“SIEGE OF BUDAPEST 1944-45 –The Brutal Battle for the Pearl of the Danube”, by BalazsMihalyi, Illustrated by Johnny Shumate. OSPREY PUBLISHING-Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; 2022,96 pages with full color battle scenes, Illustrations, 3-dimensional ‘bird’s eye-views’, maps; $24.Visit, www.ospreypublishing.com.“COMBAT SERIES: JAPANESE SOLDIER VERSUS US SOLDIER – New Guines 1942-1944”, by GreggAdams. OSPREY PUBLISHING-Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; 2022, 80 pages, Innovative split-screenartwork, Expert analysis combined with gripping battle accounts, Strategic and tactical maps,Insights into the realities of front-line combat; $22. Visit, www.ospreypublishing.com.“BARENTS SEA 1942 – The Battle for Russia’s Arctic Lifeline”, by Angus Konstam, Illustrated byAdam Tooby. OSPREY PUBLISHING-Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; 2022, 96 pages with full colorbattle scenes, Illustrations, 3-dimensional ‘bird’s-eye-views, maps; $24. Visit,
www.ospreypublishing.com.
The “SIEGE OF BUDAPEST 1944-45 – The Brutal Battle for the Pearl of the Danube” narrates,cogently and expertly, the two-month siege of once beautiful Budapest, one of the mostdestructive urban battles in world warfare history. The city not only led directly to Berlin andthe Fuhrer’s Chancellery bunker, but also guarded access to the Transdanubia region,strategically vital to Nazi Germany for its raw material and the bridgehead it allowed intoAustria. As a result, Der Fuhrer declared Budapest a fortress city in early December of 1944. Thefight that followed pitted almost 100,000 German and Hungarian troops against double thenumber of Soviet and Romanian attackers. This detailed study minutely explores every exactand phase of the operation to take the city, from the initial Soviet approach to Budapest
commencing in late October 1944 through the encirclement of the city first on the Pest side of
the Danube, then on the Buda side. Huge numbers of combatant and civilian casualtiesresulted. The serious WWII buff, of course, knows all about it, but not in this kind of research,solid writing, and illustrative presentation. He or she will cherish “SIEGE” as a wonderful,enjoyable Christmas gift.In the superlative Osprey series simply referred to as “Combat”, we are presented with“JAPANESE SOLDIER VERSUS US SOLDIER – New Guinea 1942-1944”, an absorbing study of therole of the US Army National Guard units and their Japanese opponents in three importantbattles. They are the Buna-Gona (November 1942 -January 1943) ; the Biak Island (May-August1944), and the Driniumor River, (July-August 1944). Author Gregg Adams assesses and comparethe combat effectiveness of both sides, paying particular attention to each side’s tactics,weaponry, logistics, leadership, and communications in the challenging mountain jungle settingof New Guinea.“BARENTS SEA 1942 – The Battle for Russia’s Arctic Lifeline” describes in detail andaccompanying illustrations the Arctic convoys that passed through the cold, dangerous watersof the Barents Sea which served as Russia’s crucial, nay, vital lifeline-strategic link for tanks,supplies, aircraft, even nonperishable foods, and, above all, goodwill between the WesternAllies and the Soviet Union. In December 1942, under Operation Regenbogen (Rainbow), theGermans needed desperately to sever, or at least cripple, this all-important sea route.Renowned naval expert Angus Konstam, the respected first-rate sea-battle historian,documents the fate of the Allied Convoy JW-51B as it came under attack from some of theKriegsmarine’s most powerful surface warships – a pocket battleship, a heavy cruiser and sixdestroyers. This 96 page highly illustrated masterpiece explores the David and Goliath strugglebetween the Allied ships defending the convoy and the powerful German force, until the arrivalof two ship-saving British cruisers arrived to tip the balance of power. Fighting in the darknessand blinding snowstorms will excite the enthusiastic reader beyond any books he or she has
read about that encounter. Even for the purchaser’s library, it is a must-have addition.
