Ed

New Vanguard content in Members' Area

To coincide with the launch of all the New Vanguard content in the Members’ Area I thought I’d write a blog detailing my favourite tank of all time. Only one favourite tank you may ask, well I have a small number of favourites but I’m not going to list them all now!

New Campaign e-books

That's right - we have added more new ebooks to our site, as we continue our efforts to make as many of our titles available in digital and / or printed formats. We have added another 10 Campaign titles to our ebook list

New books on the Discount Store Page

This week we have added 18 books to the discount store page. Stock on all of these titles is limited, so pick them up while you still can!

Membership Map of the Month July 2009

This month I’ve chosen the two maps that feature in Fortress 85 Scapa Flow: The defences of Britain’s great fleet anchorage 1914-45. The book offers the reader a detailed understanding of the defensive preparation and construction of Britain’s main fleet anchorage.

Music to go to war with

If you had to go to war what would you want playing on the radio? This is the question I posed to six of my colleagues in the office. After an initial outburst of “I don’t want to go to war!” I told them to relax and explained that I was creating an album titled The Very Best of Tank Tracks Part 1.

Get 20% off all the books on our Modern Warfare page

This month, we are running a 20% off discount on all of the books on our Modern Warfare page. It is a incredibly diverse group of books - although with the history of warfare stretching over 100s of years it does beg the question as to what exactly should qualify as 'Modern' warfare.

Pre-ordering books in North America

Osprey have now made it possible for our North American customers to Pre-order Osprey titles 3 months ahead of the publication date.

The Osprey Membership Map of the Month

My favourite piece of members content this month is a map taken from CAM 210 Operation Dragoon 1944. The map, aptly named Operartion Dragoon, August 15, 1944 shows the Area of Operations (AO) of allied forces south-west of Cannes. Indicated on the map are the amphibious and airborne landing sites of American British and French forces. Also participating in this assault were the French resistance, who were more commonly referred to in southern France as Maquis, from the Corsican word for bush; an individual fighter was a maquisard.

Battlefield visit to Bloody Gully, Carentan

On a recent visit to France I visited the site of ‘Bloody Gully’ a small battle that occurred South West of Carentan on June 12, 1944. The battle is detailed along with a map in the Osprey book Tonight We Die As Men and is also featured in episode three of Band of Brothers.

D-Day remembered

In the early hours on June 6, 1944, the largest airborne and amphibious assault the world has ever seen was set into operation. Over 200,000 allied troops descended upon the northern coast of France and in the face of fierce German resistance pushed inland, as wave upon wave of troops invaded the mine-littered beaches.

Advertising with Osprey Publishing

Some of you have probably noticed the sudden influx of adverts on to the Osprey website. Over the last year or so we trialled a limited advertising system, and after some good feedback from you, and from the companies advertising we decided to roll out our advertising on a larger scale. We are currently looking for new businesses who want to advertise on our website.

My favourite new bits in the Membership archive

Once a month I will be blogging my favourite piece of members area content. Currently I will choose between a battle map or a plane profile but later in the year we will have all the artwork from the New Vanguard series and most of the Men at Arms uniforms available to our members. This month I’ve uploaded 95 new plane profiles and plane unit insignia, along with 20 new battle maps. All this content is taken from our May 2009 publications.

British Forces leave Iraq - head for Afghanistan?

Combat operations for British forces in Iraq are coming to an end today after six years. 20 Armoured Brigade will be handing over control of Basra to an American Brigade. Operation Telic, the name given to the British involvement in Iraq has been ongoing since March 2003. A memorial service has taken place in Basra for the 179 British personnel who died during the conflict. The British fatalities reached 179 after a soldier died from a gunshot wound in Basra on 12 February 2009. The memorial was attended by Defence Secretary John Hutton.

The Oxford office snowball fight

Whenever there is the smallest amount of snow on the ground, the Osprey offices have a bit of a tradition. We all pile out of the office at 12.30, wrapped up as warm as possible, and have a massive department vs department snow ball fight. It is a very serious affair. Prior to the event the internal emails are buzzing as departments try to form allegiances, individuals discuss tactics, plans are made and disregarded. Some people even go so far as to raid the Osprey Archive, to dig out some of the Elite Tactics books (this year Elite Street Fighting Tactics was a huge favourite, and every copy in the office seemed to mysteriously vanish by 10am).

HMS Daring

Being a lover of all things maritime I was delighted to see HMS Daring a Type 45 Destroyer is heading to its home in Portsmouth for the first time

What have Osprey's members been viewing

Now that the Osprey member’s area is four months old I’ve decided to see what our Gold and Silver members have been viewing in the map and plane databases. It was quite interesting to see that half of the plane profiles and maps had been viewed by at least one of our members. With a combined database of over 9,000 images I find this very impressive!

Soldier completes the Great North Run - whilst carrying a fridge

A friend of mine ran the Great North Run yesterday for the first time and had an amazing time. She completed the run in a sub two hour time and said it was very inspirational and will definitely be running it again.

Video of an American warship sunk by a torpedo

I have just seen this incredible video of an American warship being sunk by an Australian submarine!

Turkey Vs. PKK - Modern Counterinsurgency Warfare

The might of the Turkish army launched a cross-border attack against known PKK positions last Thursday night. The attack was in response to Turkish authorities accusing the Iraqi government of failing to stop...

Martini Henry Mark II

I decided to bring this antique rifle into the office and show it to some of the keener military historians at Osprey. It is my fathers and was given to him by a British army soldier who had recently served in Afghanistan. It had been...