For most Americans, when you ask them when World War Two began, I imagine most people would answer December 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. In my mind, as this book reminds us, I think it is necessary to push the timeline back to the late 1930s and the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Osprey’s combat series is one the more recent additions to their catalog of publications. As the title suggests, each volume looks at the relative strengths and weaknesses of a set of combatants across the historical time line. Each volume follows a specific formula – an introduction, a look at the weapons, tactics, recruitment and training of each side, descriptions of several battles the opponents fought, then an analysis and aftermath.
