue weaponry, they also adopt many specialist pieces of kit that are not so accessible to the broader armed services, including sniper rifles, battle rifles, and machine guns, as well as high-tech tactical accessories used to transform standard weaponry into something exceptional. Assessing the technology and capabilities of these combat weapons, as well as how they have been used in modern combat, this fully illustrated study lifts the veil on some of the most distinctive hand-held weapon systems of US special operations forces since 1987.

On 27 October 1942, four “Long Lance” torpedoes fired by the Japanese destroyers Makigumo and Akigumo exploded in the hull of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). Minutes later, the ship that had launched the Doolitte Raid six months earlier slipped beneath the waves of the Coral Sea 100 miles northeast of the island of Guadalcanal and just north of the Santa Cruz Islands, taking with her 140 of her sailors. With the loss of Hornet, the United States Navy now had one aircraft carrier left in the South Pacific, USS Enterprise (CV-6), herself badly damaged in the two previous days of the Battle of Santa Cruz, the fourth Japanese–American carrier battle since the Battle of the Coral Sea five months and three weeks before. Of the prewar carrier fleet the Navy had struggled to build over 15 years, only three were left: Enterprise licked her wounds at Espiritu Santo while USS Saratoga (CV-3) lay in dry dock at the Bremerton Navy Yard, victim of a Japanese submarine torpedo two months earlier. USS Ranger (CV-4) was in mid-Atlantic on her way to support Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.For the American naval aviators, it would be difficult to imagine that within 24 months of this event, Zuikaku, the last survivor of the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor, would lie at the bottom of the Philippine Sea north of Cape Engano on the island of Luzon, alongside the other surviving Japanese carriers, sacrificed as lures in a failed attempt to block the American invasion of the Philippines after the Imperial Japanese Navy's aviators had been destroyed as a viable fighting force in the Battle of the Philippines Sea, and that the United States Navy's Task Force 38, composed of 16 fleet carriers, would reign supreme on the world's largest ocean.Ten months after the loss of Hornet at Santa Cruz, an entirely new fleet of aircraft carriers would begin to make their presence known in the Pacific, starting with a raid by USS Essex (CV-9), class leader of the largest and most important class of capital ships ever built, and USS Lexington (CV-16), namesake of the carrier sunk at Coral Sea, against the Japanese-held island of Marcus. Fourteen months later, the islands of the south and central Pacific would be under American domination, led by the ships of the Fast Carrier Task Force, which would cement their position as the strongest naval fighting force ever to set sail, in the largest naval battle of history.The fourteen months of the Central Pacific Campaign constitute the most successful naval campaign ever undertaken and Pacific Thunder will put all elements of this campaign into historical context.

The M1 Abrams was the most radical departure in US tank design since World War II. Until the advent of the M1 in the early 1980s, the US Army had relied on the steady evolution of the M26 Pershing tank, through the M46, M47, M48 and M60. The M1 design came at a time when there were a host of important new tank technologies coming to fruition, in terms of structure and weaponry: these were integrated into it. This book details the design, development and operational use of one of the world's best main battle tanks.

The battle for the skies in World War II fuelled a race between rival air forces to develop ever faster and more capable fighter aircraft – and the struggle for air superiority was never over until the war itself ended. This volume explores four clashes of some of the finest planes and pilots, in key theatres of the war: Spitfires duelling the formidable Bf 109 over the Channel, the Fw 190 battling the Soviet La 5 and 7 on the Eastern Front, the F4F Wildcat in a desperate clash with the legendary A6M Zero-sen, and the F4U Corsair in combat with the second-generation Japanese Ki-84 in the closing days of the war.Fully illustrated with contemporary photographs, maps and colour artwork, Air Combat conveys the full story behind these dramatic aviation duels.

As the Revolutionary War raged on fields near the Atlantic, Native Americans and British rangers fought American settlers on the Ohio River frontier in warfare of unsurpassed ferocity. When their attacks threatened to drive the Americans from their settlements in Kentucky, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, and other frontiersmen guided an army of 970 Kentuckians into what is now Ohio to attack the principal Native American bases from which the raids emanated. This superbly illustrated book traces Colonel George Rogers Clark's lightning expedition to destroy Chalawgatha and Peckuwe, and describes how on August 8, 1780, his Kentuckians clashed with an army of 450 Native Americans, under Black Hoof, Buckongahelas, and Girty, at the battle of Peckuwe. It would be the largest Revolutionary War battle on the Ohio River frontier.