Big Reveal 2025: GNM’s Part One

 

Boots on the Ground: Modern Land Warfare from Iraq to Ukraine

By Leigh Neville

13/02/2025

Written by a renowned expert in modern conflicts, this fully illustrated book provides an examination of ground warfare over the past 20 years and looks ahead to the future.
 
Drawing on lessons from recent history, including the war in Ukraine, Boots on the Ground offers a fascinating insight into how armies and battlefields of the future will look. Each chapter details one key aspect of modern ground warfare, expertly assessing the technologies and tactics in use at the sharp end. Covering topics from artillery, nicknamed the ‘god of war’, to combat engineering, to the so-called ‘battlefield taxis’ or Infantry Fighting Vehicles, each chapter is packed full of detail and  full colour, contemporary photographs. Boots on the Ground also reveals the increasing importance of the ‘grey zone’ and how cyber operations will have a direct impact on operations. This has been evident in Ukraine, where cities have been attacked by Russian drones, and Ukrainian forces sank a Russian ship in the Black Sea using a Bayraktar drone.
 
But a case is also made for the continued importance of the infantry, showing how technology can only do so much and only then if in the hands of well-trained boots on the ground. Including case studies from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine, and unrivalled access to serving Special Ops teams, Leigh Neville also offers an assessment of NATO armies and special forces and how prepared they are for possible operations against the evolving threats of Iran, Russia or even China.

 

Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age

By Si Sheppard

13/02/2025

This is a groundbreaking new history of the wars of the Ottoman expansion, a global conflagration that crisscrossed three continents and ultimately defined the borders and future of modern Europe.  

But this is not the story of a clash of civilizations between East and West. Europe was not united against the Ottoman Empire and while religious imperatives were critical to the motivations of all the key actors involved, these in no way fell neatly along the Christian–Muslim divide. Indeed, the scandal of the age was the alliance between King Francis I of France and Sultan Suleiman and Si Sheppard expertly charts these shifting alliances as the world lurched from the Medieval era to the Renaissance.

Crescent Dawn features all the legendary figures of the era – from Mehmed the Conqueror and Suleiman the Magnificent to Charles V and Vasco da Gama – and in locations as varied as the sumptuous palaces of Constantinople to the bloody battlefields of the Balkans. This colorful history brings the great battles of the age to life and clearly shows how the wars for and against Ottoman expansion constituted the true first world war. 

 

From Trenton to Yorktown: Turning Points of the Revolutionary War

By John R. Maass

13/02/2025

Published to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War, this sweeping narrative details the five turning points that ensured victory.
 
For eight gruelling years, American and British military forces struggled in a bloody war over colonial independence. This conflict also ensnared Native American warriors and the armies and navies of France, Spain, the Dutch Republic, and several German principalities. From frozen Canada to tropical Florida and as far west as the Mississippi River, the Revolutionary War included hundreds of campaigns, battles, and skirmishes on land and sea in which soldiers and sailors fought and died for causes, crowns, and comrades.
 
In this masterful, yet accessible narrative of America’s fight for liberty, John R. Maass identifies the decisive events that secured independence for the 13 hard-pressed but determined colonies. Maass details five key turning points that were crucial to eventual Patriot victory. These include not only the obvious military victories such as Trenton and Princeton or Yorktown but also the harsh conditions of the winter of 1778 and King Louis XVI’s decision to supply Washington’s troops with desperately needed soldiers, arms, money, and fleets. These turning points, without which defeat was likely, ensured a victory for the new United States, and established its place among the nations of the world.

 

Mediterranean Sweep: The USAAF in the Italian Campaign

By Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

13/03/2025

Filled with personal accounts of the action, this book details the USAAF’s tactical and strategic campaigns in the skies over Italy in World War II.
 
With the defeat of the Germans and Italians on Sicily in mid-July 1943, all eyes turned towards the battle for the Italian mainland itself. This campaign has been called “forgotten” by many, with many of the best units from the North African and Sicilian campaigns withdrawn to prepare for the coming invasion of France, while those units that remained had a lower priority for replacements of men and material.
 
Despite these difficulties, the air war in the Italian campaign is a study in the successful application of tactical air power. Mediterranean Sweep describes how USAAF forces, alongside Free French, Italian co-belligerent forces, British and Commonwealth units and even a squadron of the Brazilian Air Force, took the war to the Axis in both the fighter-bomber war as well as Operation Bingo, the successful bombing campaign to strangle supplies to the German forces fighting on the Gothic Line.
 
Building on the story of the USAAF in North Africa and over Sicily told in his previous work Turning the Tide, renowned aviation expert Tom Cleaver uses a wide range of first-hand accounts form American, Allied, German and Italian pilots and other aircrew to bring to life the bitter struggle in the skies over Italy from mid-1943 through to the end of World War II.

 

Bagration 1944: The Great Soviet Offensive

By Prit Buttar

13/03/2025

A fascinating history of the great summer offensive launched by the Red Army in 1944 which turned the tide of the war.
 
Throughout the war on the Eastern Front, there were two consistent trends. The Red Army battled to learn how to fight and win, while involved in a struggle for its very survival. But by 1944 it had a leadership that was able to wield it with lethal effect and with far more effective equipment than before. By contrast, the Wehrmacht had commenced a slow process of decline after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler became increasingly unwilling to delegate decision-making to commanders in the field, which had been crucial to earlier success. The long years of fighting had also taken a heavy toll. Thousands of irreplaceable junior officers and NCOs were dead, wounded or prisoners.
 
Renowned Eastern Front expert Prit Buttar expertly brings these contrasting fortunes to life, trends which culminated in the huge battles of Bagration. As this masterful study conclusively shows, in 1944 the Red Army finally put together a campaign that utterly destroyed the German Army Group Centre. The Wehrmacht suffered the loss of over 300,000 men killed, wounded or taken prisoner and the Red Army rolled forward across Belarus to the outskirts of Warsaw. The end of the war was still many months away, and the Germans managed to reconstruct their line on the Eastern Front, but final victory for the Soviet Union was now only a matter of time as a direct consequence of Bagration.

 


Light Panzers

By Thomas Anderson

24/04/2025

This highly illustrated title new study tells the full story of the German light Panzers in World War II.
 
The light Panzers that equipped the first Panzer divisions were originally intended as training or stopgap machines, suitable only until the arrival of the better-armed and -armoured PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV. However, despite their limitations, they ended up playing key roles in the victorious campaigns waged by the German Army from 1939 to 1942.
 
The PzKpfw I was introduced in 1934 and only had a crew of two and twin 7.92mm machine guns. The PzKpfw II, introduced in 1936, was an improved design with a 20mm main armament and a crew of three. The annexation of German-speaking Sudetenland in 1938 and, subsequently, of Czechoslovakia itself delivered an unexpected bonus for the Panzerwaffe: two Czech Army light tanks mounting a 37mm main gun were introduced into German service as the PzKpfw 35(t) and PzKpfw 38(t). These saw considerable operational service in Poland, France and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. From late 1941 onwards, they were withdrawn from front-line service but the chassis were used until the end of the war for self-propelled artillery and tank destroyers.
 
German armour expert Thomas Anderson draws on first-hand accounts and rare photographs in this comprehensive study of the German light Panzers that played a key role in the early years of World War II.

 

Over Cold War Seas: NATO and Soviet Naval Aviation, 1949–89

By Michael Napier

08/05/2025

Michael Napier describes the naval air power deployed by NATO, Warsaw Pact and neutral countries throughout the Cold War.

In 1949, an Iron Curtain was drawn across Europe, and the Cold War that ensued between the Western North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact lasted through to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. NATO and Warsaw Pact naval forces spread over the world’s oceans, and the powerful forces of the US Navy’s Second Fleet patrolled the North Atlantic, while the Sixth Fleet was positioned in the Mediterranean. The age of the nuclear-powered supercarrier arrived in 1957 with the USS Forrestal, while the Soviet Union’s first aircraft carrier, the Kiev, was commissioned in 1975.

In Over Cold War Seas, respected aviation author Michael Napier examines the naval air power of the major combatant forces as it developed from 1949 through to 1989. All the major naval aircraft types are covered, both fixed wing and helicopters, which entered service in the 1950s for light transport or rescue duties and evolved into multi-purpose machines capable of performing anti-submarine and airborne early warning missions. This detailed text is supported by a wide range of first-hand accounts of operational flying during the Cold War, as well as over 240 high-quality, contemporary images.

 

Korea: War Without End

By Richard Dannatt and Robert Lyman

22/05/2025

A ground-breaking history of this global conflict including the errors and miscalculations.

Korea: War Without End examines the stand-off between East and West in Korea that ultimately defined the second half of the 20th century. It provides a critical analysis of the lack of preparation by the West for war; the results of the North Korean invasion in June 1950; the counter-stroke by MacArthur in September and then the strategic overreach which led to communist China’s involvement on the North Korean side, and the rapid escalation to consideration of the use of nuclear weapons.

Through meticulous analysis of all the source material, this book details the chaos of political decision-making at the war’s outset and as it progressed. The Korean War was not planned as a Communist offensive against the West. In turn, the East did not understand the principle at the core of the Western response to Kim Il-sung’s aggression, namely a refusal to appease an aggressor, the key mistake the West considered to be at the heart of the rise of Nazi Germany and militaristic Japan in the 1930s.

Korea: War Without End also considers the effect of the fighting on civilians. While the war was a proxy one between East and West, the people of Korea suffered immensely, with approximately 3 million war fatalities and a larger proportional civilian death toll than World War II. This is the definitive history of the conflict that is long overdue.

 

Warship 2025

Edited by John Jordan

08/05/2025

The 2025 edition of Warship, the celebrated annual publication featuring original research on the history, development, and service of the world's warships.

For over 45 years, Warship has been the leading annual resource on the design, development, and deployment of the world's combat ships. Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors, Warship combines original research, new book reviews, warship notes, an image gallery, and much more, maintaining the impressive standards of scholarship and research with which the annual has become synonymous. Detailed and accurate information is the hallmark of all the articles, which are fully supported by plans, data tables, and stunning photographs.

This year's Warship includes features on France’s first destroyers, the turn-of-the-century 300-tonne type; Denmark's H-class submarines of World War II; Italy’s proposed battlecruiser designs; the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Chikuma-class protected cruisers; Soviet S-class submarines; and the first of a two-part exploration of German destroyers of World War I.

 

Dogwood: A National Guard unit’s war in Iraq

By Andrew Wiest

08/05/2025

This is an unsparing account of the sharp end of war written by one of the finest military historians of his generation.

Andrew Wiest, author of the bestselling Boys of ’67, traces the experience of the 150th Combat Engineers of the Mississippi National Guard in their 2005 tour of duty in Iraq, centered on the forward operating base Dogwood. Comprising youth hoping to attain a way out of grinding poverty, women seeking to break barriers, and patriots answering their nation’s call after 9/11, the 150th represented nearly all of what America had to offer in 2005.

Amid the transformation of the US military in the 21st century, no longer were they destined to be weekend warriors tasked mainly with local disaster relief. The new Guard was a sharp weapon of war. Soldiers grew up in the same communities, played sports and served together. As Dogwood reveals, this provides a singular advantage, but also intensifies loss. Defying poor equipment, lack of specialist training and heart-breaking losses, the 150th endured combat. They also implemented their own homespun counterinsurgency policy that turned an insurgency hotbed into a thriving community – one of the war’s few success stories. But it was all for nought.

Set within the context of a changing military, an evolving strategic situation and an unpopular war, Dogwood is an unflinching history which lays bare the harsh reality of combat through countless first-hand accounts.

 

Devil’s Fire, Southern Cross: The Conclusion of the Guadalcanal–Solomons Campaign, October 1943–February 1944

By Jeffrey Cox

05/06/2025

Esteemed World War II historian Jeffrey Cox has produced a fast-paced and absorbing read of the final months of the crucial Guadalcanal–Solomons Campaign during the Pacific War.
 
A page-turning history of the final months of this vital campaign, which determined the eventual successful conclusion of the Pacific War for the Allies. But it had not been a smooth process. These final months continued to be a history of fits and starts, with both the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy making crucial errors.
 
But as the pendulum of war swung, the Allies had one distinct advantage. This was the successful efforts by the US Army Signals Intelligence Section and the Navy Communication Special Unit to monitor, intercept, decode and translate Japanese messages. It was thanks in part to this intelligence breakthrough that victory was secured at the Battles of Empress Augusta Bay and Cape St. George as well as the bitterly contested Bougainville invasion. But it was also due to improvements in strategic and tactical doctrine on the part of the US Navy, so much so that the Battle of Cape St. George was dubbed the almost textbook perfect battle.
 
At the start of the Guadalcanal–Solomons Campaign the US Navy was the underdog. By its conclusion, US naval commanders had come of age. Combining first-rate scholarly research with a novelist’s flair for the dramatic, Jeff Cox concludes his brilliant quartet on this crucial campaign.

 

 The Lost Ships of Charles II's Navy

By Richard Endsor

05/06/2025

A comprehensively researched and beautifully illustrated history of the design of the ships of Charles II’s Navy, using carefully reconstructed architectural plans based on contemporary records.
 
The Royal Navy of the late 17th century was the greatest enterprise in the country, and in 1777, with Samuel Pepys as Secretary of the Navy, the House of Commons voted to fund the building of 30 new ships, the largest single shipbuilding project up to this point. This new history by award-winning naval historian Richard Endsor describes the history of this great endeavour, and seeks to recreate architectural plans of these ships based on detailed measurements and calculations left behind by Edmund Drummer, an assistant to master shipwright Sir Anthony Deane and later Surveyor of the Navy from 1692 to 1699.
 
Using Drummer’s surviving notebook, supported by the official specification dimension list for the ships, large-scale, artistic drawings and several surviving models, The Lost Ships of Charles II's Navy contains dimensioned and accurate architectural plans for several named ships alongside numerous other illustrations, including contemporary Van de Velde drawings of the ships.

 

Opening the Gates of Hell: Germany’s Invasion of Russia, June–July 1941

By Richard Hargreaves

05/06/2025

A unique account of the opening weeks of the largest, most brutal conflict in history. Told through the eyes of those who were there and based on original source material from across Europe.
 
Opening the Gates of Hell is based on over a decade’s research in archives and sites across Europe. It is a ground-breaking account of the opening period of the Nazi–Soviet conflict, a narrative history not just of the fighting, but also the impact on civilians, the atrocities committed by both sides and ethnic cleansing carried out by the inhabitants of the regions invaded.
 
This fascinating history tells the stories of bravery, cowardice, misery and horror through the eyes of those who were there, including ordinary soldiers, generals, leaders, politicians and civilians on both sides. The book draws on published and unpublished sources from across Germany and Eastern Europe, with the majority of the material never having appeared in English-language accounts of the conflict before.
 
The combination of combat accounts, high-level diplomacy and leadership, and the visceral accounts of the atrocities committed by both sides give this book a unique approach to the war on the Eastern Front and will ensure that it is regarded as the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.