Osprey's six favourite Campaign titles!

Hello all, it looks like it's time for another Friday list! Alongside our fabulous 20% discount on all Campaign titles, this month we are celebrating the series as a whole. After all, which military history enthusiast doesn't enjoy reading about battles and campaigns?! 

So today's list comes straight from the shadowy, mist-shrouded halls of Osprey HQ. We asked a selection of Osprey commanders what their favourite Campaign titles are, and why. Here are their responses!

 1.) Richard Sullivan, Osprey MD and high Priest

'My favourite Campaign title is obviously a Napoleonic one and it is Corunna 1809: Sir John Moore’s Fighting Retreat (Campaign 83). The actual series of events has everything, including cavalry battles, desperate rearguard actions, frozen skirmishes and frantic retreating topped by the final battle and the death of the hero. The book is a good summary of all this topped with some great artwork, some of which I lifted for the Peninsular War 200 Facebook page. I’ve been running this page (alongside the Twitter feed) since January 2009 and as the 200^th anniversaries come to an end this year the organisation itself, ably run by Nick Lipscombe (also an Osprey Campaign author) will be looking back at the many events and activities it has a hand in and hopefully contemplating a job well done.'  

2.) Joseph McCullough, Dark Lord of Osprey Adventures imprint.

CAM 226: Midway 1942 by Mark Stille,

 'I’ve been interested in the battle of Midway since I saw the movie as a child. Mark Stille does a wonderful job of taking the battle step-by-step, and breaking down all the different attack flights. I also love how the maps in the book are 3-D, showing the different altitudes taken by the different attack wings. It adds a whole new dimension (literally) to the battle.'

3.) Emily Holmes, Lt. Comissioning editor

'

Probably super obvious, but CAM 1 – Normandy. Such an iconic and important subject for the list, and perfect starting point for anyone interested in D-Day or the battle for France in 1944. Plus, having visited the sites, it makes it all the more poignant.'

4.) Tom Milner, Commissioning Editor and the most stylish kilt-wearer south of Hadrian's Wall

CAM 180 Easter Rising

'My favourite Campaigns are those that I pick up not knowing much about the subject, and quickly get gripped by. This is a fascinating bit of history and Mike McNally really did it justice - concise, well-written, and with lots of good detail. And pretty Peter Dennis piccies.'

5.) Mike Ramalho, Big Chief of Global Sales & Marketing

 'Mine would be CAM 147 Crete 1941: Germany’s lightning airborne assault.

 Why does it stand out? It was the first Osprey book I read as an Osprey employee, and can still remember the glorious summer day that I was sitting out in a local park in Oxfordshire reading it when I heard a strange whistling sound above me. Looking up I saw a couple of gliders swooping low around the park, just as I was reading about German glider detachments landing in Crete in 1941 – a rather bizarre experience all round! Why did I choose that to read out of the staggering array of potential titles? Well, I was off on holiday to Crete a matter of weeks later… and I definitely didn’t drag my long-suffering better half round half of the island looking at battlefield sites I had read about in the book. I did allow her brief breaks to spend on the beach from time to time though…'

 6.) Osprey CEO and GeneralFeldmarschall Rebecca Smart

 Mine would be Pearl Harbor - we created an anniversary website specially for it at the time (2001) and gathered animated maps, video, audio and a database-linked encyclopaedia of Pearl Harbor. It was a great learning experience and got lots of good press coverage for Osprey.'

So there you have it folks! What would be your favourite Campaign title? For me it would be simply too difficult to pick just one!