The third title in Osprey's survey of the D-Day landings of World War II (1939-1945). At 0016hrs on 6 June 1944 a Horsa glider ground to a halt a mere 60 yards from the Orne Canal bridge at Benouville in Normandy. A small group of British paratroopers burst from it and stormed the bridge within minutes. The Allied liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe had begun. Within a few hours landing craft would swarm towards Ouistreham as British 3rd Division stormed ashore at Sword Beach. The battle would then begin to break through to relieve the paratroopers. In the third of the D-Day volumes Ken Ford...
The third title in Osprey's survey of the D-Day landings of World War II (1939-1945). At 0016hrs on 6 June 1944 a Horsa glider ground to a halt a mere...
The fourth title in Osprey's survey of the D-Day landings of World War II (1939-1945). Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, was the greatest sea-borne military operation in history. At the heart of the invasion and key to its success were the landings of British 50th Division on Gold Beach and Canadian 3rd Division on Juno Beach. Not only did they provide the vital link between the landings of British 3rd Division on Sword Beach and the Americans to the west on Omaha, they would be crucial to the securing of the beachhead and the drive inland to Bayeux and Caen. In the fourth...
The fourth title in Osprey's survey of the D-Day landings of World War II (1939-1945). Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, was the gr...
Osprey's study of Italy's Cassino campaign during World War II (1939-1945). The battle for Cassino was probably the most bitter struggle of the entire Italian campaign. The dominating peak of Montecassino crowned by its magnificent but doomed medieval monastery was the key to the entire Gustav Line, a formidable system of defences that stretched right across the Italian peninsula. This position completely dominated the Liri valley and Route 6, the strategically vital road to Rome. Between January and May 1944 the Allies struggled amid inhospitable terrain and dreadful weather to dislodge the...
Osprey's study of Italy's Cassino campaign during World War II (1939-1945). The battle for Cassino was probably the most bitter struggle of the entire...
Osprey's examination of the Dieppe raid of August 1942, which was one of the most controversial actions of World War II (1939-1945). Operation 'Jubilee' was a frontal assault on a fortified port landing the latest equipment and armour directly on to the beach. The main force would destroy the port facilities while other smaller landings dealt with anti-aircraft and coastal batteries. The raid itself turned into a fiasco. The assault force was pinned down on the beach and three quarters of the 5,000 troops landed were lost. This book analyses the disastrous raid and examines contrasting...
Osprey's examination of the Dieppe raid of August 1942, which was one of the most controversial actions of World War II (1939-1945). Operation 'Jubile...
The largest city in Normandy, Caen's position gave it major strategic value for Allies and Germans alike. This title describes the battle for Caen, revealing how, as a result of the British failure to take the city early in the campaign, Caen and its population were immolated - a fate for which Montgomery has been held responsible.
The largest city in Normandy, Caen's position gave it major strategic value for Allies and Germans alike. This title describes the battle for Caen, re...
The battle around Falaise in Normandy during August 1944 saw the destruction of the German Seventh army. This book details the chain of events which led to the German retreat and the ensuing liberation of France during World War II (1939-1945). The British and American breakout battles had released motorised units to wage a more mobile war against the German static defensive tactics. At Falaise, the armoured units of US Third Army encircled the German Seventh Army, squeezed them into an ever-smaller cauldron of chaos and crushed them against the advancing British Second Army. The results were...
The battle around Falaise in Normandy during August 1944 saw the destruction of the German Seventh army. This book details the chain of events which l...
'The last great heave of war, ' according to Churchill, took place with the crossing of the Rhine in 1945. No invading army had crossed this great river since Napoleon's in 1805, and the task fell to Field Marshal Montgomery's 21st Army Group. Opposing them were the forces of a failing fascist regime, including battalions of old men and boys, strengthened by several formations of crack troops, including paratroopers and Panzer Grenadiers.
This book details the devastating Anglo-American assault from Arnhem during World War II (1939-1945), starting with the battle of Arnhem, and...
'The last great heave of war, ' according to Churchill, took place with the crossing of the Rhine in 1945. No invading army had crossed this great ...
Gazala was Rommel's greatest victory in World War II (1939-1945). After a period of stalemate in the desert war, during which both the British Eighth Army and the Afrika Korps had rested and regrouped, he carried out a daring flanking movement around the strong Allied defensive position. The British command could not match Rommel's masterly co-ordination of armor, artillery and infantry, even when encircled in an area that became known as "the Cauldron," and his outstanding generalship and a timely break-through by his Italian troops enabled him to win a clear victory after 16 days of...
Gazala was Rommel's greatest victory in World War II (1939-1945). After a period of stalemate in the desert war, during which both the British Eigh...
Expertly fortified and stubbornly defended by some of Germany's finest troops, the Cassino massif and the devastated town at its foot defied assault by British, American, French, Indian, New Zealand and Polish troops from January until May 1944. When the Gustav and Hitler Line defences were finally swept aside by Field Marshal Alexander's great Operation Diadem in May, General Mark Clark's controversial decision to drive on Rome itself rather than cutting off the retreating German Tenth Army cast into question the prize actually gained by those five months of bloodletting.
Expertly fortified and stubbornly defended by some of Germany's finest troops, the Cassino massif and the devastated town at its foot defied assault b...
By the end of 1941 Germany was desperately in need of essential raw materials. Vital supplies from Japan were shipped to Germany by 'blockade runners' using the port of Bordeaux as their main base. Allied forces needed an undertaking to interfere with the work of these lone merchant ships at the port, leading to the formation of plans that ultimately became known as the Cockleshell Heroes Raid, in which a unit of Royal Marine Commandos mounted a raid via canoes launched from a submarine.
In this new addition to Osprey's RAID series, author Ken Ford explores the history of what is...
By the end of 1941 Germany was desperately in need of essential raw materials. Vital supplies from Japan were shipped to Germany by 'blockade runne...
