Pen & Sword Books

Battlecraft - Battle of the Bulge: A Guide to Modeling the Battle

The Battle of the Bulge was the perfect storm for the Allies in late 1944; a tired army, overstretched supply lines, and poor intelligence on what was waiting on the other side of the hill. On 16th December, with almost complete surprise, the Germans...

Battlecraft - Operation Market Garden: A Bridge Too Far

Every General’s aim is to end a war by Christmas, and Montgomery, perhaps, saw his opportunity in a bold strike across the southern portion of the Netherlands close to the borders of an embattled Reich. Still heady from earlier victories in the Normandy...

Battlecraft - Stalingrad: Death of an Army

The very name Stalingrad has become synonymous with military folly and political arrogance. Its capture by the Wehrmacht was a crushing defeat, both militarily and politically, for the Red Army. The 6th Army was a highly experienced key element of Army...

Flight Craft Series: Focke-Wulf Fw 190A to G BMW-engined Series

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 was arguably the Luftwaffe’s most outstanding piston-engine fighter of the Second World War, virtually dominating the skies over Europe for more than a year after its initial introduction into service in the summer of 1941...

Flight Craft Series: Messerschmitt Bf109

The famous Messerschmitt Bf 109 single-seat fighter was one of the most important warplanes of the Second World War. Originally designed during the 1930s, and a contemporary of the equally-legendary Supermarine Spitfire, it was vitally important to...

Flight Craft Series: North American Aviation P-51 Mustang

Features lots of illustrations and model-making content, for both general fans of the type and modelers. The North American P-51 Mustang was one of the most successful and effective fighter aircraft of all time. It was initially produced in response to a...

Flightcraft 10: Mil' Mi-6/-26 Heavy Lift Helicopters

Developed in the early 1950s to meet a Soviet Army requirement and first flown in June 1957, the Mi-6 was the largest-yet helicopter created in the Soviet Union. Its notable features included a power-plant consisting of two turbo-shaft engines (for the...

Flightcraft 22: Mitsubishi A6M Zero

The quality of Japanese aircraft came as an unpleasant surprise to the Allies at the outbreak of the Pacific War, and it was personified in one type, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. One of the finest aircraft of all time, the Mitsubishi A6M Reisen (Zero...

Flightcraft 23: Airbus A380

On 27 April 2005, an aircraft lifted away from the runway of Toulouse-Blagnac Airport under the power of six massive Rolls-Royce Trent 900 turbofan engines. It carried a six-man crew, it was making its first flight, and it was making history. For this...

Flightcraft Special 03: RAF Fighters Before the Storm

When the First World War ended the then recently established Royal Air Force was awash with aircraft of all descriptions. More surprising, perhaps, was the fact that despite an ongoing cull of obsolescing types, on the last day of 1919, the RAF still...

Land Craft 6 - Humvee American Multi-Purpose Support Truck

The ultimate modeler’s resource filled with the history, photographs and builds of this American military legend whose service stretches from the plains of Germany to the deserts of the Gulf. With its characteristic wide track, low silhouette and its...

Land Craft Series: Landing Craft & Amphibians Seaborne Vessels in the 20th Century

From the wars of antiquity to the recent events in South West Asia, landing craft and amphibians have been an ever-present sea borne and battle space asset in one form or another for the commander wanting to get boots on the ground. Refined during the...

Land Craft Series: The Jeep Second World War

The Second World War Jeep was one of the most famous and influential military vehicles of all time, and over 600,000 were produced. It served with all the Allied forces during the war on every front and it has been the inspiration behind the design of...

Shipcraft 01 - German Pocket Battleships

The 'ShipCraft' series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeler through a brief history of the subject class, using scale plans to highlight...

Shipcraft 03 - Yorktown Class Aircraft Carriers

The 'ShipCraft' series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeler through a brief history of the subject class, using scale plans to highlight...

Shipcraft 18 - Titanic and Her Sisters Olympic and Britannic

The ‘ShipCraft’ series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeler through a brief history of the subject class, highlighting differences between...

ShipCraft 23 - Rodney and Nelson - Revised Edition

The 'ShipCraft' series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeller through a brief history of the subject class, highlighting differences between...

Shipcraft 24 - Japanese Battleships Fuso & Ise Classes

The 'ShipCraft' series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeler through a brief history of the subject class, highlighting differences between...

Shipcraft 34 - USS Constitution, 44-gun frigate, 1797

The ‘ShipCraft’ series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warships. In general these cover plastic and resin models of 20th century subjects but, like the previous volumes on Nelson’s Victory and Captain...

Tank Craft 33 -Scorpion and Scimitar British Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicles, 1970-2020

The British Scorpion and Scimitar are among the most successful armored reconnaissance vehicles ever built and, almost fifty years after the initial design was introduced, updated versions are still in service today. These compact, maneuverable and...

Tank Craft Series: Churchill Tanks British Army, North-West Europe 1944-45

Tank Craft Series: Jagdpanther Tank Destroyer German Army and Waffen-SS, Western Europe 1944–1945

Combining the destructive firepower of the 88mm gun with the outstanding mobility of the Panther series, the Jagdpanther is quite probably the best-known tank destroyer of the Second World War. In the vehicle's first action on 30 July 1944, three...

Tank Craft Series: M1 Abrams The US's Main Battle Tank in American and Foreign Service, 1981–2019

Reviews the full range of kits and accessories available to model the Abrams in all the major scales and includes a gallery of photographs of outstanding models.Since its introduction in 1981, at the height of the Cold War, the Abrams main battle tank...

Tank Craft Series: Pakwagen SDKFZ 234/3 and 234/4 Heavy Armoured Cars German Army, Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe Units - Western and Eastern Fronts, 1944–1945

"...squeezes a lot of useful information into a modest 64 pages and is a useful addition to any library of German armored cars." — War Wheels Experience in the Polish and French campaigns had convinced the German high command of the value of fast-moving,...

Tank Craft Series: Panther Medium Tank German Army and Waffen SS Eastern Front Summer, 1943

In July 1943 the German army launched what was to be its last major offensive on Soviet soil. Codenamed Operation Citadel, the attack had initially been scheduled to commence in May but was postponed by Hitler on a number of occasions to allow the...

Tank Craft Series: Panther Medium Tank IV. SS-Panzerkorps Eastern Front, 1944

12 pages of full color illustrations depicting over 20 different vehicles and their markings with histories of the Panzer regiments of the SS-Totenkopf and Wiking divisions during the battles of 1944 on the Eastern Front. During the summer of 1944 a...

Tank Craft Series: Panther Tanks - German Army Panzer Brigades Western and Eastern Fronts, 1944–1945

Uses archive photos and extensively researched color illustrations to examine the Panther battalions of the Panzer brigades. In July 1944, with the Eastern Front crumbling and the first cracks appearing in the Normandy defenses, Hitler ordered the...

Tank Craft Series: Panther Tanks German Army and Waffen-SS, Defence of the West, 1945

In late 1944 and 1945 the Panther tank played an important role in Germany’s desperate efforts to stem the Allied advance on the Western Front. The Panther, perhaps the best armored vehicle produced by Germany during the Second World War, was a key...

Tank Craft Series: Panzer III - German Army Light Tank Operation Barbarossa 1941

A complete guide of the German Army Light Tank, the Panzer III, using archive photos and extensively researched color illustrations. The Pzkpfw III tank was the mainstay of the Panzer divisions during the Blitzkrieg era, which could fairly be said to...

Tank Craft Series: Panzer III German Army Light Tank North Africa El Alamein to Tunis, 1941–1943

The Pzkpfw III tank was the mainstay of the Panzer divisions during the Blitzkrieg era and made up the bulk of the armored force sent to North Africa. Although less heavily armored than many of its opponents it was sturdy and reliable and its main...

Tank Craft Series: Panzer III, German Army Light Tank North Africa, Tripoli to El Alamein 1941–1942

The Pzkpfw Ill was the most effective tank available to the German army in North Africa during the battles of 1941. It outnumbered all the other types in service with the Afrikakorps at that time and when compared to the Pzkpfw I and Pzkpfw II designs it...

Tank Craft Series: Panzer IV 1939-1945

The Panzer IV – Panzerkampfwagen IV – was one the foremost German fighting vehicles of the Second World War, and this volume in the TankCraft series is an ideal introduction to it. With detailed captions, text and illustrations the book tells the story...

Tank Craft Series: Panzer IV Medium Tank German Army and Waffen-SS Last battles in the West, 1945

A key section of his book displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Originally developed to support the infantry formations of the Germany's armored...

Tank Craft Series: Sherman Tank Canadian, New Zealand and South African Armies: Italy, 1943–1945

The Sherman tank served with most Allied armies during the Second World War and it is justly famous for the role it played in the Normandy landings and the subsequent drive into Germany. But the part played by the British commonwealth armored units in...

Tank Craft Series: Stug III and Stug IV German Army and Waffen-SS Western Front, 1944-1945

In the last years of the Second World War the Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) and Sturmgeschütz IV (StuG IV) played a vital role as assault guns during the German army’s struggle to block the Allied advance on the Western Front. As the Wehrmacht’s tank...

Tank Craft Series: Stug III: Assault Gun German Army, Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe Units Eastern Front, 1944

“This is a great book if you want to learn more about modelling a StuG III or StuH 42 on the Eastern Front in 1944. …an easy-to-understand history of the most produced German armored fighting vehicle of the war…” -IPMS/USAFrom their introduction in 1940,...

Tank Craft Series: Tiger I and Tiger II Tanks German Army and Waffen-SS The Last Battles in the East, 1945

12 pages of full color illustrations depicting over 20 different vehicles and their markings, including the histories of the Panzer units that operated the Tiger I and Tiger II in the last months of the war on the Eastern Front. By the first weeks of...

Tank Craft Series: Tiger I and Tiger II Tanks. German Army and Waffen-SS, The Last Battles in the West, 1945

Tiger tanks were among the most-feared fighting vehicles of the Second World War and they gained almost legendary status, yet they never fulfilled their potential because they were not produced in sufficient numbers and the tide the war had turned...

Tank Craft Series: Tiger I and Tiger II: Tanks of the German Army and Waffen-SS Eastern Front 1944

In spite of the relatively small numbers produced, the Tiger I and Tiger II tanks are arguably the most famous armored fighting vehicles of the Second World War. This book, the first in the TankCraft series, uses archive photos and extensively researched...

Tank Craft Series: Tiger I German Army Heavy Tank Eastern Front, Summer 1943

The Tiger I tank, probably the most famous German armored vehicle of the Second World War, might have been a war-winning, breakthrough weapon if it had been produced in sufficient numbers and if it had been introduced earlier on the Eastern Front, before...