The seven Men-at-Arms titles appearing in 2025 cover some fascinating and important areas of military history, ranging from the Emperor Justinian’s wars to the Indian Army in the five decades after Independence. For me, the stand-out book in a strong group of titles is Central European Wars 1918–21, written by Philip Jowett.

Philip’s latest offering is a great example of how the Men-at-Arms series can present unfamiliar aspects of military history to a wider audience. Casting light on an underpublished subject (certainly in English), this absorbing study outlines the conflicts following the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the wake of World War I, and describes and illustrates the various military forces involved in these struggles. The colourful and varied artwork plates depicting Hungarian, Romanian, Czech and other troops are the work of Adam Hook, one of Osprey’s longest-standing and most respected illustrators.

 

MAA 543 German Troops in the American Revolution (2): Hannover, Braunschweig, Waldeck, Hessen-Hanau, Ansbach-Bayreuth, and Anhalt-Zerbst

By Robbie MacNiven

Illustrated by Marco Capparoni

27/02/2025

Fully illustrated, this is the second volume in a detailed study of the German auxiliary troops who fought for Britain in the American Revolutionary War.

During the American Revolutionary War (1775–83), German auxiliary troops provided a vital element of the British war effort. While the largest body of German troops was from Hessen-Cassel (see the first volume of this study), the British also fielded troops from Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, Hessen-Hanau, Waldeck and Pyrmont, Brandenburg Ansbach and Brandenburg-Bayreuth, and Anhalt-Zerbst. This volume also covers the Hanoverian soldiers involved in the sieges of Gibraltar and Menorca.

Fighting on a host of battlefields from Saratoga to Yorktown, these hired soldiers provided the Crown Forces with much-needed manpower and contributed crucial combat skills in the form of the Jäger, renowned specialists in open-order warfare. Featuring eight specially commissioned artwork plates and an array of carefully chosen illustrations, many in colour, this lively study examines the organization, uniforms, weapons and equipment of these troops who fought for King George in the New World.

 

MAA 561 Ground Forces in the Korean War 1950–53 (2): The US Army and US Marine Corps

By Robert C. Mackowiak

Illustrated by Johnny Shumate

24/04/2025

This study of the evolving uniforms and personal equipment used by US ground forces in the Korean War features new full-color artwork and previously unpublished photographs.

In June 1950, US soldiers and Marines deployed in the Korean War were dressed and equipped largely as they had been in the closing stages of World War II, but by 1953 major innovations had transformed their appearance. Featuring eight pages of specially commissioned artwork alongside carefully chosen photographs, some never previously published, this study charts the evolution of the US troops’ uniforms and gear through three years of bitter fighting.

The deployment of a US expeditionary force in Korea entailed uniform and equipment shortages and resulted in widespread improvisation among the troops. The rapid movement of the first stages of the conflict made resupply very difficult, a situation compounded by the need for cold-weather clothing. In 1951, the beginnings of position warfare offered the opportunity for soldiers and Marines to customize their uniforms and gear. Flak jackets were introduced in both services. The infantryman’s basic load lightened substantially, with men on the line often requiring little more than their fatigues, flak vest, and helmet. All of these developments are explained and depicted in this fully illustrated study from an authority of the uniforms and personal gear of the Korean War period.

 

MAA 562 Partisan Warfare in Greece 1941–44

By Phoebus Athanassiou

Illustrated by Adam Hook

22/05/2025

This fully illustrated study examines the organization, operations and uniforms of the German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation forces in Greece during 1941–44 as well as those of the two distinct Greek Resistance organizations and Royal Greek forces in exile.

Italy’s failed invasion of Greece in 1940–41 led to the German invasion of Yugoslavia in spring 1941 being extended into Greece, and, after the fall of Athens and Crete in April and May, the division of the country under German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation. The royal government and Army survivors withdrew to British-ruled Egypt, but at home resistance organizations of differing political character soon sprang up, forming guerrilla forces that exploited Greece’s rugged terrain and limited communications.

The strongest resistance force, with up to 100,000 members in 1944, was the Communist-dominated National Liberation Front (EAM) with its partisan Greek Popular Army (ELAS). Agents of the Western Allied powers had only brief success in mediating cooperation between the mutually hostile EAM/ ELAS, and the National Republican Greek League (EDES) with its EOEA. Foreshadowing the Greek Civil War that would follow liberation, ELAS and EOEA clashed, in the background to their separate operations against the Axis occupiers. (Several smaller regional groups, such as the PAO, were more or less forced into collaboration with the Axis by ELAS pressure.)

Drawing upon a wide range of sources, Phoebus Athanassiou charts the development of the fighting in occupied Greece: a struggle as ferocious as that fought in neighbouring Yugoslavia, which cost both the resistance and the Axis forces some 15,000 men killed. On the one hand, it saw the greatest feat of railway bridge demolition in the whole of occupied Europe, which hampered German resupply of Rommel’s Afrikakorps in North Africa. On the other, it was notorious for the murder of some 70,000 Greek civilians in reprisals committed by Waffen-SS and other security units.

 

MAA 563 Central European Wars 1918–21: Revolutions and Border Wars in the Former Austro-Hungarian Empire

By Philip Jowett

Illustrated by Adam Hook

19/06/2025

Depicts the forces involved in internal and external conflicts among former elements of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during their emergence as independent countries during 1918–21.

The population and armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I had included peoples of German, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Serbian, Bosnian and other minority origins, whose long-held ambitions for independent nationhood were complicated by mutual religious and ethnic hostilities. The break-up of the Empire following the 1918 Armistice saw internal risings, border disputes and full-scale wars among these peoples, as the composition and frontiers of new national republics (and one kingdom – when Greater Serbia became Yugoslavia) gradually emerged from the immediate chaos. Many of the armed forces involved in these struggles inherited basically ex-Austro-Hungarian uniforms and equipment, but with a variety of new national insignia. The colourful and diverse armies of these nascent countries are described and illustrated in this lively account of their foundational years.

Principally, Poland finally restored and defended the nationhood it had lost in the 18th century, while the new republic of Czechoslovakia was established after brief hostilities against both the Poles and Hungarian communists. Austria became a republic, and its paramilitary Freikorps fought against Slovenians in Carinthia and against various Serbo-Croat forces. The former Emperor Karl I’s attempts to retain the throne of Hungary as King Karl IV failed, and he went into exile in 1921. The Hungarian republic had to defeat a short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic led by Bela Kun. Hungary also suffered temporary Romanian occupation of a significant part of its territory including Budapest, while Admiral Horthy created a National Army in the south, and Hungarian nationalists fought Austrian gendarmes in the west of the country.

 

 Armies of Justinian the Great, AD 527–65

By Raffaele d'Amato

Illustrated by Catalin Draghici

23/10/2025

Describes and illustrates the troops engaged in the 6th-century campaigns in which the Byzantine Empire largely reconquered the Mediterranean.

The Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, ruled from Constantinople, had survived largely unscathed the devastating Germanic invasions that destroyed the Western Empire in the 5th century. Although the Eastern Empire faced internal religious schisms and a dangerous uprising early in the 6th century, the reign of Justinian I saw the imposition of Orthodox Christian authority, a new codification of Roman laws and, abroad, a partial restoration of the glory of the Roman Empire by the generals whom Justinian selected and patiently supported. Drawing upon the latest research and findings, this book examines the troops engaged in this mighty effort to reconquer the Mediterranean coast.

The colourful characters leading the emperor’s armies are strongly featured in this study. The brilliant Belisarius held off the Persians in 529–31 and defeated them in 541–42; defeated the Vandals in North Africa and Spain in 533–34; and won many victories during a 20-year war against the Ostrogoths in Italy. This was finally brought to a victorious end in 553–54 by Belisarius’s aged comrade Narses, who followed it by immediately defeating a Frankish-Alamanic invasion, Meanwhile, the younger John Troglitas distinguished himself against the Persians in Mesopotamia in the 540s, and defeated dangerous rebellions as commander in North Africa in 546–48.

Justinian’s generals led effective mixed-arms forces, including intelligent employment of allied troops with particular skills. While the legacy of the old Imperial legions could still be discerned in the Byzantine heavy infantry, Belisarius, Narses and Troglitas also deployed horse-archers alongside the elite heavy armoured cavalry born during the Late Imperial period. All of these formidable troop types are explained and depicted in this absorbing account of the Byzantine Empire at war.

 

The United States Navy 1914–18

By Brian Lane Herder

Illustrated by Angel García Pinto

20/11/2025

Written by a noted authority, this book explains the organization, training, tactics, and operations of the US Navy in World War I. Much of the content pre-dates the United States formally joining the Entente powers in 1917 to give an in-depth picture of the US Navy's global operations during this period.


In 1914, the US Navy was the third-largest navy in the world. Although World War I brought no opportunity for the type of capital-ship fleet action for which it had been trained, the US Navy carried out (alongside the Allied navies) a wide range of other missions such as patrolling, convoy escort, laying mines, antisubmarine warfare, landing parties, and manning 14in. naval guns ashore on the Western Front, all while pioneering naval aviation against a background of gunboat diplomacy in the "Banana Wars" in the Caribbean.

The US Navy's varied activities in different theaters of war saw the use of a wide array of uniforms, personal equipment, protective clothing, and insignia including those used by the first US female naval personnel. Fully illustrated and drawing upon a wide variety of sources, this absorbing study describes and illustrates the uniforms and personal equipment used by the US Navy during World War I.

 

The Indian Army at War 1947–99

By Mandeep Singh

18/12/2025

This absorbing study describes and illustrates the Indian Army forces that fought in five wars during the second half of the 20th century.

The Indian Army is the world’s largest standing army with an enviable history and tradition of valour and gallantry. It was involved in warfare soon after India’s independence and has fought five wars between 1947 and 1999, notably against Pakistan (1947–48, 1965, 1971 and 1999) but also against China (1962). Besides these, the Indian Army been involved in smaller internal conflicts and counter-insurgency operations, some of which continue. The Indian Army has also carried out two military interventions overseas, namely in the Maldives (1988) and in Sri Lanka (1987–90).

The troops who fought in these operations, culminating in 1999’s Kargil War against Pakistan, are described and illustrated in this book, written by an Indian Army veteran. The Indian Army’s evolving uniforms, insignia and personal equipment are depicted in photographs, some previously unpublished, and eight plates of original colour artwork. The book is an important contribution to our understanding of the Indian Army’s contribution to global military history since Independence in 1947.