Military History

Asia @ War: Emperor's Own: Ethiopians in the Korean War

On June 25, 1950, as he was flying back to Washington D.C. to deal with the outbreak of war in Korea, US President Harry Truman thought, “In my generation, this was not the first occasion when the strong had attacked the weak. I recalled some earlier...

Asia @ War: France’s War in Indochina: Volume 1: The Tiger versus the Elephant, 1946–1949

...a very interesting book with insights into how French forces dealt with Viet Minh tactics and strategies, anticipating almost the same problems faced by American forces in Vietnam nearly twenty years later. The VVA VeteranUndoubtedly, Americas attempt...

Asia @ War: Fury from the North North Korean Air Force in the Korean War, 1950-1953

It was almost exactly 15.00 hours local time, on 25 June 1950, when nine Yakovlev Yak-9P fighters of the North Korea’s ‘Korean People’s Air Force’ (KPAF) simultaneously attacked Seoul International Airport and the Kimpo Airfield outside Seoul, the...

Asia @ War: Hunting the Viet Cong: Volume 2: The Fall of Diem and the Collapse of the Strategic Hamlets 1961-1964

In the early 1960s, the American-backed South Vietnamese government began an aggressive counterinsurgency programme aimed at eliminating the Viet Cong. The policy – known as the Strategic Hamlet Programme – seriously hurt and ‘cut up’ the VC. The second...

Asia @ War: Into the Endless Mist Volume 1: The Aleutian Campaign, June-August 1942

Covers the events of Operation AL from the Japanese raid on Dutch Harbor and the invasion of Attu and Kiska to the American landing on Adak in late August 1942. At the beginning of June 1942, in the wake of the enormous Japanese struggle to bring a...

Asia @ War: Into the Endless Mist Volume 2 - The Aleutian Campaign, September 1942-March 1943

Finally, the Americans, using their industrial capacity and taking advantage of the obvious Japanese mistakes, moved on to Kiska by landing on Adak and Amchitka. The Japanese plan to provide reinforcements and supplies to both garrisons in the Aleutians...

Asia @ War: NINE LIVES OF THE FLYING TIGER VOLUME 1 America's Secret Air Wars in Asia, 1945-1950

The famed American Volunteer Group (AVG) created in August 1941, under the command of Claire Lee Chennault set an example of heroism for the American public opinion at the onset of the Second World War. This band of volunteer aviators serving under the...

Asia @ War: Nuclear India: Developing India's Nuclear Arms from Reluctance to Triad

Since the 1998 nuclear tests and the publication of India’s Nuclear Doctrine, India has continued to face endemic security challenges from both China and Pakistan. The latter, through the apparent induction of tactical nuclear weapons into the equation...

Asia @ War: Operation Cactus: Indian Military Intervention in the Maldives, 1988

In 1988, the Indian Army and Air Force, ably supported by the Indian Navy, carried out a daring intervention in the Maldives. The government of the Maldives, led by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, facing an attempted coup by PLOTE, a renegade group of Tamil...

Asia @ War: Operation Meghdoot: India’s War in Siachen – 1984 to Present

In 1984, the Indian Army carried out a stunning operation that captured the Siachen Glacier in the northernmost regions of what is now the Union Territory of Ladakh. Since that time, a full brigade of Indian troops has faced off against a similar number...

Asia @ War: Paradise Afire: The Sri Lankan War Volume 4 - 1995-2002

In April 1995, the LTTE resumed the war by launching a surprise attack against the Sri Lankan Navy at Trincomalee, thus opening the third phase – the so-called Eelam War III – of the decades-long Sri Lankan civil war. From 1995 to 2002, both sides...

Asia @ War: Paradise Afire: The Sri Lankan War: Volume 1 - 1971-1987

When released into independence from Great Britain in 1948, the stunningly beautiful island of Ceylon, renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, was expected to become a sort of ‘South Asian Singapore.' However, stable political order and bright economic prospects...

Asia @ War: Paradise Afire: The Sri Lankan War: Volume 2 - 1987-1990

Upon achieving independence from Great Britain in 1948, the stunningly beautiful island of Ceylon, re-named Sri Lanka in 1972, was expected to become a sort of ‘South Asian Singapore’. However, stable political order and bright economic prospects proved...

Asia @ War: Paradise Afire: The Sri Lankan War: Volume 3 - 1990-1994

In June 1990, a mere three months after the Indian Peace Keeping Force withdrawal from Sri Lanka, the war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government resumed and was to continue unabated until another cease-fire in...

Asia @ War: Red Shirt/Yellow Shirt Protest and Insurrection in Thailand 2005-2014

A detailed account of the political crises of 2005–2014, the protest groups and the security response to these events, culminating in the seizure of power in 2014 by General Prayuth Chan O-Cha in a military coup. Thailand is often thought of in the West...

Asia @ War: Rooks in Afghanistan: Volume 1: Sukhoi Su-25 in the Afghanistan War, 1981-1985

Rooks in Afghanistan tells the story of the aircraft and crews of units of the Soviet Air Force equipped with the Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft. Between 1978 and 1989, a total of 582 single-seat Su-25s were manufactured for the Soviet Air Force – all at...

Asia @ War: Soviet Military Aviation in Central Asia 1917-41

A detailed exploration of the inter-war use of air power in Soviet Central Asia, drawing from Russian-language sources and photographic archives. The utilization of air power by the Communist regime in Russia during the revolutionary period and civil war...

Asia @ War: Target Saigon 1973-75 : Volume 1 - The Pretence of Peace

After 27 years of conflict it seemed that peace would finally settle on the Indochina peninsula on 27 January 1973 with the signing of a peace accord in Paris. The North Vietnamese had previously launched their greatest offensive against South Vietnam...

Asia @ War: Target Saigon 1973-75 Volume 2 - The Fall of South Vietnam: The Beginning of the End, January 1974 – March 1975

Drawing on a wide range of Vietnamese-language sources, the author presents a detailed account of the continuing efforts of North Vietnam to invade the South, enlivened by a large number of previously unpublished photographs, and color profiles for...

Asia @ War: Target Saigon 1973-75 Volume 3 - Disaster at Da Nang 1975

The third volume of the Target Saigon mini-series describes the opening stages of the final communist offensive against South Vietnam. The decision of President Nguyen Van Thieu to evacuate the Central Highlands was part of a wider scheme that envisaged...

Asia @ War: Terror and Response: The India-Pakistan Proxy War 2008-2019

In February 2019, the Indian Air Force struck at targets in Pakistan in retaliation for a terrorist attack on a convoy of the Indian Central Reserve Police Force in Kashmir. The next day, Pakistan retaliated in an inconclusive air battle. These were the...

Asia @ War: The Erawan War: Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974

Best known by their French acronym for Forces Armées du Royaume – FAR – the Royal Lao Armed Forces were the official defense force of the Kingdom of Laos – what is now the Lao People’s Democratic Republic – from 1949 until 1975. Founded in 1947, when...

Asia @ War: The Sino-Soviet Border War of 1969 : Volume 1 - First Clash at Damansky Island

The victory of the communists in the Chinese civil war resulted in the formation of a new socialist state in Asia – the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Soviet leadership was the first to recognize the PRC, and subsequently provided China with...

Asia @ War: The Sino-Soviet Border War of 1969 : Volume 2 - Confrontation at Lake Zhalanashkol, August 1969

The communist victory in the Chinese civil war resulted in the formation of a new socialist state – the People’s Republic of China. The Soviets were the first to recognize the PRC, and subsequently provided China with considerable assistance. After...

Asia @ War: The Soviet War in Afghanistan 1979-1989

Richly illustrated with original photographs – many never published before in the West – and the @War series signature color artworks showing the men, vehicles and aircraft involved in this conflict. In December 1979 the USSR’s 40th Army crossed the...

Asia @ War: When Brothers Fight Chinese Eyewitness Accounts of the Sino-Soviet Border Battles, 1969

BTO032 - Panzer Divisions: The Blitzkrieg Years 1939–40

At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Germany's armoured forces - the Panzerwaffe - were still in their infancy. The restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles meant that German tank production lagged behind its enemies. Initial armour...

CAM001 - Normandy 1944

Osprey's Campaign title for the Normandy campaign of World War II (1939-1945). D-Day, 6 June 1944, saw the largest amphibious landing operation in history. From ports and harbours on the southern coast of England, an armada of troopships and landing...

CAM004 - Tet Offensive 1968: Turning point in Vietnam

Osprey's study of the 1968 Tet Offensive, which was the decisive battle for Vietnam (1955-1975). Masterminded by the brilliant North Vietnamese General, Vo Nguyen Giap, it was intended to trigger a general uprising in South Vietnam. However, the bloody...

CAM017 - Chickamauga 1863: The river of death

Osprey's examination of the battle at Chickamagua, one of the decisive campaigns of the American Civil War (1861-1865). By the Autumn of 1863 the Confederacy was in dire straits. In a colossal gamble, Confederate President Jefferson Davis stripped forces...

CAM018 - Guadalcanal 1942: The Marines Strike Back

Osprey's examination of the first American amphibious assault of World War II (1939-1945). On what was a virtually unheard of Pacific island, the United States shattered the myth of Japanese invincibility, as the US Marines and Army halted the apparently...

CAM020 - Jena 1806

Forewarned of Prussia's intention to declare war on France, Napoleon decided to strike first with a bold advance from Wurzburg into Saxony. On 14 October the double battle was fought: Napoleon with 96,000 men and 120 guns engaged and heavily defeated...

CAM027 - Tel El-Kebir 1882: Wolseley's Conquest of Egypt

Osprey's Campaign title for the battle of Tel El-Kebir of 1882. In 1881, the Egyptian army mutinied against the Khedive of Egypt and forced him to appoint Said Ahmed Arabi as Minister of War. In March 1882, Arabi was made a Pasha and from this time on...

CAM030 - Midway 1942

In 1993 Osprey Publishing released the 30th volume in its now legendary Campaign series, entitled, Midway 1942: Turning Point in the Pacific. Now, 17 years later, Osprey brings readers up-to-date with the latest scholarship on this important Pacific War...

CAM039 - Little Big Horn 1876: Custer's Last Stand

Osprey's examination of one of the most controversial battles of the American Indian Wars (1775-1918). The death of George Armstrong Custer, and over half of his 7th Cavalry Regiment in the valley of the Little Big Horn on 25 July 1876, has become the...

CAM041 - Rorke's Drift 1879: 'Pinned like rats in a hole'

Rorke's Drift sums up some of the best traditions of the British self-image: steadfastness against the odds, victory in adversity and the thin red line. The British stand deserves to go down in history as one of the most heroic actions of all time. The...

CAM042 - Bagration 1944

Osprey's overview of the most calamitous defeat of the German armed forces in World War II (1939-1945). On 22 June 1944, three years to the day after Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, the Red Army launched a massive offensive in Byelorussia...

CAM047 - Yorktown 1781: The World turned upside down

Osprey's Campaign title for the Siege of Yorktown (1781), which was part of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). By 1781 Britain's struggle to contain the rebels in her American colonies had reached an inglorious stalemate. Six years on from the...

CAM048 - Salamanca 1812: Wellington Crushes Marmont

Osprey's study of Salamanca (1812), the most decisive battle of the entire Peninsular War (1808-1814). Wellington smashed Marmont's French Army and his pursuit of its shattered remnants led to the famous cavalry charge of the King's German Legion at...

CAM049 - Mons 1914: the BEF's Tactical Triumph

When the First World War broke out in August 1914 the Imperial German Army mistakenly assumed that the BEF - 'that contemptible little army' - would be easily defeated. They were stopped in their tracks by the numerically inferior British force, whose...