2025’s New Vanguard list offers the customary variety for fans of machinery of war. The naval titles include an in-depth look at the Atlanta-class antiaircraft cruisers of World War II, as well as a history of Andrey Tupolev’s dashing MTBs, built with 1930s aircraft technology for the Soviet Navy. We also examine Britain’s ultimate naval monitors and their actions in World War II, and Super-Battleships of World War I looks at the new generation of capital ships under development at the Armistice and into the early 1920s. Our tank coverage ranges from Steven Zaloga’s two-volume assessment of how German and Soviet armour performed in Barbarossa to the lesser-known story of Axis armour in the Italian campaign.

My personal favourite this year is Mark Galeotti’s Tanks in Ukraine 2022 – an expert examination of the state of the two sides’ armour at the outbreak of the war, and their roles, adaptations, and performance as Ukraine fought to repel the invaders.

 

NVG 336 Soviet Motor Torpedo Boats of World War II: Tupolev's aircraft-inspired fast attack craft

By Przemyslaw Budzbon

Illustrated by Waldemar Góralski and Piotr Forkasiewicz

27/03/2025

 

In the 1920s and 30s, aircraft designer Andrey Tupolev designed a series of advanced torpedo boats for the USSR. Superbly illustrated, this is their first history in English.

The Soviet Navy's fast attack craft were inspired by the 1919 Kronstadt raid, conducted by British hydroplaning, torpedo-armed Coastal Motor Boats (CMBs). The first were to be CMB copies, but with Soviet shipbuilding incapable of the project, it was handed to the Aerodynamic Institute, headed by Andrey Tupolev. Built with aircraft engines and technology, his 50kt boats were as photogenic as they were bumpy and noisy, and made a vivid impression on propaganda newsreels. Some were adapted with remote control guidance, a pioneering development of the naval drone.

Written by a former Soviet naval architect, this book is the first in English to offer a history of these fascinating, dashing craft. He explains that, technically advanced but flawed, the Sh-4 and G-5 had no opportunity to act in their designated role in World War II. Instead, some were employed instead as landing craft, while others were rearmed and used as minelayers or subchasers. Many were adapted as fire support craft with Katyusha rocket launchers installed.

Packed with superb new artwork and unpublished photos, it examines Tupolev's torpedo boats as well as the handful of other MTBs the Soviet Union fielded. It is an account of a rare impressive design in the prewar Soviet Navy.

 

NVG 337 Tanks in the Gulf War 1991

By Steven J. Zaloga

Illustrated by Felipe Rodríguez

24/04/2025

 

An essential guide to the tanks that fought the greatest armoured clashes of modern times, between Saddam Hussein's Soviet-supplied army and the advanced tanks fielded by the Coalition.

The Gulf War of 1991 was the largest tank-vs-tank confrontation of the modern era, and the only large-scale tank combat ever to involve major NATO armies. With the Iraqi Army equipped primarily with modern Soviet- and Warsaw Pact-built tanks, it was also a rare example of how NATO tanks performed in combat against their Eastern Bloc rivals.

In this book, world expert on tank technology Steven J. Zaloga examines the numerous tank types used in this conflict and how they compared, both in technology and battlefield performance. Besides covering the tanks of the United States, Britain, and France, it also examines those of other Allied forces including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It not only covers Iraq's Soviet- and Warsaw Pact-built tanks, but also its vigorous indigenous military industry, which produced a number of notable innovations such as the “Enigma” tank with laminate armour.

This is an essential guide to the greatest tank war of modern times, packed with data and illustrated with superb new artwork and numerous photos, including some never-before-published, and detailed descriptions of the little-known Iraqi armoured division markings.

 

 

NVG 338 Super-Battleships of World War I: The ‘hyper-dreadnoughts’ sunk by the Washington Naval Treaty

By Angus Konstam

Illustrated by Adam Tooby

22/05/2025

As World War I ended, the victors were planning a powerful new generation of 'hyper-dreadnoughts' and battlecruisers. Fully illustrated, this studies the big-gun warships that never were.

1918 was a moment of great change in naval power. Britain still had the largest fleet in the world, but its ships were ageing, and many of them were markedly inferior to the latest American and Japanese battleships. An arms race loomed between the war’s victors.

In this book naval expert Angus Konstam studies and compares the advanced battleship programmes underway between 1918 and 1922, which drew on the lessons learned and the technology developed during World War I. Britain planned a class of four G3-class battlecruisers mounting 15-inch guns, and four N3 fast battleships, or ‘hyper-dreadnoughts’ mounting colossal 18-inch guns. The US naval staff planned in 1919 for a class of six South Dakota battleships, carrying an incredible twelve 16-inch guns. These would be matched by the Lexington class of six battlecruisers. Japan was working on a similar project, and in 1920 the first of four Amagi-class battlecruisers were laid down. The French and the Germans too, were considering various battlecruiser designs, although defeat would spell the end of the latter’s plans.

However, in 1922 the costly arms race was averted by the Washington Naval Treaty, which halted new battleship construction, and limited the major fleets. These battleships and battlecruisers were mostly cancelled and scrapped, with a few, such as Lexington and Akagi, converted into aircraft carriers. With new colour reconstructions of the G3, H3, South Dakota, Lexington and Amagi classes, this is the first book to focus on these never-built warships.

 

NVG 339 German Tanks in Barbarossa 1941

By Steven J. Zaloga

Illustrated by Felipe Rodríguez

19/06/2025

 

A new study of Germany's Panzer forces that invaded the Soviet Union, explaining how and why they performed as they did.

Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany's huge and fateful invasion of the Soviet Union, was the culmination of nearly two years of European conquests. By the time of Barbarossa, Germany's Panzer forces had honed their Blitzkrieg methods of fast-moving warfare, but fighting across the wide expanses of eastern Europe would present them with their greatest challenge yet.

Written by one of the world's experts on armoured warfare, and presenting newly uncovered data on the forces involved, this book explains the doctrine, organization, and technical capabilities of the Panzer forces, and analyses how they performed in battle. Although the bulk of the coverage is on German tank formations, a short overview is provided on other Axis forces including those of Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, and Italy.

 

NVG 340 US Navy Atlanta-class Light Cruisers 1940–49

By Mark Lardas

Illustrated by Stefan Dramiński

17/07/2025

A comprehensively illustrated account of the Atlanta-class cruisers, warships that found an unintended key role in the Pacific War as the US Navy's superb antiaircraft warships.

In the late 1930s, the US Navy created a class of small light cruisers intended as a versatile destroyer leader. The Atlantas could provide antiaircraft support, lead and launch torpedo attacks, serve as antisubmarine vessels, and outgun other light warships in a surface engagement. Wartime experience revealed most pre-war expectations were off. In every surface action they fought, they found themselves pitted against bigger cruisers (or even battleships) instead of the destroyers they were designed to defeat.

In this book, naval historian Mark Lardas explains that despite their flaws, they proved one of the most useful warships in the US Navy – thanks to their 5-inch main batteries, they proved to be superb antiaircraft cruisers. Only the fleet’s battleships could top their AAA capabilities. From the battle of Midway onwards, they protected the Navy’s most valuable ships, its aircraft carriers. They did such a good job of it that midway through the class’s production it was modified to optimize its antiaircraft performance. The Navy even ordered a follow-on class post-war and considered building a “super-Atlanta,” a 12,000-ton cruiser armed only with heavy antiaircraft guns.

Packed with illustrations, this book examines the history, development, and modifications of these unusual warships, and their impact on World War II in the Pacific.

 

NVG 341 Tanks in Ukraine 2022

By Mark Galeotti

Illustrated by Felipe Rodríguez

17/07/2025

 

A world-renowned expert on the Russian military offers a focused, illustrated account of how Russian and Ukrainian tank armies fought during the crucial year of 2022, prior to the arrival of Western tanks.

The invasion of Ukraine has seen full-scale mechanized warfare return to Europe. While Western armour and training has been a major part of Ukraine’s army from 2023 onwards, in the first year of the war both the Russian invaders and the Ukrainians fought using their existing mechanized armies, in the most devastating and high-stakes war in decades. In the battles of 2022, Moscow’s latest tanks (bar the still undeployable T-14 Armata) found themselves engaging Ukrainian counterparts that came from the same Soviet roots, but which had been modernized and customized in multiple ways.

In this book, world-renowned Russia specialist Mark Galeotti draws on rare Russian and Ukrainian sources to present a definitive account of the Russian and Ukrainian tanks that fought in the critical year of 2022, before the first Western tanks began to arrive. It explores the rival tank armies, how they were used, and the ways they were modified to respond to the emerging challenges of the war, and presents the reader with ORBATs and data on deployments new to the English-speaking world.

As the war in Ukraine revolutionizes our understanding of modern warfare, this book offers an expert assessment of how Ukrainian tanks fought the Russians to a standstill over 2022, and how the lessons learned affected the course of the war to come.

 

NVG 342 Soviet Tanks in Barbarossa 1941

By Steven J. Zaloga

Illustrated by Felipe Rodríguez

23/10/2025

The invasion of the Soviet Union saw the Red Army’s vast tank fleets crushed by the outnumbered Germans. Fully illustrated and packed with data, this book explains how and why.

Contrary to popular belief, the largest tank campaign of World War II were not at Kursk in 1943, but during Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941. The Soviet tank fleet was enormous – about 24,000 tanks facing about 3,500 Panzers. Despite the gross imbalance in favour of the Red Army, the summer 1941 campaign was a disaster for the Red Army.

In this book, based on documents previously unpublished in English, world-renowned armour expert Steven J. Zaloga analyses why the Red Army performed so badly in Barbarossa. During the summer months, the Red Army lost about 15,000 tanks including most of its best new tanks such as the T-34 and KV tanks, and by winter, most of the pre-war arsenal had been lost. It was dubbed the “Tankoviy pogrom”: the Tank Massacre. Illustrated with archive photos and meticulously detailed original illustrations, it examines the organization and doctrine of the Red Army in 1941 as well as the principal tank types, including information and illustrations on unusual and little-known types such as the multi-turreted T-28 and T-35 heavy tanks.

 

NVG 343 Royal Navy Monitors of World War II: Britain's battleship-calibre gunboats

By Angus Konstam

Illustrated by Adam Tooby

20/11/2025

 

A superbly illustrated history of the Royal Navy’s World War II monitors, gunboats armed with a single, battleship-calibre gun turret, and their roles and battles around the world.

When World War II broke out, the Royal Navy possessed a sizeable fleet of battleships and battlecruisers. However, these formed the core of the battle fleets, and were rarely free to perform an equally vital mission – the naval bombardment of targets ashore.

In this book, naval expert Angus Konstam explains how the monitor, an unusual warship extensively used in World War I, found a new purpose. Although neither fast nor very well-protected, the monitors had a fearsome armament – a single 15in gun turret, the same calibre as many of Britain’s battleships. Designed to outrange shore batteries, the monitors could supply flexible, deadly gunfire support to Allied forces ashore. The World War I-era Erebus and Terror were refitted and sent to war, while a new class, the Roberts class, joined them in 1941 and 1943.

These warships saw action with the Eastern Fleet and were particularly useful in the Mediterranean, from supporting the campaign in North Africa to providing antiaircraft defence in besieged Malta and Crete. They then joined the Allied landings from Sicily to Normandy. Illustrated with profiles, battlescenes and a cutaway of Roberts, this book also explains how naval gunfire support was conducted during the war.

 

NVG 344 German and Italian Tanks in Italy 1943–45

By Steven J. Zaloga

Illustrated by Felipe Rodríguez

18/12/2025

An expert guide to the tanks that fought for the Axis in the Italian Campaign between 1943 and 1945, the least-known armoured campaign of World War II.

World War II came to Italian soil in 1943 with the landings in Sicily, which the Wehrmacht tried to crush using substantial Panzer offensives. Over the next two years the country was a battleground as the Allies fought their way north, through some of the most difficult terrain of the war, until the final battles in the Po Valley in the spring of 1945.

In this book, Steven J. Zaloga offers a rarely available survey of the role of Axis armour in the campaign, including the many types of tanks used, their roles and battlefield performance. The Italian army deployed a variety of tanks on Sicily in 1943 including war-booty Renault R 35 tanks as well as their best tank destroyer, the Semovente 90/53. Although Italy withdrew from the war in September 1943, a little-known rump Italian fascist army remained in combat through 1945, equipped in some cases with German tanks. Germany’s Panzer force in Italy began with leftovers from the North Africa campaign on Italy, but later deployed a much more substantial Panzer force. When Italy withdrew from the war, its occupied industries continued to manufacture tanks for the Wehrmacht. As a result, the German army in Italy had an exotic selection of both German and Italian tank types.

Illustrated with superb new profiles and including many previously unpublished photos, this book is an essential guide to the tanks that fought the Axis’ least-known armoured campaigns.