Nemesis: Philip Augustus, Scourge of the Plantagenets

Catherine Hanley

11/09/2025

The extraordinary tale of Philip Augustus, one of medieval Europe’s greatest monarchs, and the part he played in the downfall of four Plantagenet kings in succession.

Philip Augustus was one of medieval Europe’s greatest kings, ruling France with an iron fist for more than 40 years, expanding its borders and increasing its power. For the entirety of his reign his opposite number on the English throne was a member of the Plantagenet dynasty, and Philip took them all on, one after the other: Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, John and Henry III.

Philip’s actions had a huge influence on the fluctuating fortunes of the Plantagenet family and the English crown – mainly to his own benefit and their detriment – and it is surprising that he is not better known. English histories focus on the ruling Plantagenet dynasty, with Philip only making sporadic appearances as their antagonist, while his own motives and goals are often not adequately explained.

Nemesis seeks to redress this balance and bring Philip out of the shadows as a protagonist in his own right. This innovative point of view has a twofold benefit for the reader: they will find out more about Philip himself, but they will also gain a greater understanding of the Plantagenet dynasty. They will be entertained along the way, because the tale is a rollicking one from the family squabbles of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine to the tragedy of the Crusades.

 

The Last Catfight: The F-14 Tomcat's final combat cruise

Tony Holmes

11/09/2025

A lavish celebration of the much-loved workhorse of the US Navy - the F-14 Tomcat - and a unique insight into its crucial final operational tour over the skies of Iraq.

On 1 September 2005, history was made when the 95,000-ton supercarrier USS Theodore Roosevelt departed the Norfolk Navy Yard, in Virginia, and headed east into the Atlantic. Among the 65 combat aircraft embarked in the vessel by Carrier Air Wing Eight were 22 F-14D Tomcats of VF-31 and VF-213. A permanent feature on the flightdecks of US Navy aircraft carriers for the past three decades, these F-14s were the very last examples of the 600+ Tomcats to wear the star and bar in frontline service. Within five weeks of leaving Norfolk, the Theodore Roosevelt was on station off the coast of Iraq, its aircraft flying missions round –the clock.

This volume charts the combat experiences of the last American Tomcat crews that took the jet into action as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, flying hundreds of missions all over strife-torn Iraq in an effort to ensure the safety of Coalition troops on the ground. The F-14 units played a key part in protecting the polling stations during two government elections held in Iraq in October and December 2005, and were also in the vanguard of Operation Steel Curtain, when the US Marine Corps went head-to-head with al-Qaeda in the Anbar province near the Syria/Iraq border.

Combat accounts from the men and women flying these missions high over Iraq bring the F-14’s exploits to life, as Grumman’s last fighter is put through its paces in the world’s most demanding combat environment. Whether conducting convoy patrols, looking for improvised explosive devices, chasing insurgents through the streets of Baghdad, destroying bomb-making factories or strafing and bombing enemy strongholds, the Tomcat was never found wanting thanks to the professionalism of the crews flying the aircraft and the new technologies debuted by the iconic naval fighter on its very last cruise.
 
Aviation author and editor Tony Holmes draws on his own interviews with the admiral heading up the strike group (himself a Tomcat pilot) as well as several other aviators and radar-intercept officers from both squadrons. This authoritative account is perfectly complemented by the striking aviation photography contained in the volume, taken by several of the world’s leading aviation photographers as well as a naval aviator flying the Tomcat on its very last cruise.

 

The Man Who Stopped the Sultan: Gabriele Tadino and the Defence of Europe

Edoardo Albert

11/09/2025

The extraordinary history of an ordinary man who defied one of the greatest rulers the world has ever seen and a fascinating insight into warfare at the dawn of the Renaissance.

Throughout the 16th century wars raged across Europe as kings, princes and republics jostled for wealth and the glory of empire. Yet one man exceeded all these medieval princes of Christendom in terms of power and ambition: Suleiman the Magnificent. Suleiman, as ruler of the Ottoman Empire, governed some 25 million people from his capital in Constantinople, his realm stretching as far east as Persia and as far west as the Atlantic Ocean. Twice Suleiman attacked at the heart of Europe, first the island of Rhodes, home to the Hospitaller Knights, and second, Vienna, gateway city to the continent. Twice he was opposed by one man – an ordinary Italian who had risen to the ranks thanks to his genius as a military engineer.

This is a fascinating history of crusading knights and gunpower, of spies and tunnels, of diplomatic wrangling and all-out war, and of a crossroads in history when the medieval age gave way to the Renaissance and when Suleiman came close to extending his vast empire into the very heart of Europe.

Delving deep into Italian source material, Gabriele Tadino weaves together a compelling narrative of a man alive in an extraordinary time and performing extraordinary feats of military genius. Through the lens of his life we discover how military tactics and fortifications rapidly changed thanks to the discovery of gunpowder and how Europe, divided by power-hungry rulers and religious conflict due to the burgeoning reformation movement, almost fell to one of the greatest rulers the world has ever seen.

 

Into the Reich: The Red Army’s advance from the Vistula to the Oder in 1945

Prit Buttar

11/09/2025

A fascinating account of the dying days of the Third Reich as the Soviet assaults revealed the evil at the very heart of the regime andStalin’s simultaneous landgrab for the Soviet Empire that ensured the start of the Cold War.  

In January 1945, the Red Army launched a powerful offensive from bridgeheads that it had secured the previous year over the Vistula. The plan was to drive the Wehrmacht back across Poland and into German territory, with the intention of securing a start line for a future operation that would ultimately result in the capture of Berlin and the end of the war. Militarily, the defeat of German forces along the Vistula line was an important prerequisite for an assault on Berlin, but there were other issues at play. Stalin was determined to push the boundaries of the Soviet Union further west, restoring traditional Russian-controlled territory lost by the tsars and securing vast industrial and mineral wealth.

While negotiations took place between the three Allied powers regarding the future fate of Poland, the Red Army burst through the German lines and then raced west. An entire panzer corps found itself cut off and isolated but managed to make its way back to German lines in an extraordinary series of night marches, but the outcome of the fighting was never in doubt. As the Soviet soldiers pressed into Poland, they reached and liberated Auschwitz even as the Germans drove concentration camp prisoners onto the country’s frozen roads in a series of brutal death marches.

The Wehrmacht staged a desperate fight back with the last major German armoured offensive on the Eastern Front. Operation Sonnenwende was launched in February 1945 from the German-Polish border, and while it ultimately failed, it did force a halt to the Soviet forces before the rush to Berlin.

This is a fascinating account of the dying days of Nazi Germany written by a historian at the height of his powers. This is the definitive account of the strategic goals, both military and political, of Stalin, his generals, and their armies as they raced into the Reich and of the German forces who stood in the way.

 

Commandos at Arakan: The Story of 3 Commando Brigade and the Battle of Hill 170

Lucy Betteridge-Dyson

09/10/2025

Drawing on unpublished first-hand accounts, this book is a gripping account of one of the bloodiest battles of the Burma Campaign and the experiences of the Commandos who fought there against an unrelenting enemy and environment.

Following the Battles of Kohima and Imphal in mid-1944, the tide was turning against the Imperial Japanese Army, and by December 1944 the Allies were preparing to launch an offensive in the Arakan region of Burma, to deliver a knockout blow to the increasingly desperate Japanese 28th Army. This book covers the actions of 3 Commando Brigade, who would spearhead this attack in a series of daring amphibious landings into the depths of the Burmese jungle, culminating in one of the bloodiest battles of the Burma campaign – the Battle of Hill 170. They were the only Commandos to serve in the Far East, yet their story has never before been told in detail.

With access to previously unseen primary source material, this book is the story of the men who volunteered for a fight against a cruel and fearless enemy, over 5,000 miles away from home, in one of the most unforgiving environments in the world. Thrown into combat with limited jungle training and scant resources, it would be a true baptism of fire but 3 Commando Brigade, alongside the courageous men of the 25th Indian and 82nd (West African) Divisions, would inflict a terrible defeat on an enemy once thought to be unbeatable.

 

The Rise and Fall of the British Army, 1970–2020

Ben Barry

09/10/2025

 A new study of a critical period in the history of the British Army which dispassionately assesses the strengths and weaknesses of its performance and offers key lessons for the future.

 The last half century has been a in which society, technology, the character of conflict and the British Army itself have all changed greatly. From a low point in the 1970s, the Army’s war fighting capability increased in the 1980s against a prospective war with the Soviet Union. This improved fighting power was tested in new and unforeseen ways in operations that were unanticipated in the Cold War, from Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in 1991 through to Afghanistan in 2001 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These successes gave the Army a justified sense of achievement but led to over-confidence.

There followed two decades of descent from this high plateau of military achievement, including mistakes made in Iraq and Afghanistan and the resulting decline in political, public and media support for military deployments. Combined with cuts to defence funding and botched equipment procurements, the British Army of 2021 was only half the size of that of 1970, and with much key fighting equipment either obsolete or approaching obsolescence.

Ben Barry served in the Army from 1975 to 2010, often in key staff appointments, and has worked closely with the Army in the following decade. This new study draws not only on his personal experience, but also on a very wide range of written sources complemented by interviews with numerous former Army personnel, including senior leaders, to provide material new to the public domain and also make new judgements that often challenge the existing narratives.

 

Battle for the Rhineland: Hitler’s Last Defence, 1944–45

Anthony Tucker-Jones

09/10/2025

A dramatic retelling of the desperate battle of the Rhineland during World War II from the German perspective.

By late 1944 Hitler’s generals were in an impossible strategic position, with the Allies pressing in on Nazi Germany from both the Western and the Eastern fronts. Historically the Rhine and the Rhineland screened the industrial region of the Ruhr, which during World War II was vital crucial for the Nazi war effort.

It was vital that the Germans held the west bank in order to protect the Rhine crossings at Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz and Remagen. In the northwest the German city of Aachen near the German borders with Belgium and the Netherlands was also exposed and in danger of being the first German city to be lost to the Allies. However, Hitler was intent on counter-attacking in the Ardennes in the winter of 1944. This meant all available reserves were gathered for this operation, which left little to bolster the defences of either the Rhine or the Oder. Their only hope was that General Eisenhower’s broad front advance, following the British defeat

In Battle for the Rhineland, Anthony Tucker-Jones describes the desperate race against time as the Germans fought to stave off the inevitable. Once the Americans were over the Rhine at Cologne, Nierstein and Remagen, holding Montgomery’s Operation Plunder at bay between Rees and Wesel became an impossible and pointless exercise and ther battle was lost.

 

Pearl Harbor

Mark Stille

06/11/2025

A detailed re-examination of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Day of Infamy that saw the USA enter World War II.
 
In this, the first comprehensive treatment of the Pearl Harbor attack since the early 1990s, respected Pacific War naval historian Mark Stille traces the road to war and the Japanese attack itself. He examines the role of the man behind the attack, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the plan itself. The American preparations for an attack are also carefully reviewed. The heart of the book is a comprehensive narrative of the attack itself along with an analysis of its results placed in proper perspective.
 
In common with many of the major campaigns of the Pacific War, many myths surround the Battle of Pearl Harbor, and, amongst others, Mark will explore and dismantle the myth of Yamamoto as a military genius, as well as the myth that the attack was brilliantly planned. In Pearl Habor, Mark argues that the attack long regarded as a brilliant strikewas instead a tactical disappointment, an operational failure and a strategic disaster.

 

Defenders of the Reich: The Luftwaffe’s War against America’s Bombers

Robert Forsyth

06/11/2025

The story of the Luftwaffe’s fighter arm’s desperate defence of the Third Reich from the growing Allied bomber offensive in World War II

The Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the Reich) was a do or die campaign that saw the very best fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe attempt to defend German skies from increasingly large formations of RAF and USAAF medium and heavy bombers. Flying both piston-engined and, eventually, the first jet-engined fighters to see operational service, the Jagdflieger employed a wide range of weapons and tactics in an effort to blunt the Allied air offensive against both military and industrial targets across Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe.

Relying on a vast network of radar sites to provide them with early warning of approaching bombers, the Jagdwaffe had more than 15 Jagdgeschwader (fighter wings) based in the West and tasked with intercepting Allied formations by mid-1943. These units effectively fought until they were all but obliterated as USAAF and RAF fighters decimated their ranks in the air and targeted their airfields in devastating strafing attacks.

In Defenders of the Reich, leading Luftwaffe historian Robert Forsyth uses German and Allied archival documents coupled with interviews with a number of former Jagdwaffe pilots, to tell the history from the perspective of the Luftwaffe. It focusses on the story of the pilot, his aircraft, his weaponry, his draining, dangerous missions and Luftwaffe tactics against the USAAF and the RAF bombers from the summer of 1942 through to VE Day

 

American MiG Pilot: Inside the USAF’s Secret Red Eagles MiG Squadron

Rob Zettel

10/11/2025

A unique insight into America’s top-secret Red Eagles squadron from one of its own pilots.

After finding themselves outflown in the skies over Vietnam, the American military launched a top-secret operation to prepare for an eventual war against Soviet forces. American MiG Pilot tells the true  inside story of what it was like to be there, day in and day out, at one of the most access-restricted airfields in the entire USAF, flying top secret MiGs alongside some of the very best fighter pilots that had been hand picked from the ranks of the USAF, US Navy and US Marine Corps. Beyond the aircraft were the pilots who flew them, and the very human side to that part of their legacy.

Rob Zettel served with the squadron as a young captain, and tells the ‘Red Eagles’ story through the experiences of a pilot who flew these aircraft to their maximum performance in simulated combat engagements, often several times a day, against frontline fighter pilots of the three US sister services.