Osprey Publishing has been providing books for enthusiasts since 1968 and since then it has grown, evolved and taken on new challenges until it stands today as one of the most successful examples of niche publishing around.

Leroy Thompson trained and advised military and police special operations units around the world, focusing especially on the tactical use of firearms. He has had over 50 books published and more recent titles include The Hostage Rescue Manual, The Counterinsurgency Manual and Secret Techniques of the Elite Forces. He has also had various firearms books published including Great Combat Handguns, and appeared as a weapons expert on documentaries for Discovery, National Geographic and the BBC. He lives in Missouri, USA.

Osprey Publishing has recently released a book by Robert Forczyk covering the Invasion of Poland. He is a well-known author and superb researcher of military topics. Certainly, this book is not an exception to his well-earned reputation.

The book is broken down in the following sections

• Poland is not lost
• Poland prepares for the next round
• The Threat Emerges
• Countdown to War
• Opening Moves
• Total War
• Apotheosis
• Occupation
• Epilogue

Plus several appendices covering military ranks, glossary, etc.

I would argue that this book is two sub-books in one single binding. The first sub-book covers the political history of Poland during the 1920s and 1930’s (the first 3 chapters) while the second sub-book covers military history of the actual invasion of Poland in 1939.

Bojan Dimitrijevic is working as a historian and is Deputy Director of the Institute for Contemporary History, Belgrade, Serbia. Educated at the Universities of Belgrade and Novi Sad, CEU Budapest, and the University of Bradford, he has also worked as the custodian of the Yugoslav Aviation Museum. During the period 2003-2009, Dimitrijevic served as advisor to the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the President of Serbia, and as Assistant to the Minister of Defense. He has published over 50 different books and more than 100 scientific articles in Serbia and abroad. His professional interest is in the military history of the former Yugoslavia and Balkans in World War Two, the Cold War as well as wars in the 1990s. This is his second installment for Helion.

Ian Baxter is a military historian who specializes in German twentieth-century military history. He has written more than forty books and over 100 articles about the World War II era. He has reviewed numerous military studies for publication and supplied thousands of photographs and important documents to various publishers and film production companies worldwide.

The Author is an avid collector of WW2 photographs. His previous books in this Series include Hitler’s Boy Soldiers, Nazi Concentration Camp Commandants, German Army on the Eastern Front – The Advance, German Army on the Eastern Front – The Retreat, The Crushing of Army Group (North), and the SS Waffen Division series including SS Leibstandarte Division and SS Totenkopf Division At War. He lives near Chelmsford, Essex.

The Publication (from the website).

This highly illustrated record reveals in detail the largest tank battle of World War Two, the battle of Kursk.

This is book is a follow up to Prit Buttar’s On the Knife’s edge and begins after the battle of Kursk that turned the tide of the Eastern front in favor of the Russian forces. Retributions goes in to detail of the massive Russian offensive that forced a now desperate and shaken German forces out of Western Ukraine.

The author gives accounts of the many little-known battles that were constant throughout the Russian offensive. The this comes from the first-hand accounts are from the German and Russian soldiers that bring this to life.

I learnt so much from this book that I was not aware of and the information and writing really draws you in. The book is 480 pages and there are only a few illustrations, and these are battle maps.