Bizarrely fluctuating price on Abe. I got it (softback) for about £4, then it went to £20, then loads for £3, and last week some lunatic was asking sixty quid. If it had been the original document it's based on, yeah, maybe, but it wasn't. Surprisingly handy though, isn't it. Right down to trailers.
I really enjoyed that--and Immediate Action, the next book he wrote, but I must add the caveats that a) I was a lot younger and less discerning, and b) there have been a few attempts at debunking aspects of McNab's account.
Mine is also softback, paid £1-95 for it. (St Richards Hospice Charity Shop) a very informative book and a steal I thought. Graham.
One thing that sticks in my mind was the impression that the elite SAS were still doing everything on the cheap, patching up old kit that would be better replaced, talking about what they'd ideally have but didn't, making their own anti-personnel mines and scrounging off the Yanks and other units. You do get the impression that it was only the training and sheer bloody-mindedness that got them through and out of some scrapes.
Heading off home for Christmas and I have brought two books with me which hopefully I will be able to finish. For now (though not my photo) --
Have you seen Anthony King's article: Why did 51st Highland Division Fail? A case-study in command and combat effectiveness. The Abstract: Published in 2017 via: Why did 51st Highland Division Fail? A case-study in command and combat effectiveness | British Journal for Military History
No. 38 Squadron 1916-1963 I managed to find a copy of this rare and brief history of 38 Squadron RAF which I'm enjoying very much. It's interesting because they operated out of Malta and pioneered the use of the Vickers Wellington as a torpedo bomber.
Title: PzKw Tiger Tank: The Official British Reports. ISBN: 978-1951171049 A new, fully restored edition of all 12 official British reports on Tiger 131, together for 1st time in fully restored condition, with higher-resolution images than were available for first printing, with new introduction and commentary, in full color: PzKw Tiger Tank: The Official Wartime Reports:
Well I finished Warriors for the Working Day and I liked it a lot except for a couple of parts I hated. Anyway now on to Salerno by Hugh Pond (1961?) which is interesting in that it seems it was mostly written based on interviews with veterans. It may be lacking a little in overall perspective and maybe in accuracy but on the plus side it's full of personal anecdotes. Curiously there are few quotes; I think much of it is what would be called "creative non-fiction", relating what happened in the same 3rd person voice as a novel.
It is indeed Rich, yes. My brother told me he’d gone for one of the better condition editions. I am very much looking forward to tucking into this one.
Just finished reading these two books. An excellent series and we're at the half way point in it now.
I'm coming to the end of a massive Evelyn Waugh binge at the moment, and have just finished the 'Sword of Honour' trilogy which is very loosely based on his WW2 experiences. Absurdist humour right from the start but takes on a far more serious edge as it concludes.
I remember watching this on Channel 4 years ago, think it was a two or three parter. I’ve never read the books though, which I imagine to be vastly superior to a TV movie (so often the case, of course).
Picked this up on the cheap. It's by Andy Saunders who knows his stuff and is well iluustrated with pictures, maps and diagrams. Good reference for the behind the scenes BoB details that can get overlooked in the air combat histories.
Peter Elstob was my late father's Tank Commander in 3RTR. The book is actually semiautobiographical and includes a number of incidents very closely based on what they actually went through. Although the characters in the book are conflations, I can see several characteristics of my father in the character 'Taffy' (Driver of the tank...). Dad was, needless to say, Elstob's Driver in real life.