Osprey Publishing is an illustrated military history publisher, and we see our blog as a place for interested people to come together and talk military history – about anything and everything to do with it.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/On behalf of everyone here at Osprey I would like to wish all of our American readers a very happy 4th July today. I hope you all have a great day! And to Joe, our American in exile - and all the Osprey staff in the US - John, Kerry and Shirley - have a great time too!http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/happy_th_july_to_all_of_our_us/I’m currently busy working on my presentation for Historicon which as usual will be titled Osprey Insights: From Development to Latest Publications. http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/presentation_for_historicon/... Osprey Assault body armour, that is. Come autumn, the existing Osprey tactical kit will be replaced with the new, lighter Assault design, intended to provide the soldier with the same level of protection, with less of the weight and cumbersome bulk. Intended specifically for troops on foot, the redesign comes about following experiences in Afghanistan, where foot patrols are more common due to the terrain and conditions...http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/The_British_Army_go_into_battle_with_Osprey/Osprey have now made it possible for our North American customers to Pre-order Osprey titles 3 months ahead of the publication date.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/[blog]/pre_ordering_books_in_north_america/ On the 27th and 28th June you can experience the best display of historic moving armour in the world at The Tank Museum - bringing the story of tanks, tank crew and soldiers to life! Billed as the most explosive weekend in history, at Tankfest you can watch incredible live displays, mock battles and living history encampments - representing German, US and UK Forces. There are arena displays of historic armour from The Tank Museum's collection, British Army displays and rare Second World War tanks in operation, as well as the usual range of trade stalls and family entertainment. http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/like_tanks_live_in_the_uk_why_not_head_off/As I mentioned a while back, we are always looking into ways that we can improve our stock levels so that as few of our books are unavailable as possible. The problems - as you can imagine with over 1.500 books are not always easy to deal with. But one of our hopes with the construction of our new website was that we would be able to track what you want more effectively - meaning that the more popular requests would be brought back faster and in bigger quantities, which in turn would allow us to do short run printings of the more obscure topics which are still requested on a regular basis. http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/after_an_out_of_print_osprey_book_use_your_wishlis/Your chance to help save a little piece of military history. While working on a recent miniature project, I found myself searching for images of the battle flag of the 13th Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers from the American Civil War. Eventually, I found one rather grainy image, and I felt darn lucky. The truth is that many of these flags have been lost, and many more are slowly deteriorating in basements and back rooms of museums across the US.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/Save_This_American_Civil_War_Standard/How well do you know the vast range of images that document and celebrate the extraordinary career of Napoleon Bonaparte, from Gentleman-Cadet, who, according to one of his instructors, “would go far if circumstances favoured him”, to L’Empereur. Answer the questions about the following four paintings for a chance to win a copy of the sumptuous "Armies of the Napoleonic Wars". http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/win_armies_of_the_napoleonic_wars/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.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/the_osprey_membership_map_of_the_month/At the beginning of June I posted up a quick blog about Terry Crowdy, author of Deceiving Hitler and Military Misdemeanours, who was speaking at the International Napoleonic Symposium. in Austria. Set up to commemorate the anniversary of the 1809 campaigns, Terry was due to present a talk about the life of a conscript. The full lecture is due to be published online by the International Napoleonic Symposium (we will link to it as soon as it is available), but until then, Terry has very kindly provided us with a brief synopsis of his talk.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/1809_a_conscripts_story_synopsis_of_the_lecture_by/Recently I’ve been working on a book called Vanquished: Crushing Defeats from Cannae to the 21st century, which looks at a number of battles of annihilation through history. The author, Mir Bahmanyar is particularly interested in why there are fewer battles of annihilation in the modern era. His conclusion is that there are several factors that come into play, but really it’s all down to leadership.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/has_military_leadership_changed_in_the_modern_worl/There is something very special about a sword. I’ve picked up a couple from different places and currently have one sitting behind my desk. It is very handy for difficult meetings. Anyway in July a new film is coming out that celebrates swords, sword-makers and sword-masters and it is fantastic. Reclaiming the Blade covers...http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/reclaiming_the_blade__medieval_7_renaissance_sword/A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a few days off and head north for a bit of a holiday. So I hopped into my car and drove up to Northumberland to visit some friends and family. Having gone to university in the north-east of England I was well prepared....complete with scarves and coats despite the warm weather further south. I had a great couple of days off...but one of the hazards of loving military history and having a career in military history is that you can never quite let go of it all, and before I knew what I was doing I was proposing a day trip up to Hadrian's Wall "for a bit of a walk and to take some pictures for the blog".http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/climbing_hadrians_wall_visiting_the_roman_fort_at/http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/Askari_Miniatures/http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/Brigade_Games/