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ww2

  1. rebbonk

    The Soviet Infantryman on the Eastern Front - Simon Forty

    This book is part of the Casemate Illustrated series which currently runs to over 34 books. This is a slim volume of 128 pages, but don’t let that put you off, it’s packed with text, photographs, maps and other relevant illustrations and diagrams.For a paperback book, it has a real quality...
  2. rebbonk

    Sea Wolves: Savage Submarine Commanders of WW2 - Tony Matthews

    This has been a very difficult review to write because the book often reads more like a novel than historic fiction. I don’t wish to denigrate the author or publisher, but for a book of this sort surely we ought to have references backing up the stories? The brief list of acknowledgements just...
  3. rebbonk

    Forgotten Heroes of the Battle of Britain - Dilip Sarkar

    I thought it very apt that I was reading this book during Armistice week, leading up to Remembrance Sunday. It was a big reminder of just what we owe our forefathers, and had me wondering just how they’d think of what they had fought for, and had so often given their lives for, had turned out...
  4. rebbonk

    Spitfire Down: Fighter Boys Who Failed to Return - Dilip S Sarkar

    As I realised the book was published by Air World, an imprint of Pen & Sword, my heart sank. I am not normally a big fan of Pen & Sword, but my fears were unfounded in this case. This book is not typical of my experience with Pen & Sword books and gives me no reason to air my usual grievances...
  5. rebbonk

    The Allied Air Campaign Against Hitler's U-boats: Victory in the Battle of the Atlantic

    I was looking forward to this book but was left rather disappointed. I really don’t like denigrating authors’ work as I know just how much effort goes into creating a book and how little the return so often is. Publishers, on the other hand, I feel are fair game, and I feel that the publisher...
  6. rebbonk

    Rearming the RAF for the Second World War: Poor Strategy and Miscalculation - Adrian Phillips

    Firstly, my most sincere apologies for this review taking so long. I have been unwell and have had a treasured cousin pass away. I hope the delay hasn’t caused any problems.What was delivered was a physically large and heavy book, but it was the strap line ‘Poor Strategy & Miscalculation’ that...
  7. rebbonk

    More Lives Than a Ship’s Cat: The Most Highly Decorated Midshipman in the Second World War -J Stoke

    I really can’t believe that this book has come from the same publisher as my last review. This book is more than acceptable and a damned good read.I want to thank the writer for making this book available to us, because the book is about his father, Mick, and it really is a story worth...
  8. BratMedic

    Brighton at War 1939-45

    A chronological study of Brighton from early preparations for war in 1938 through to 1945 and the end of the war.The author covers every aspect from ARP readiness to aliens, the treatment of Jews, first aid, firefighting, shelters and the blackout during 1938, showing that Brighton was well...
  9. rebbonk

    Atlantic Linchpin by Guy Warner

    A relatively slim (160 pages) volume that appears to be incredibly well researched and populated generously with some very good pictures, adequate notes, bibliography and references.My knowledge of both World Wars is limited to the JMB ‘O’ level syllabus of the early 70s, which loosely...
  10. BratMedic

    Death and Deprivation on the forgotten Sumatra Railway

    An autobiography of the experiences of Jim Banton, who joined the RAF on the outbreak of WW2 He was posted to the far East and managed to escape from the Japanese as he was defending Kalijati airfield but he was later captured on the island of Java and put to work as slave labour on the Sumatran...
  11. BratMedic

    The Nazi's Winter Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941-1945

    An Images of War publication that describes the war on the Ostfront.The photographs are the main backbone of the book although the text is very informative especially the excerpts from the "Taschenbuch für den Winterkrieg" (Paperback for the Winter War}.The photographs show the extremely...
  12. BratMedic

    Fallschirmjäger!

    This book features the memoirs of seventeen volunteers and one conscript who fought from Poland in 1939, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands during 1940/41 including the airborne and glider assault on the Belgian redoubt of Eben Emael.Operation Mercury, the airborne invasion of the...
  13. BratMedic

    The SAS in Occupied France by Gavin Mortimer

    If you are the type of person who likes battlefield tours then this book is a real goldmine of specific information, in fact, its format should be used more in my opinion. It uses Google maps to give you exact locations by typing in decimal degrees..There are six operations in the book and...
  14. BratMedic

    British Naval Intelligence through the Twentieth Century by Andrew Boyd

    An extremely well researched and comprehensive read, but, it is a weighty tome indeed. This account covers just about everything to do with Naval intelligence you could think of, personnel, incidents, codes, ciphers and general intelligence gathering.There is a brief account of the early...
  15. Ageing_Gracefully

    Wren Jane Beacon Goes to War by D J Lindsay

    Review by GrownupRAFBrat and copied from Arrse. https://www.arrse.co.uk/community/reviews/wren-jane-beacon-goes-to-war.1563/This book is an Adventure Story set in the Second World War. It’s a novel, written as though it were a biography. In researching the lives of Wrens at that time, the...
  16. rebbonk

    Airmen's Incredible Escapes: Accounts of Survival in the Second World War - Bryn Evans

    Before I got the chance to read this book, the cat took a serious interest in it. There must be something in the manufacturing process that attracted her as she wouldn’t leave it alone.On first skim through this reminded me of Paul Brickhill’s ‘Escape or Die’ which I read over 50 years ago at...
  17. Ageing_Gracefully

    Rome: City in Terror by Victor Failmezger

    A very detailed look at the goings on in the City of Rome from just before the Italians changed sides and the Germans occupied the majority of Italy. The Germans were not best pleased about the Italians ‘treachery’ as they saw it so life was not easy for Italians, both military and civilian...
  18. rebbonk

    Code Name Arc Angel: The Demise of the Devil - Bruce Jarvis

    On opening the package, I was faced with spellings that just didn’t feel right. Arc Angel should surely be Archangel and Adolph, Adolf? I couldn’t help wondering if this was a portent of things to come?By the end of chapter two, I was beginning to wear of the author’s writing style. I found it...
  19. O

    Advice needed on order of medals earned by my Granddad in WW2

    Hi everyone,My Grandad Fred Farrant passed away last year at 97. Despite my fascination with WW2 he never spoke about it having swapped shifts with his friend when the top deck of his boat was destroyed.My Grandma also still alive last year wrote to the MoD to get a service record and...
  20. Seaweed

    Indianapolis Lynn Vincent & Sara Vladic

    In July 1945 the cruiser USS Indianapolis, rapidly repaired after a Kamikaze attack, was tasked with delivering the essential parts of the atomic bomb to Tinian in the Marianas. She was then routed to Leyte for a delayed workup. She never arrived.At midnight on the night of 29/30 July she had...
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