Osprey's Big Reveal: General Military (1)

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Today we have the first of our General Military reveal to share with you. This includes a fantastic list of 12 General Military titles and 4 General Aviation books. Get adding to your wishlists, because these are not to be missed!

GNM: Audacious Missions of World War II

Winning World War II was about more than military force. It required guile, and tremendous acts of bravery by Special Forces and intelligence operatives who had the odds stacked against them. Audacious Missions of World War II includes the SOE dossier of the plot to assassinate Hitler which shows that it was practically impossible; Operation Frankton, where commandoes paddled 100 miles upriver in canoes to Bordeaux to blow up Axis shipping; and the joint British-American Operation Fortitude where a phantom US army of inflatable tanks was planted in Kent, fooling Hitler into thinking D-Day would occur at Calais.

GNM: Cold War Fleet

Cold War Fleet is a selection of photographs of Royal Navy vessels from the 25 years from 1966 to 1991. Each is reproduced at an exceptionally high standard, accompanied by a detailed caption. Many of the photos are completely unique and have never been published, such as the images of the minesweepers HMS Wilton and HMS Bossington photographed during Operation Rheostat in 1974. There are many ships displayed that took part in the Falklands conflict and a large number of aerial photographs.

GNM: German submarine U-1105 'Black Panther'

Now in its final resting place at the bottom of the Potomac River in Maryland, the U-Boat U-1105 is unique among German World War II submarines. Technologically innovative, it was the only U-Boat to conduct a wartime patrol while equipped with the snorkel, GHG Balkon passive sonar and a rubberized coating known as Alberich designed to reduce its acoustic signature and hide from Allied sonar. After the end of World War II, it was the subject of instense testing and evaluation by the Allies, before finally being sunk to the bottom of the Potomac River.

GNM: How to Survive in the Georgian Navy

How to Survive in the Georgian Navy explores what it was like to be a sailor in the Georgian Navy of the later 18th and early 19th centuries. It looks at how a seaman could join the Royal Navy, including the notorious 'press gangs'; what was meant by 'learning the ropes' – it was just that in fact; and the severe punishments that could be levied for even minor misdemeanours as a result of the Articles of War. Military tactics, including manning the guns and tactics for fending off pirates are also revealed, as is the problem of maintaining a healthy diet at sea – and the steps that sailors themselves could take to avoid the dreaded scurvy. Other featured topics include, how to spot the signs of an impending mutiny and the kind of scientific observation and experimentation that could be carried out on board.

GNM: Hunt the Bismarck

Bismarck entered service in the summer of 1940. She was well-armed, with eight 15-inch guns, as well as a powerful array of lighter weapons, while her armoured protection earned her the reputation of being unsinkable. This claim was finally put to the test in May 1941, when she sortied into the Atlantic and fought the legendary battle of the Denmark Strait, destroying HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy. Bismarck was now loose in the North Atlantic. However, damage sustained in the battle limited her ability to roam at will, while the Royal Navy deployed the Home Fleet to revenge the Hood. The stage was set for the greatest chase story in the history of naval warfare.

GNM: Mapping the Second World War

The Second World War was a global conflict on an unprecedented scale. On land, sea and in the skies, nations threw everything that they had into the fray in order to achieve overall victory. This exciting collection of contemporary maps shows in vivid detail the true scope of that conflict, from the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, through the fighting in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific, all the way up to the end of the conflict.

GNM: Scapa 1919

The German High Seas Fleet was one of the most power naval forces in the world, and had fought the pride of the Royal Navy to a stalemate at the battle of Jutland in 1916.  After the armistice was signed, ending fighting in World War I, it surrendered to the British and was interned in Scapa Flow pending the outcome of the Treaty of Versailles. In July 1919 the entire fleet attempted to sink itself in the Flow to prevent it being broken up as war prizes. Of the 74 ships present, 52 sunk and 22 were prevented from doing so by circumstance and British intervention.

GNM: Wade McClusky and the Battle of Midway

During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, US Navy dive bomber pilot Wade McClusky proved himself to be one of the greatest pilots and combat leaders in American history, but his story has never been told—until now.

It was Wade McClusky who remained calm when the Japanese fleet was not where it was expected to be. It was he who made the counterintuitive choice to then search to the north instead of to the south. It was also McClusky who took the calculated risk of continuing to search even though his bombers were low on fuel and may not have enough to make it back to the Enterprise. His ability to remain calm under enormous pressure played a huge role in the US Navy winning this decisive victory that turned the tide of war in the Pacific.

GNM: Warship 2019

Warship 2019 is devoted to the design, development, and service history of the world's combat ships. Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors, this latest volume combines original research, new book reviews, warship notes, an image gallery, and much more to maintain the impressive standards of scholarship and research from the field of warship history.

GNM: British Battle Tanks: Post-war Tanks

This book, the last in a four-part series on British Battle Tanks covering the whole history of British armoured warfare, concentrates on those vehicles that have served following the end of World War II up to the present day.

Starting with the Comet, this title will look at those types that equipped the armoured divisions lined up on the German plains to resist any potential Soviet offensive as well as in Korea and Suez, including the Centurion and Conqueror, as well as modern tanks such as the Challenger 2 and Scorpion. Covering the many variants of these and other tanks in British service as well as their deployments around the world including in Afghanistan and Iraq, this fully illustrated volume completes this comprehensive series on British armour.

GNM: An Englishman Abroad

The debonair Special Operations Executive agent Richard ‘Dick’ Mallaby was the first Briton to be sent to Italy as an SOE operative, parachuted unceremoniously into Lake Como in August 1943. Arrested and initially tortured by the Italian authorities, he managed to sweet-talk his way out of trouble, and helped Marshal Pietro Badoglio and King Victor Emmanuel III escape to the Allied lines. He also helped negotiate the armistice with Italy, for which he was awarded the Military Cross.

Mallaby was back in action in 1945, when he crossed into Fascist-controlled northern Italy from Switzerland but was swiftly captured and interrogated by the SS. Narrowly avoiding a firing squad once again, he helped to secure the surrender of 800,000 German forces in Italy in May 1945.

GNM: Liberty or Death

From the Banana Wars of the early 20th century through to the Football War of 1969, South and Central America has been a hotbed of revolutions, rebellions and conflicts as diverse as they are numerous. Some were small-scale affairs involving the poorly armed forces of Central American armies with rifles, machetes and a few aged machine guns. Others were full-scale conflicts involving sophisticated armies equipped with tanks, artillery and aircraft, and involving hundreds of thousands of troops. These wars often went largely unreported in the West, which was preoccupied with its own problems in fighting two world wars and dealing with Cold War tensions.

GNA: MacArthur’s Air Force

Douglas MacArthur is one of the towering figures of World War II, and indeed of the twentieth century. In the pantheon of great American military leaders during the Second World War, he is at the apogee, along with Eisenhower and Patton.

What is often overlooked is that he commanded the second largest air force in the USAAF. When World War II ended the three numbered air forces (the Fifth, Thirteenth and Seventh) under his command possessed 4,004 combat aircraft, 433 reconnaissance aircraft and 922 transports. After being humbled by the Japanese in the Philippines in 1942, MacArthur and his air chief, General George Kenney, rebuilt the US aerial presence in the Pacific, helping Allied naval and ground forces to push back the Japanese Air Force, re-take the Philippines and carry the war north towards the Home Islands.

GNA: Air Combat

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: the iconic Spitfire duelling with the formidable Bf 109 over the English 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 Ki-84 in the closing days of the war.

GNA: MiG Man

Get inside the head of one of America's most experienced MiG pilots, Lt Col Zettel, as he tells the thrilling tale of Constant Peg, a top secret US operation that wouldn't feel out of place in the plot of 'Top Gun'. At the height of the Cold War, America illicitly obtained Russian Fighters, transported them to the Tonopah Test Range and pitted them against star US fighter pilots in simulated combat exercises. With controls labelled in Russian and the only spare parts being the ones they could salvage, the pilots who climbed into the MiGs accepted all of the risks associated with operating these aircraft.

GNA: Sherman Lead

Operating out of Ubon Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand during 1968–69, Gail Peck and his squadronmates in the 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing were tasked with flying combat missions into North Vietnam and Laos as part of Operations Rolling Thunder and Steel Tiger.

The F-4 was heavily involved in the air-to-ground mission at this time, with targets being well defended by enemy anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles. Gail Peck’s arrival in-theatre coincided with the beginning of electro-optical and laser guided ‘smart’ bomb combat operations. There were periods of fierce combat interspersed with lulls, and the fighting was intense and unforgettable to those who participated. Some men lived through it, and others died without a clear understanding of why.