Osprey Campaign Series SC (1990-2011 OSPREY) comic books 2004

Volume 104 - 1st printing. " D-Day 1944 Part 2!" Written by Steven J Zaloga. Art by Howard Gerrard. On their western flank, the Allied landings on D-Day combined a parachute drop by the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions with an amphibious assault on "Utah" Beach by the US 4th Infantry Division. The landings came ashore in the wrong place but met weaker German resistance as a result. The heaviest fighting took place inland where the badly scattered paratroopers gradually gathered in small groups and made for their objectives. This book traces the story of D-Day on Utah beach, revealing how the infantry pushed inland and linked up with the Airborne troops in a beachhead five miles deep. Now the battle to break out and seize the key port of Cherbourg could begin. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 133 - 1st printing. "Seven Days Battles 1862!" Written by Angus Konstam. Art by Stephen Walsh. When General Robert E. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Confederacy was in crisis. Lee changed all that in a brilliant, week-long campaign. On 26 June the Confederates struck, fighting two hard-fought battles in two days at Mechanicsville and Gaine's Mill. The ferocity of the Confederate assaults convinced McClellan that he was outnumbered. Unable to keep the Confederates at bay, the Union army was recalled to Washington. Despite losing a quarter of his men, Lee had saved Richmond, and inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Army of the Potomac. This book traces the course of this short yet crucial campaign. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 134 - 1st printing. "Cassino 1944!" Written by Ken Ford. Art by Howard Gerrard. The battle for Cassino was probably the most bitter struggle of the entire Italian campaign. The dominating peak of Montecassino crowned by its magnificent but doomed medieval monastery was the key to the entire Gustav Line, a formidable system of defences that stretched right across the Italian peninsula. This position completely dominated the Liri valley and Route 6, the strategically vital road to Rome. Between January and May 1944 the Allies struggled amid inhospitable terrain and dreadful weather to dislodge the German paratroops that tenaciously defended the vital mountaintop. Ken Ford's book details the dramatic events of the battle to break the Gustav Line. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 135 - 1st printing. "Monmouth Courthouse 1778!" Written by Brendan Morrissey. Art by Adam Hook. The battle of Monmouth Courthouse was not only the last major action in the Northern theater, it was also the longest and hardest-fought engagement of the entire Revolutionary War. When the British abandoned Philadelphia to return to New York City, American troops harassed their retreat. On the morning of 28 June 1778, General Lee, George Washington's lieutenant, attacked the British rearguard but his attack went badly wrong. The British rearguard, now reinforced, threw Lee's troops into a headlong retreat. Lee was relieved of his command and Washington's Continentals then stood toe-to-toe with the British, bloodily repulsing a series of powerful attacks by crack troops. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 136 - 1st printing. "Meiktila 1945!" Written by Edward Young. Art by Howard Gerrard. In the spring of 1944, Japanese 15th Army was shattered at Imphal and Kohima, allowing General William Slim, commander of 14th Army, to liberate Burma overland from India - a task considered impossible by the British chiefs of staff. Overcoming immense logistical problems, Slim coordinated a precisely timed attack along a 200-mile front, the longest opposed river crossing of the entire war, and an armored dash behind enemy lines that seized Meiktila, cutting Japanese supply lines. Mandalay fell and at the end of March 1945, with the battle lost, the Japanese withdrew south. Slim gave them no chance; Allied troops raced south and captured Rangoon. The Japanese army in Burma was finished. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 137 - 1st printing. "Saipan & Tinian 1944!" Written by Gordon L Rottman. Art by Howard Gerrard. The 1944 invasion of Saipan was the first two-division amphibious assault conducted by US forces in World War II. Saipan and Tinian had been under Japanese control since 1914 and, heavily colonized, they were considered virtually part of the Empire. The struggle for Saipan and Tinian was characterized by the same bitter fighting that typified the entire Central Pacific campaign. Fighting side-by-side, Army and Marine units witnessed the largest tank battle of the Pacific War, massed Japanese banzai charges, and the horror of hundreds of Japanese civilians committing suicide to avoid capture. In this book Gordon Rottman details the capture of these vital islands that led to the collapse of Prime Minister Tojo's government. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 138 - 1st printing. "Poitiers 1356!" Written by David Nicolle. Art by Graham Turner. When Edward the Black Prince marched out of Gascony in August 1356, his plan was to carry out a large-scale destructive raid into the territory of the French King, John II. On 18 September, however, he was cornered south of Poitiers by a larger French army, and was left with little option but to fight. The ensuing battle proved an unmitigated disaster for the French. Their army was butchered and the King himself captured. In this volume, Dr David Nicolle details a campaign that enhanced the reputation of the Black Prince and led King John to catastrophe. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 139 - 1st printing. "Guam 1941 & 1944!" Written by Gordon L Rottman. Art by Howard Gerrard. The island of Guam was the first Allied territory lost to the Japanese onslaught in 1941. On 10 December 5,000 Japanese troops landed on Guam, defended by less than 500 US and Guamanian troops, the outcome was beyond doubt. On 21 July 1944 America returned. In a risky operation, the two US landing forces came ashore seven miles apart and it was a week before the beachheads linked up. Only the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa would cost the Americans more men than the landings on Guam and Saipan, which immediately preceded the Guam operation. In this book Gordon Rottman details the bitter 26-day struggle for this key Pacific island. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 140 - 1st printing. "Monongahela 1754-55!" Written by René Chartrand. Art by Stephen Walsh. On 9 July 1755 amid the wilderness of North America, Britain suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in her history. General Braddock's army, a mixture of British regulars and American militia, was shattered, losing over 900 men from a force of 1,300. Braddock was killed and the remnants of his army rescued by his aide, Colonel George Washington. The origins of this defeat can be traced back to the death of a junior French officer little more than a year before in a relatively minor skirmish with a party of Virginian militia commanded by the same George Washington. René Chartrand examines the subsequent chain of events that ultimately sparked a world war. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 141 - 1st printing. "Blenheim 1704!" Written by John Tincey. Art by Graham Turner. Combining one of history's most audacious strategic manoeuvres with perhaps the greatest military victory ever won by a British commander, the Blenheim campaign is rightly considered the pinnacle of the career of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. On 13 August 1704, Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy faced a Franco-Bavarian army threatening to knock Austria out of the War of the Spanish Succession. In a hard-fought battle Marlborough won a resounding victory, capturing Marshal Tallard and over 14,000 men. In this book John Tincey describes how Marlborough's victory crushed his enemies, shattered the myth of French invincibility and laid the foundations for two centuries of British world dominance. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 142 - 1st printing. "Dunbar 1650!" Written by Stuart Reid. Art by Graham Turner. Having already allied with his father, the Scots' acceptance of Charles II as king in 1649 caused deep suspicion in England. In July 1650, Oliver Cromwell led a powerful force across the Scottish border to remove the problem. For six weeks Cromwell waged a frustrating campaign against a Scots enemy that refused to meet him in battle. By the beginning of September Cromwell's army, poorly supplied, exhausted and ravaged by sickness, was apparently trapped at Dunbar by a powerful Scots army. On 3 September he won his greatest military victory just outside the town, but in this book Stuart Reid suggests that his triumph may in fact have begun as a breakout attempt. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

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Volume 143 - 1st printing. " Caen 1944!" Written by Ken Ford. Art by Peter Dennis. One of the key objectives of British forces on D-Day was the capture of the strategically vital city of Caen. General Montgomery saw Caen as the key to Normandy and the springboard for the Allied breakout, but so did the Germans and the city did not fall. It took three major offensives and more than 30 bloody days of struggle to finally take Caen. In the process the city was controversially devastated and its civilian population decimated. The Allies paid a high price for Caen but the horrific German casualties bled their forces in Normandy white and helped open the way for the American breakout in Operation Cobra. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 145 - 1st printing. "Battle of the Bulge 1944 Part 2!" Written by Steven J Zaloga. Art by Howard Gerrard and Peter Dennis. The Ardennes offensive in December 1944, known to history as the "Battle of the Bulge", was the decisive campaign of the war in North-West Europe. When the attack in the north by 6th Panzer Army failed, Hitler switched the focus of the offensive to General Manteuffel's 5th Panzer Army farther south. Overwhelming the green US 106th Division, German Panzers flooded towards the River Meuse. Barring their way was the crossroads town of Bastogne, reinforced at the last minute by the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne, the 'Screaming Eagles". The stage was set for one of the epic struggles of the war - the battle for Bastogne. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.

Volume 146 - 1st printing. "The Marshall Islands 1944!" Written by Gordon L Rottman. Art by Howard Gerrard. Following the capture of Tarawa in November 1943, American eyes turned to the Marshall Islands. These were the next vital stepping-stone across the Pacific towards Japan, and would bring the islands of Guam and Saipan within the reach of US forces. In their first amphibious attack, the new 4th Marine Division landed on Roi and Namur islands on 1 February 1944, while US 7th Division landed on Kwajalein. At the time this was the longest shore-to-shore amphibious assault in history. The lessons of the bloody fighting on Tarawa had been well learned and the successful attack on the Marshalls set the pattern for future amphibious operations in the Pacific War. Softcover, 96 pages, PC/PB&W Cover price $19.95.