Osprey Publishing imprint: 2000 books

Four pipes and flush decks – these ships were a distinctively American destroyer design. Devised immediately prior to and during the United States' involvement in World War I they dominated the US Navy's destroyer forces all the way through to World War II. They were deployed on North Atlantic...

Following the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890, the US Cavalry were called into action again with the declaration of war against Spain in 1898. In the years that followed, cavalrymen saw action in a wide variety of theaters. This title takes a close look at the formation and experiences of the average...

The specialist troops of Wellington's army played a crucial role in the success of the British Army. Though often understaffed and ineptly managed, the artillery, engineers, transport and commissariat, and medical services contributed to Wellington's ultimate victory in 1815. The Royal Artillery and...

Between 1845 and 1872, various groups of Maori were involved in a series of wars of resistance against British settlers. The Maori had a fierce and long-established warrior tradition and subduing them took a lengthy British Army commitment, only surpassed in the Victorian period by that on the North-West...

In July 1863, with the Confederacy still reeling from the defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, Union forces pushed deep into Arkansas, capturing the capital of Little Rock. In response, Colonel Joseph O. Shelby launched a daring raid to disrupt the advance. Taking 600 men and a section of light artillery,...

Following the defeat at Wabash, in 1792 the Washington administration created a new US Army to replace the one that had been destroyed. The man chosen to lead it was the famous Major-General "Mad†? Anthony Wayne. Having trained his new force, Wayne set out in 1793 to subdue the Ohio Indians....

Finland's premier fighter squadron during World War 2, Lentolaivue 24 (Flying Squadron 24) first saw action during the bloody Winter War of 1939-40, when the Soviet Red Army launched a surprise attack on the small Scandinavian country the squadron enjoyed great success against numerically superior...

In the campaigns of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the deserved reputation of the British infantry has tended to overshadow the contribution of the cavalry, but in fact they did form an integral part of the army, carrying out duties crucial to the success of other arms. British Cavalryman...

In 1881, the Egyptian army mutinied against the Khedive of Egypt and forced him to appoint Said Ahmed Arabi as Minister of War. In March 1882, Arabi was made a Pasha and from this time on acted as a dictator. Arabi demanded that the foreigners be driven out of Egypt and called for the massacre of...

On 1 July 1881 Viscount Cardwell's wholesale reorganisation of the British Army brought into existence Priness Louise's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Both had existed as separate regiments even before their official incorporation into the British Army and on the face of it, this seemed a highly...

The Blenheim IF flew some of Fighter Command's early offensive operations, and the type soon proved vulnerable when pitted against single-seat fighters. However, for much of 1940 the Blenheim fighter squadrons provided the RAF's main long-range convoy escort and nightfighter capability. In the mid-1930s,...

The P-51 Mustang and P-47 Thunderbolt were the finest American fighters of World War 2, and both saw service with the RAF in substantial numbers. The RAF began flying the Mustang in 1944, using it to fly bomber escort missions, and deploying to support the ground campaigns in Italy and the Balkans....

The Curtiss P-36 was considered a revolution in performance design in comparison to other US fighters. Yet by the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the P-40 was increasingly supplanting the P-36, which the US then exported to France under the guise of the Hawk 75. Flown by the French, captured...

The initial version of the Curtiss P-40, designated by the manufacturer as the Hawk H-81, combined the established airframe of the earlier radial-powered H-75 (P-36) fighter with the Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engine. The year was 1939, and the marriage was one of expediency. With the threat of...