Illustrator: Seán Ó’Brógáin. — Osprey Publishing, 2016. — 64 p. From the civil wars of the Late Republic to Constantine's bloody reunification of the Empire, elite corps of guardsmen were at the heart of every Roman army. Whether as bodyguards or as shock troops in battle, the fighting skills of praetorians, speculatores, singulares and protectores determined the course of Roman...
Illustrator: Peter Dennis. — Osprey Publishing, 2014. — 64 p. New archaeological material and research underpins this extensive, detailed and beautifully illustrated account of the famous Mamluk Askars who are credited with finally defeating and expelling the Crusaders, halting the Mongol invasion of the Islamic Middle East, and facing down Tamerlane. Probably the ultimate...
Illustrator: Peter Dennis. — Osprey Publishing, 2015. — 64 p. The 1st Battalion, The Rhodesian Light Infantry, was one of the most innovative and successful counter-insurgency units in modern history. Formed as a commando battalion in 1964 after the dissolution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the RLI was an all-white unit made up of South Africans and men from the UK,...
Illustrator: Velimir Vuksic. — Osprey Publishing, 2006. — 64 p. The Polish hussar was, to quote one of many foreign visitors impressed by them, 'without doubt one of the most spectacular soldiers in the world'. Most dramatic of all hussar characteristics were the 'wings' worn on the back or on the saddle; their purpose has been hotly debated. The hussar's main offensive weapon was...
Llustrator: Graham Turner. . — Osprey Publishing, 2007 — 64 p. The Military Order of Teutonic Knights was one of the three most famous Crusading Orders, on a par with the Templars and the Hospitallers. Originally focusing on the preservation of the Crusader States in the Middle East, after the loss of their Middle Eastern enclaves in the 13th century, the Knights turned their...
Illustrator: Steve Noon. — Osprey Publishing, 2012. — 64 p. Immortalized through their exploits at the battle of Thermopylae under the legendary Leonidas, as well as countless other victories throughout the classical period, the Spartans were some of the best-trained, -organized and most-feared warriors of the ancient world. The small state of Sparta, known to the Ancient...
Illustrator: Seán Ó’Brógáin. — Osprey Publishing, 2011. — 64 p. The prototypical 'Roman Legionnaire' often seen on television and in movies is actually the product of nearly a millennium of military development. Far back in the Bronze Age, before the city of Rome existed, a loose collection of independent hamlets eventually formed into a village. From this base, the earliest...
Illustrator: Graham Turner. — Osprey Publishing, 2012. — 64 p. The works of French novelist Alexandre Dumas have been reproduced time and again on stage and screen. Based on a genuine memoir by an officer named D'Artagnan, Dumas published The Three Musketeers. The King's Musketeers were formed in 1622 and were populated by young men of noble birth, but often of poorer means....
Illustrator: Angus McBride. — Osprey Publishing, 2003. — 64 p. The period 31 BC-AD 43 saw the greatest expansion of the Roman Empire. In 31 BC Octavian defeated Antony at the battle of Actium and remodelled the semi-professional Roman army into a permanent force of 28 legions. Octavian became the first emperor (Augustus) and under his leadership the legions conquered northern...
Illustrator: Graham Turner. — Osprey Publishing, 2017. — 64 p. Great Britain had introduced the tank to the world during World War I, and maintained its lead in armoured warfare with the ‘Experimental Mechanised Force' during the late 1920s, watched with interest by German advocates of Blitzkrieg. Despite these successes, the Experimental Mechanised Force was disbanded in the...
Illustrator: Christa Hook. — Osprey Publishing, 1994. — 64 p. In the Middle East, not only were the 12th and 13th centuries punctuated by European Crusades but, even more significantly, the mid-11th century saw the invasion of the Saljuq Turks and the mid-13th century witnessed a devastating Mongol assault. Crucial to the Middle Eastern forces involved was the professional...
Illustrator: Brian Delf. — Osprey Publishing, 2011. — 64 p. In 1964 Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, activated a joint unconventional task force known as the Studies and Observation Group—MACV-SOG. As a cover its mission was to conduct analysis of lessons learned in combat by all branches of service. Sog's real mission was to conduct covert strategic reconnaissance...
Illustrator: Graham Turner. — Osprey Publishing, 2017. — 64 p. With Hitler's army rampaging across Europe, Winston Churchill ordered the creation of a special fighting force - the Commandos. These valiant men were volunteers drawn from the ranks of the British Army, formed into a Special Service Brigade and put through a rigorous but highly effective training programme. Over the...
Illustrator: Howard Gerrard. — Osprey Publishing, 2001. — 64 p. The ashigaru were the foot soldiers of old Japan. Although recruited first to swell an army's numbers and paid only by loot, the samurai began to realise their worth, particularly with arquebuses and spears, until well-trained ashigaru made up a vital part of any samurai army. This book tells the story of the ashigaru...
Illustrator: Adam Hook. — Osprey Publishing, 2001. — 64 p. Many accounts portray the conquest of the New World as a remarkable military achievement, with Cortés' vastly outnumbered but better armed Spaniards defeating hordes of superstitious savages. However, the reality of these events is far more complex and no less significant. The first Conquistadors who had sailed in search...
Illustrator: Darko Pavlovic. — Osprey Publishing, 2003. — 64 p. Few branches of the German armed forces were represented on so many fronts as the mountain infantrymen, or Gebirgstruppen. From the Blitzkrieg campaigns of 1940, through the invasions of the Balkans and Russia and the North African campaign, to the defence of the Reich 1944-45, the Gebirgsjäger earned a reputation for...
Illustrator: Graham Turner. — Osprey Publishing, 2006. — 64 p. The Tudor knight was the first line of defence employed by monarchs from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, the last of a long tradition of knighthood dating back to the 11th century. Knighthood during the Tudor era saw reforms in recruitment, appearance, and most radically in training and equipment. This book details those...
Illustrator: Raffaele Ruggeri. — Osprey Publishing, 2010. — 64 p. — ISBN: 9781846039249. Nicknamed the 'Libyan Desert Taxi Service' by the Sas, the Long Range Desert Group was tasked with strategic reconnaissance and raiding operations deep inside the enemy-held deserts of North Africa. Armed with light weapons only, and equipped with specially converted light cars and trucks...
Illustrator: Gerry Embleton, Ian Rotherham. — Osprey Publishing, 2011. — 64 p. Stretching from the North Sea to the Solway Firth, the Border region has a sharply diverse landscape and was a battleground for over 300 years as the English and Scottish monarchs encouraged their subjects to conduct raids across their respective borders. This Warrior title will detail how this...
Illustrator: Steve Noon. — Osprey Publishing, 2015. — 64 p. The American Revolution was a decisive conflict, which saw the birth of a new nation. Continental Army regulars fought in massive and famous battles from New England to Virginia, but in the South a different kind of warfare was afoot. Local militia, sometimes stiffened by a small core of the Continental Line, played a...
Illustrator: Velimir Vuksic. — Osprey Publishing, 2001. — 64 p. Few of the combatants of World War II have captured the imagination as compulsively as the Fallschirmjäger. Boldness and courage were vital characteristics in the rigorous selection process, and their training was highly demanding. Hitler's airborne troops were involved in some of the most daring actions of the whole...
Illustrator: Richard Hook. — Osprey Publishing, 2007 — 64 p. Feared throughout the Far East, Japanese pirates were likened to 'black demons' and 'flood dragons'. For centuries relations between Japan, Korea and China were carried out through a bizarre trinity of war, trade and piracy. The piracy, which combined the other elements in a violent blend of free enterprise, is the...
Illustrator: Ramiro Bujeiro. — Osprey Publishing, 2009. — 64 p. The all-volunteer 'Blue Division' was a formation that allowed Franco's technically neutral Spain to support Nazi Germany's invasion of Russia. Following initial training in Germany, the Blue Division's units were sent to the Eastern Front in August 1941, where, after a 40-day march to the front, the Division...
Illustrator: Peter Dennis. — Osprey Publishing, 2011. — 64 p. As France emerged from the Franco-Prussian War she embarked on a period of active colonialism, acquiring territories in South-East Asia and Africa. By the turn of the century much of north, west and central Africa was under French control. In order to police all of these territories, the French needed an army and so...
Illustrator: Giuseppe Rava. — Osprey Publishing, 2011. — 64 p. This book describes the life of a pirate in the early 18th century, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'. It charts the way these men (and a few women) were recruited, how they operated, what they looked like and what prospects their lives held. In the process the book strips away many of the myths associated with piracy to...
Illustrator: Brian Delf. — Osprey Publishing, 2011. — 64 p. In 1965, soon after the first US combat troops had arrived in Vietnam, it was realized that in some areas the Viet Cong had developed vast tunnel complexes in which to hide from the enemy. It was long known that such complexes existed, but it was not realized just how extensive they were in some areas, how important...
Illustrator: Steve Noon. — Osprey Publishing, 2014. — 64 p. Despite the attention paid to the Afrikakorps over the years, it was the numerically far superior forces of the Italian Army that held the line and formed the bulk of the fighting power available to the Axis powers during the War in the Desert from 1941 through to 1943. Their performance has been unfairly criticised over...
Illustrator: Peter Dennis. — Osprey Publishing, 2016. — 64 p. In October 2001 the most militarily advanced nation on earth came into conflict with one of the least developed nations as American forces poured into Afghanistan. The tip of the spear was drawn from the US Special Forces community, and largely from the units of the United States Army Special Forces - the famous Green...
Illustrator: Angus McBride. — Osprey Publishing, 1995. — 64 p. Zulu military organisation was extremely sophisticated. Warriors were organised into regiments with some form of basic uniform and shields were state-manufactured and owned. Yet, in spite of this sophistication, much of the Zulu's military outlook was extremely primitive: firearms were ill understood, and between 1816...
Illustrator: Darko Pavlovic. — Osprey Publishing, 2001. — 64 p. The scourge of Allied shipping during World War II, the U-Boot Waffe was one of the most feared components of Hitler's war machine, yet the Kriegsmarine was the least political branch of the Third Reich. The sailors of the U-boat arm were courageous, highly skilled seamen, who fought a war in the toughest...
Illustrator: Gerry Embleton. — Osprey Publishing, 2002. — 64 p. The commissioned officer ranks in the British Army from 1740-1815 were almost entirely composed of the affluent and educated - the sons of the landed gentry, the wealthy, and other professional people. This title looks at the enlistment, training, daily life and combat experiences of the typical British officer in the...
Illustrator: Bill Younghusband. — Osprey Publishing, 2002. — 64 p. This title provides a comprehensive and vivid account of life in the Russian infantry at the turn of the 19th century - a time when the Russian army was arguably one of the most important in the world. Although hopelessly outdated at the outbreak of war in 1799, the army underwent radical changes and modernisation...
Illustrator: Adam Hook, Philip Haythornthwaite. — Osprey Publishing, 2003. — 64 p. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Cossacks were Russia's unique and plentiful supply of irregular cavalry. They were employed as skirmishers, raiders and scouts, and their tactics of harassment and harrying caused great problems for Napoleon's Grand Armée as it retreated through Russia in 1812. This...
Illustrator: Darko Pavlovic. — Osprey Publishing, 2003. — 64 p. The Hussar were the skilled, daring and flamboyant light cavalrymen first drawn for Hapsburg service, from what is now northern Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia and Hungary in the late 17th century. Before long, major European nations adopted Hussar formations, uniform and equipment. This title covers a dynamic and...
Illustrator: Seán Ó’Brógáin. — Osprey Publishing, 2006. — 64 p. The creation of the Volkssturm on October 18, 1944 was a desperate measure by the Nazi government; all able-bodied males between the ages of 16 and 60 who were not already members of the German Armed Forces were conscripted into one organization. Poor equipment, lack of training and low morale took their toll on...
Illustrator: Karl Kopinski. — Osprey Publishing, 2008. — 64 p. Over the years much has been written about Luftwaffe aces, but this book seeks to examine the lives of the ordinary men who took to the skies. These men all shared the same "aggressive spirit, joy of action and the passion of a hunter.” Rich with fascinating first-hand accounts exploring every step of the fighter...
Illustrator: Howard Gerrard. — Osprey Publishing, 2007 — 64 p. The Soviet rifleman, or Frontovik, initially suffered defeats and retreat during the early desperate days of the war, then resolved a stubborn defence during the brutal winter of 1941-42, eventually turning the tables at the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, before victoriously marching into Germany. This title...
Illustrator: Giuseppe Rava. — Osprey Publishing, 2009. — 64 p. During World War One the French Army was in a state of disarray, plagued by indiscipline, mutinies and desertion. The ordinary French citizens that were called upon to defend their motherland - the Poilu - were disrespected and demoralized, and the infamous mutinies of 1917 by the Poilu were not protests against the...
Illustrator: Brian Delf. — Osprey Publishing, 2009. — 64 p. Commonly mistaken for the locally raised Viet Cong, the NVA was an entirely different force, conducting large-scale operations in a conventional war. Despite limited armour, artillery and air support, the NVA were an extremely politicized and professional force with strict control measures and leadership concepts....
Illustrator: Adam Hook. — Osprey Publishing, 2009. — 64 p. In many ways the end of the Vietnam War left the US army a spent force. Plagued by low morale, drug and race issues, and terrible public relations, the army faced an uphill climb in the effort to rebuild itself. The story of this reconstruction is mirrored in the rise of the Mechanized Infantryman. Deciding that the key...
Illustrator: Seán Ó’Brógáin. — Osprey Publishing, 2010. — 64 p. Galloglass, from the Gaelic gallóglaigh for 'foreign warriors', were mercenaries from the Western Isles of Scotland who fought in the retinues of Irish magnates from the mid-13th century until the early 17th century. This work looks at the clan and family structures of the galloglass, their performance in battle,...
Illustrator: Christa Hook. — Osprey Publishing, 2010. — 64 p. — ISBN: 9781846035067. Following the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, the Ottoman Empire undertook a massive military retraining program. Although many histories have depicted the Ottomans as a poor fighting force, this was more often due to poor leadership and logistics. The typical Ottoman soldier, the asker, was tough,...
Illustrator: Raffaele Ruggeri. — Osprey Publishing, 2010. — 64 p. This book explores the experiences of the German Afrikakorps soldier during the North Africa campaign, from the Korps' arrival in-theatre in February 1941 to its eventual surrender in Tunisia in May 1943, with a particular focus on the intense period of warfare in the Western Desert between 1941 and 1942. Under...
Illustrator: Brian Delf. — Osprey Publishing, 2012. — 64 p. The two major Army units that operated in the Pacific - the 11th Airborne Division and the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team (PRCT) launched small-scale operations on extremely difficult, if not, outright dangerous, terrain, while also conducting amphibious assaults, fighting on jungled hills, swamps and mud. The...
Illustrator: Johnny Shumate. — Osprey Publishing, 2016. — 64 p. The words 'Retreat? Hell, we just got here' have become a central part of the legend of the US Marine Corps, indicative of its reputation for dogged determination and bravery. Uttered at the height of the fierce battle for Bellau Wood, the phrase came to define the Corps, establishing their 'first to fight' ethos in...
Illustrator: Jeffrey Burn. — Osprey Publishing, 1993. — 64 p. Probably the most highly motivated and ruthless combatant to take the field in World War 2, the Waffen-SS soldier was the cutting edge of Germany's military might. Aggressive in attack, dogged in defence, his units generally suffered higher casualties than the regular army formations. The apple of the Führer's eye, he...
Illustrator: Mike Chappell. — Osprey Publishing, 1996. — 64 p. The World War 1 was a watershed in British military and social history, and even now the repercussions can still be felt. No town or village in the British Isles escaped casualty, and the creative genius of a generation was wiped out, at an incalculable loss to society. This book looks in detail at how the British...
Illustrator: Richard Hook. — Osprey Publishing, 1997. — 64 p. Napoleon's Imperial Guard was one of the most famous military formations in history. The Imperial Guard could perform ceremonial duties as well as any, but it was primarily as an élite combat formation of the army that it excelled. Although it would expand to represent a considerable portion of France's military...
Illustrator: Jeffrey Burn. — Osprey Publishing, 1998. — 64 p. Aside from the Peninsula and Napoleon's 1807 campaign, Austrian troops played some part in every major campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. Unable to mobilize its population fully for both political and economic reasons, Austria recruited from territories as diverse as modern Belgium, the Czech Republic, central Romania and...
Illustrator: Velimir Vuksic. — Osprey Publishing, 2002. — 64 p. In World War II the Panzer crews spearheaded every major campaign or battle from the invasions of Poland and France to the last great counter-offensive in the Ardennes. Germany's Panzer crews fought on every front and along the way earned a formidable reputation for élan in attack and steadfastness in defence. This...