The two Duel titles covering naval operations and the three focusing on armour make up a strong list for 2025. My personal favourite is Peter Samsonov’s study of Germany’s Hetzer tank destroyer and the Soviet SU-76M self-propelled gun. Both types were widely employed in the climactic battles on the Eastern Front, notably during the last Axis counter-offensive in Hungary in the spring of 1945.

The author of Panzer III vs T-34, published in the Duel series in 2024, Peter Samsonov is a fantastic addition to Osprey Publishing’s list of contributors. His painstaking research, eye for detail and mastery of the sources indicate that this forthcoming study will cast new light on the closing stages of World War II on the Eastern Front. I’m looking forward to reading it!

 

DUE 139 USN Submarine vs IJN Aircraft Carrier: The Pacific 1942–44

By Mark Lardas

16/01/2025

Fully illustrated, this book pits US Navy submarines against the aircraft carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy at the height of World War II.

Before World War II the world’s navies envisioned the submarine as a tool to hunt and kill cruisers and capital ships (aircraft carriers and battleships). Instead, they became best known for their abilities as commerce raiders. Yet hunting capital ships remained an important auxiliary role for the US submarine force in World War II. Featuring specially commissioned artwork and mapping alongside carefully chosen archive illustrations, this absorbing study focuses on five revealing battles between US submarines and Japanese aircraft carriers during 1942–44.

At first, a combination of factors – bad torpedoes, poor US tactics, and plain bad luck – foiled every US submarine attack on a Japanese capital ship in 1942 and 1943. But over the space of six months in 1944 – from June through November of that year – US submarines sank three of Japan’s largest aircraft carriers as well as a battleship. Thereafter, Japanese capital ships clung to port or sheltered waters beyond the reach of submarines.

In this book, Mark Lardas explains how the technologies and procedures employed by both sides helped to determine the victor in five revealing clashes, from the battle of Midway in June 1942 to the sinking of Shinano, the largest warship sunk by a submarine, in November 1944.

 

DUE 141 USN PT Boat vs IJN Destroyer: Tokyo Express 1942–43

By Mark Stille

27/02/2025

This fully illustrated book assesses the trial of strength between US Navy PT boats and Japanese destroyers operating in the Solomon Islands during 1942–43.

During the Solomons fighting, the IJN was forced to rely on destroyers to move men and materiel to its forward garrisons. Conducted at night to avoid American air power, these missions, first seen during the struggle for Guadalcanal, were dubbed the Tokyo Express. Unable to derail the Tokyo Express by using its destroyers, the USN deployed PT boats off Guadalcanal from October 1942; sinking one destroyer and damaging another.

As the fighting moved into the Central Solomons, the USN attempted to disrupt the build-up of Japanese forces on New Georgia Island and other Japanese strongholds by using cruisers and destroyers, but this approach resulted in heavy losses. PT boat operations were increasingly important after the Japanese turned to barges to move troops and supplies.

Full-colour artwork and mapping and carefully chosen archive photographs complement vivid battle narratives and shrewd analysis in this lively account of the ships and men fighting on both sides in the crucial Solomon Islands campaign at the height of World War II. Renowned authority Mark Stille explores the background to this epic clash of arms, charts its course during 1942–43, and offers insights into the performance of both sides in this pivotal campaign of World War II in the Pacific.

 

DUE 143 Jagdpanther vs 17-pdr Achilles: North-West Europe 1944–45

By Frank Baldwin

19/06/2025

This is the story of the 17-pdr Achilles and the Jagdpanther, two formidable tracked anti-tank guns that clashed in North-West Europe during 1944–45.

Both mounting their country’s most effective anti-tank ordnance on a tracked chassis, the 17-pdr Achilles and the Jagdpanther were arguably the best self-propelled anti-tank guns used by the British, Canadian and German forces that fought in North-West Europe during 1944–45. Featuring specially commissioned artwork and carefully chosen photographs, this is the story of the two types’ development, combat use and legacy in the closing stages of World War II in North-West Europe.

Based upon the mobile, lightly armoured M10 design originally developed for the US Army, the Achilles had its main armament, the 17-pounder QF anti-tank gun, mounted in a fully revolving turret. Conversely, the low-profile, heavily armoured Jagdpanther had its formidable 8.8cm PaK 43 cannon mounted in a fixed casemate.

Both crewed by artillerymen rather than tankers, the Achilles and the Jagdpanther were anti-tank guns, not tanks or assault guns; their main purpose was to knock out enemy tanks, not to engage infantry or lead an assault or pursuit. Sometimes they faced each other, notably in the Reichswald fighting of February 1945. Fully illustrated, this work tells the story of their development and tactical use as well as what happened when these two very different designs met in combat.

 

DUE 146 M18 Hellcat vs Panther: Arracourt 1944

By William E. Hiestand

28/08/2025

In response to Germany’s stunning Blitzkrieg victories of 1939–41, the US Army came up with a unique response – the creation of a dedicated tank-destroyer force intended to encircle and destroy the massed attacking armored divisions. Fast, relatively well-armed, but weakly armored, the M18 was designed from the start as a tank destroyer, unlike the M10 and M36. In the event, combat in Europe from 1943 did not meet these expectations, as German tanks now operated in smaller formations rather than massed battalions and regiments operating in the open. By September 1944, the German Army’s armored divisions fielded the Panther tank alongside the tried and tested PzKpfw IV. The Panther’s formidable combination of long-range firepower, impressive armour, and good mobility won it a fearsome reputation, but the M18 would prove to be a very able opponent when the two types met head-to-head on a foggy September morning during the battle of Arracourt.

Fully illustrated with specially commissioned artwork and mapping alongside revealing archive photographs, this lively study examines the origins, development, strengths, and limitations of the two AFVs as well as their crews’ training, doctrine, and combat effectiveness. It also provides a detailed account of the momentous battle between the US 704th Tank Destroyer Battalion and the German Panzer-Brigade 113 at Arracourt, where the two types clashed in a surprising encounter that challenges our preconceptions about armored warfare in World War II.

 

Hetzer vs SU-76M: Hungary 1945

By Peter Samsonov

18/12/2025

A noted authority examines the roles played by Germany’s Hetzer tank destroyer and the Soviet SU-76M self-propelled gun during the battle for Hungary in 1945.

As armoured combat evolved during World War II, Germany and the Soviet Union soon found that their light tanks were obsolete; while their small guns were no longer useful against the enemy’s armoured vehicles, the chassis allowed for installation of a larger gun at the cost of a rotating turret. Keen to utilize existing technology, Germany and the Soviet Union approached this challenge differently. While the Germans turned their PzKpfw 38(t) tank into a tank destroyer, first the open-topped Marder III and then the fully enclosed Jagdpanzer 38(t), nicknamed the ‘Hetzer’, the Soviet designers turned the T-70 light tank into an infantry support gun capable of engaging enemy armour, its open-topped fighting compartment adding communication with accompanying infantry.

In this study, leading armour expert Peter Samsonov’s insightful analysis is complemented by specially commissioned artwork and mapping alongside carefully selected archive and present-day photographs, revealing the origins, development and combat performance of these two types at war. Seemingly tasked with different roles, both types undertook similar missions in combat as World War II moved to its climax. The Hetzer served in anti-tank battalions attached to infantry divisions, its low profile and formidable 7.5cm gun making it a crucial asset, while the rugged, powerful and flexible SU-76M was often used to fight enemy tanks due to the fluid nature of Soviet tactical doctrine. The two types were widely employed amid the tank battles of early 1945, as Soviet forces reached deep into Hungary and the Axis armies mounted one last counter-offensive on the Eastern Front, Operation Spring Awakening.