AH Osprey books

midnight77

Osprey is a publisher known to many of you for its multitude of works on military history. From uniforms to weapons to campaigns and fortifications, Osprey has a large catalogue. This thread is for making up Osprey books from other timelines. For example, a theoretical timeline I have done some daydreaming of gives us:

Combat Aircraft: Bell JP-1: The first combat jet (1942-1946)
Warriors: Theodore Roosevelt's guerilla forces in New England
Campaign: Battle of New York
Campaign: The Anglo-Japanese attack on Hawaii
Weapons: The Trapdoor Springfield (1855-1864)
Duel: American vs Anglo-Canadian Tanks on the Great Plains
 
Lascaris

Lascaris

Ok from Of lost monkeys and broken vehicles

Weapon: The Vickers-Pedersen rifle
Warrior: Greek Infantryman 1940-45
Raid: Operation Hibiscus, Destroying the Aliakmon bridge
New Vanguard: Centaur Cruiser tank 1939-45
New Vanguard: The Hellenic Navy 1940-45
Men-At-Arms: Armies in the Balkans 1940-45
Fortress: The Smyrna Line
Essential Histories: The Greco-Turkish war 1919-21
Elite: Kurdish guerilla in World War 2
Duel: Greek heavy cruisers vs Turkish pocket battleships
Command: Vladimir Triandafillov
Combat Aircraft: Polikarpov I185 units in combat
Combat: Yugoslav soldier vs Bulgarian soldier
Campaign: Thermopylae 1941
Battle Orders: Turkish Army in World War 2
Anatomy of the ship: The battleship Salamis
Aircraft of the Aces: Greek aces of World War 2
Air Vanguard: IAR 80 and 82 series of fighters
Air Campaign: Macedonia 1943
 

The Wooksta!

Aircraft of the Aces: De Havilland Hornet European Aces
Combat Aircraft: Supermarine Spiteful and Seafang
De Havilland Hornet Squadrons of the RAF
 
Driftless

Driftless

Donor
  • Anzac-American - Hindenberg Line Offensive - 1918 (US units serving under Gen John Monash - it almost happened OTL)
  • General of the Armies - Frederick Funston (Funston lives to become the US AEF Commander- WW1. Pershing is his CoS)
  • US Army Rangers - 1917-1918 (An AH battalion size force loosely based on a cross between Roger's Rangers of the 1700s and the Rough Riders concept, using a mix of US Army Regulars and selected semi-qualified civilian recruits. Trained in trench warfare over in France by French and British NCOs)
  • MN Surcouf - 1927-1944 (Longer service for the Surcouf)
  • MN Strasbourg vs KM Admiral Scheer (Pick your own time and location for this slugfest)
  • Fallen Timbers - Blue Jacket's improbable victory (A reversal of the 1794 outcome of the Battle of Fallen Timbers in Indiana, between US Army and militia units vs a coalition of Native American war bands)
  • M38 Wolfhound - North Africa to Austria (The M38 Wolfhound armored car is designed an built earlier, completely supercedes the M8 armored car. This volume covers from Operation Torch through VE day)
  • M-92 Light Tank ( The US T-92 light tank goes into production. Service in the 1950s and 1960s, including Viet Nam)
  • P-74 Torch - America's first jet fighter (The Lockheed L-133 goes to production)
  • M-90 Light Armor Family (various iterations of the Swedish designed CV-90 in US Military service )
  • US Generals Killed in Service - WW2 ( An AH favorite, including Leslie McNair, Douglas MacArthur, Vinegar Joe Stiwell, among others - what might they have done....)
  • USS Kearsarge ACR-10 ( A one-off design replacing the USS Tennesse in production sequence. The first US cruiser to be oil-fueled, turbine driven, with super-firing 4x2 8" guns as the main battery. The OTL battleship BB-5 Kearsarge was not built)
 
Last edited:
Driftless

Driftless

Donor
  • US Navy Blimps - WW1 & WW2 (PoD - The USN puts more of the B-class blimps into coastal patrol service in late 1917 into 1918. Their relative utility and ease of construction encourages the Navy to build and deploy coastal patrol blimps starting in early 1941).
  • The Lewis Gun (A different version than OTL Osprey. PoD that the Lewis Gun gets the kinks worked out of using the 30.06 cartridge in time to get a fair shot (no pun intended) during LMG trials in 1909 and is accepted into US Army service, where it remains in Regular Army use till the 1930s, and National Guard use into WW2)
  • M1917 Scout Car (Dodge built light truck half-track for use by the US Army. Based on some lessons learned in the Pancho Villa Expedition. They saw some use in WW1 with the AEF, mostly for courier work, field ambulance, and ammunition haulers. Some units later wound up in US Pacific bases during the interwar period) (Model T's were modified to half-tracks OTL. Dodge brothers had a better working relationship with the US Military though.)
  • Duffer's Drift (Just make the fictional battle a real fight)
  • Alexandretta Campaign - 1915-1916 (Replaces OTL Gallipoli)
  • MN Bearn & SS Normandie (2 separate volumes) (Switch the OTL fates of the two ships. The Bearn succumbs to an accidental fire while being overhauled in 1942. The Normandie successfully gets converted to a troop ship 1942-1946, and post-war converted back to a liner)
  • Gen Douglas MacArthur - China Years (Covers the AH MacArthur years in China, acting in a variety of capacities 1940 - 1950)
  • The Chicago Calliope - 1.1" AA Gatling Gun (An AH favorite here....)
 
Last edited:

Questerr

I remember someone back in the day did a thread similar to this and one of the entries that stuck with me was USAF B-49 Bombers of the Vietnam War.
 

Sam R.

Here's a timeline for you:

Essential Histories: The Korean War: 1950-1956
Command: Pal Maleter
Campaign: Central European Revolution: 1956-1958
Men At Arms: Internationalist Partisan: 1941-1960
Men At Arms: Formerly Soviet Soldiery: 1956-1960
 
Last edited:

CaptainCalvert

Duel: Alaska class vs Scharnhorst

The first and only member [1] of the Alaska class takes on near peers Scharnhorst and Gniesenau in the wintry North Atlantic.
Includes a what-if section considering what might have been if the Gneisenau hadn't lost turret Anton on the first salvo from Alaska at 23, 750 yards, one of the longest recorded hits ever. There is also a good discussion on what might have been if the 11" hit near the Alaska's bridge hadn't been a dud.
An unlikely but amusing description on why the ship's badge features an angry Californian Bear provides a rare departure from hard fact.

[1] Rushed out by mid 1940 as a counter to the German pocket battleships which threatened US trade routes. The 12" guns were originally heavily criticised as being inadequate against German capital ships, but the choice was vindicated in battle.
 

Some Bloke

Combat Aircraft: The Bristol Booby 1939-1945
The Mark II B "Hamlet" Cruiser Tank, 1941-1945
The Hyde Parabellum SMG, 1937-1973
 
Last edited:

Lawnchair Captain

One favorite of mine that I already used in a similar thread:

Campaign: 1942. The Night of the Albacores. The Kido Butai Defeated. Describing Park's energetic preparations of Ceylon's air defense and the heavy toll the RAF and FAA fighters as well as anti air artillery took on the Japanese air planes followed by the destruction of the Akagi by British bombers. The book provides a very interesting and comprehensive take on the the daring and confusing night attack by the much maligned Albacore torpedo bombers that ended with the sinking of the Soryu and the damaging of Shokaku (that managed to return to Japan just in time to be bombed and further damaged in dry dock during Dolittle's Raid).
 

Himpdahak@aol.com

Lew Wallace:To the Sound of the Guns.Detailing Wallace role in the destruction of the Army of the Mississippi at Shiloh.
A Series of Unfortunate Events. Detailing the French and English diplomatic blunders that triggered war with the US, in the midst of the Crimean War.
A Stab in the Back:The Sino-Viet Border War of 1972.
 
Last edited:

Khan Doomy

Some more concerning the Balkans, - denote different timelines (* denote OTL timelines were certain events went even better for one side than they did historically)

Campaign: Chataltza 1912: Bulgaria Triumphant
-
Campaign: Kumanovo 1912: The Destruction of the Serbian Army
Campaign: Kirkgeherit 1912: Hasan Tahsin Pasha repulses the Greek Army of Thessaly
Command: Hüseyin Nazım Pasha
-
Raid: The Greek light fleet against the Resadiye
Essential Histories: The Third Balkan War 1914-1916
Duel: Greek Dreadnaught vs. Ottoman Dreadnaught
Campaign: Gallipoli 1914: Metaxas against the Straits
-
Men at Arms: The Regular and Volunteer Forces of the United States of the Ionian Islands 1875-1878
Essential Histories: The Great Eastern War 1875-1878
-
Campaign: Thessaly 1916: A Civil War within the Great War
-*
Campaign: Kutahya Eski-Sehir 1921: Destruction of the Turkish Army
-*
Campaign: The Great Offensive 1922: Annihilation of the Army of Asia Minor
-
Campaign: Mudros 1897: The Battle that won Greece the Aegean
-
Campaign: Gallipoli and the Black Sea 1915: The Allied and Russian Navies take the Bosporus
 
Last edited:
Lascaris

Lascaris

And for a couple from The eagle's left head

Warrior: Stradioti 1300-1600
Men-At-Arms: Armies of the Despotate of Sicily
Fortress: The fortifications of Syracuse
Essential Histories: The War of the Vespers 1282-1303
Elite: Morean pikeman
 
Driftless

Driftless

Donor
  • Upper Great Lakes Campaigns -1812-1813 (The British take and hold the forts at Detroit, Mackinac Straits, and Prairie du Chien (on the Mississippi). Had that happened earlier than OTL, those successes would give the British nominal control of the Upper Great Lakes - Huron, Michigan, Superior and most of the lands we now call Michigan, Wisconsin and much of Minnesota)
  • Dewey vs von Diedrichs - Second Battle of Manila Bay 1898 ( The OTL tensions between German and American naval forces erupt into a brief AH exchange of fire between the two forces, following Dewey's victory over the Spanish. Damages and casualties were minor, but the by-product of the scuffle was lasting. Both navies identified weaknesses in ships and trans-oceanic warfare, leading to expanded naval budgets. Also, hard diplomatic feelings lingered)
  • US Cruiser Operations Against Spain - 1898 (AH versions of the OTL USN contingency plans for attacks against Spanish Canary Islands and Spanish shipping around the Iberian Pennisula during the Spanish-American War)
 

Khan Doomy

Some based on @dcharleos "Nothing for Which to Apologize" ATL
Campaign: Kentucky 1863: Jackson's Lighting Strike
Fortifications: USA and CSA riverine fortifications 1865-1914
Men a Arms: The Army of the CSA 1865-1914
Raid: The Devil of Beaufort County: Robert Small's Greatest Raid
Vanguard: The USA Pacific Fleet 1870-1890
Combat: Contraband vs. Remander
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top