'There & Back' 1939- 1945. Fred Frost. Self-published nicely-illustrated memoir of a 3.7 AA chap. At a glance: captured at Tobruk and then a journey through the PoW camps of Italy, Germany & Poland. The sentiment in the preface familiar to many who've mooched here over the years. Write it down! - Well, Fred did in 1996, and I'll be reading it. (Noticed a passing reference to firing 3.7s in AT role already.) Almost sad when you come across such personal efforts for a couple of quid in a charity shop.
Too true. I have around a dozen Australian WW2 memoirs I have picked up over the years at Op Shops for small change. Some of them are very good and some providing a lot of detail on obscure units. Many were written by 8th Division men who became POWs. I may start a thread on them when I get through them all. They deserve a wider audience. Scott
I believe you'll find the ones by Doughty, Winton/Mets, Citino, Corum, Bond, and Posen worthwhile. Speaking of book buying problems, my to-read list of physical books currently stands at 64. Edit: Not particularly. I was disappointed with the size of the reprints, but having the letter signed by Fletcher was neat. Old: Versus new, keeping in mind the size difference illustrated above:
Hi, I wondered if you had finished reading these yet and if, by any chance you might have come across a book that described a Japanese tank being blown up on the Causeway? Dad witnessed this, and just once, I read it in a book. I am trying to find out what the book was called to see if I can purchase it for my research. Thanks
Hi, No sorry, I have not come across anything of that nature in the books I've read so far. If I do, I'll get straight back to you.
Are you looking for suggestions on anything specific? My focus is decently narrow: essentially all armored vehicle-related, especially American.
Yes, I was wondering about interwar doctrine. I have been developing a collection of books on Armour, my interest specifically British, as I am researching the Queen’s Bays, mechanisation and activities during the Second World War.
Ahem! (In case you've missed it.) Purple Primer That said, one's already turned up on Ebay so it can't be that good.
For British interwar doctrine, you can't go wrong with the actual purple primer. Other titles that may be helpful include Men, ideas and tanks by J.P. Harris; The British Army and the Theory of Armoured Warfare, 1918-1940 by Robert H. Larson; To Change an Army by Harold R. Winton; Mechanised Force by David Fletcher; and "Everything Worked like Clockwork..." by Roger Salmon. And an update to the to-read pile: thanks to this arrival it's now up to 65. :\
Although it's probably nearly all there in most subsequent works, Liddell-Hart's The Tanks is perhaps the centre of the web. The old Profile books are always worth looking up, too.
The book is a history of the 1st Bn The Royal Irish Fusiliers in France May 1940. Gough was their CO at this time and was awarded the DSC for his actions.
Thanks! It is frustrating that my computer crashed and lost the information way back in the late 1980s. It only means I need to search for books printed before that date.