On the blog today Commissioning Editor Nick Reynolds tells us about the 2026 releases for the Duel series!

Between them, the five armour and naval Duel titles scheduled for publication in 2026 reveal the sheer breadth of military operations before and during World War II, covering as they do not just two important aspects of the war at sea but also three fascinating clashes between very different tank types.

The one I’m particularly looking forward to is Ivo van der Spoel’s study of the clashes between Panthers and A30 Challengers during Operation Market Garden. The A30 Challenger is under-represented in the historical record, and it’s good to be able to focus on the type’s performance against the formidable Panther at a crucial moment in the 1944 fighting. Ivo’s attention to detail and depth of knowledge, teamed with Edouard Groult’s masterly artworks, are going to make this volume a highlight of the Duel series for me.

 

U-Boat vs Royal Navy Capital Ship: 1939–45

Mark Lardas, Edouard Groult

29/01/2026

This insightful illustrated study investigates how the Royal Navy lost two battleships and three aircraft carriers to German U-boats during 1939–42.

During World War II, over half of Britain’s capital ship losses were due to U-boats, as Germany’s submarines sought to deplete the Royal Navy’s powerful surface fleet. Featuring specially commissioned artwork and mapping alongside archive photographs, this study explains how Germany’s submarines sank five of Britain’s major surface vessels in four years of conflict at sea.

Aircraft carrier HMS Courageous was sunk by U-29 on 17 September 1939 during anti-submarine patrols. On 14 October 1939, U-47 penetrated the Scapa Flow defences and sank battleship HMS Royal Oak. On 14 November 1941, U-81 sank HMS Ark Royal as the aircraft carrier returned to Gibraltar. On 25 November 1941, U-331 sank HMS Barham off Egypt. The final British capital ship to be sunk by German submarines was carrier HMS Eagle, torpedoed by U-73 en route to Malta on 11 August 1942.

In this book, Mark Lardas charts the origins, development and combat performance of the U-boats in the Kriegsmarine’s efforts to attack British capital ships, and the Royal Navy’s efforts to counter the submarine threat to its battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers. As well as the five encounters that led to sinkings, he examines the ‘near-misses’ that saw Royal Navy capital ships get the better of the U-boats.

 

Panzer I vs T-26: Spain & Russia 1936–41

Jacek Zabielski, Richard Chasemore

21/05/2026

This fully illustrated study pits Germany’s Panzer I against the Soviet T-26 in the Spanish Civil War and during Operation Barbarossa.

In 1936, as Spain descended into civil war, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sent light tanks to aid the opposing sides, keen to see how they fared in combat. Armed with twin machine guns, Germany’s Panzer I fought alongside Nationalist troops, while the 45mm-armed Soviet T-26 took the field with Republican forces. In this book, Jacek Zabielski reveals the origins, development and combat history of these two types, which remained in front-line service in 1941 as Hitler’s forces invaded the Soviet Union.

While both were soon outclassed by better-armed and -armoured successors, the two tanks remained in service throughout World War II. Featuring specially commissioned artwork, full-colour mapping and archive photographs alongside the authoritative text, this study also considers the many variants derived from the Panzer I and T-26, and their technical and tactical legacy.

 

US Liberty Ship vs German Surface Raider: The Battle of the Atlantic 1942

Mark Lardas, Edouard A. Groult

18/06/2026

Fully illustrated, this study examines World War II's most dramatic single-ship action, in which the Liberty Ship Stephen Hopkins fought a heavily armed German auxiliary cruiser, Stier.

When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, the Battle of the Atlantic was already raging. The so-called ‘Liberty Ships’, built at breakneck speed and astonishing numbers during 1941–45, were crucial to the Allied war effort. While the greatest successes of Germany’s auxiliary cruisers occurred in 1939–41, one of these ingenious warships, Stier, confronted the Liberty Ship Stephen Hopkins in World War II’s most dramatic single-ship duel on September 27, 1942.

Stephen Hopkins carried one 4in gun, two 37mm cannon and six machine guns, all primarily intended for antisubmarine and antiaircraft purposes. Stier had six 150mm, one 75mm, one twin 37mm, four single 20mm and four 533mm torpedo tubes. The fight was grossly uneven. At the end of it, Stier had sunk Stephen Hopkins, but was so badly damaged it had to be scuttled.

While the battle between Stephen Hopkins and Stier has garnered much attention, there were other clashes between the German surface raiders and their Liberty Ship quarry during 1942. Featuring specially commissioned artwork and mapping alongside carefully selected archive photographs, this lively study investigates the important role both ship types played as the Battle of the Atlantic reached its climax.

 

Panther vs A30 Challenger: Operation Market Garden 1944

Ivo van der Spoel, Edouard A. Groult

24/09/2026

Fully illustrated, this lively study investigates the clashes between the British A30 Challenger tank and Germany’s formidable Panther during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

In 1944–45 Britain’s A30 Challenger tank, a stopgap design armed with the lethally effective 17-pounder anti-tank gun used in the Sherman Firefly, provided essential armour-piercing firepower against Germany’s latest fighting vehicles including the formidable Panther tank. Based on meticulous primary research, examination of the 1944 battlefields and in-depth knowledge of the Challenger and Panther, this absorbing account casts new light on these innovative tank designs and their epic clash in September 1944 at a critical moment in Operation Market Garden, the audacious Allied bid to cross the Rhine and end the war by Christmas.

In this book, Ivo van der Spoel reconstructs the pivotal tank battle outside the Dutch village of Son on 20 September 1944, in which Cromwells and Challengers of the 15/19 Hussars repulsed an attack by Panther tanks of Panzerbrigade 107. In an intense combined-arms battle that lasted all day the Hussars, backed up by American paratroopers, destroyed five Panther tanks and drove back one of the most dangerous German attacks on the Market Garden corridor. It is a fascinating case study that shows the rare Challenger at precisely the right time and place to make a decisive impact just as it was designed for years earlier, while revealing the details of the Panther’s deployment in this critical battle. The authoritative text is complemented by rare photographs, full-colour mapping and specially commissioned artwork showing the two types in combat.

 

M3 Tank vs Panzer IV: Eastern Front 1942

Peter Samsonov, Richard Chasemore

19/11/2026

This fully illustrated volume investigates the battles between Germany’s Panzer IV medium tanks and US Lend-Lease M3 tanks crewed by Soviet tankers on the Eastern Front in 1942.

When Congress empowered the president of the United States to provide weapons and other matériel to foreign countries in March 1941, no one could have predicted that the Soviet Union would be among those receiving American aid. Nevertheless, a shipment of M3 medium and M3 light tanks, the latest and still unproven products of an industry that built vehicles for a very different theatre of war, arrived in Murmansk by December 1941. Rapidly pitched into combat, these American designs had to contend with the PzKpfw IV, originally envisaged as a close-support tank but refined in the light of combat experience gained in Poland, France and North Africa.

In this study, armour expert Peter Samsonov sets out the origins, development, strengths and limitations of these very different tank types. He explains how as the Germans regained their footing after their defeat at Moscow and turned their sights south towards Stalingrad in the summer of 1942, the two sides locked horns in some of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Recovering after the appalling losses of 1941, the Red Army’s armoured corps had to field inexperienced crews and tanks that were foreign to them in more ways than one while fending off an opponent that had a well-refined tank along with veteran crews to operate it. The author’s insightful analysis is complemented by archive photographs, full-colour maps and specially commissioned artwork to reveal these armour types at war in the crucible of the Eastern Front.

 

 

Up to 70% off Osprey Publishing Books!

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