Trip to the book farm this morning. Bacon butty and this... Don't see much about this area, so was a no-brainer. Oh, and these too...
You started it? Hadn't seen it'd come out in English at all. Still think 'What happened next?' is one of the most neglected areas, so definitely interested.
No excuses today. It was £5 on eBay plus a couple more in postage. It's a bit tatty, but I can't get to Kew because the world is in the metaphorical toilet and I wanted the regimental perspective on the Battle of the Imjin River, at which they supported the Glosters (and others). As you know, I've made three trips to the battlefield now.
Just remembered Woodfield publishing out of the blue so have made a couple of purchases. Quite a few of their RAF memoirs are yet to make it onto my bookshelves, so this should keep me busy this year.
Snapped up at local bookfair.... Some nice fold-out diagrams. (On the downside I appear to have lost my wedding ring )
This book arrived today: The history of the Franco/American Campaign (with a slight British contribution) against the soft underbelly of France. Which I will be reading this summer in combination with some titles I bought earlier on: and a good oldy:
Tasked with listing a couple of wardrobes on gumtree I end up finding three wartime publications being offered up for a fiver the lot. As you do.
I've just ordered a copy of "Victory in Italy: 15th Army Group's Final Campaign 1945" by Richard Doherty to try to get the battle straight in my head.
Chris, I found it an excellent read. It did explain things extremely well. Well worth the time and money. Mark
That's great, thanks Mark! I should potentially have asked around here first to see if the book was good. What I am looking at right now is pages from a library copy of The Polish 2nd Corps and the Italian Campaign, 1943-1945 (1984) by W Victor Madej, related to 2 Polish Corps at Bologna for my Archer book, but I am intrigued by it all. Oddly, the Polish book goes into a lot of detail about the army planning for the attack, but I could do with maps which are in English...
Doherty's books aren't very map heavy; Victory in Italy contains one map for the approach to Bologna. You could look at 9-Fifth Army History-Part IX | PDF | Division (Military) | Regiment (scribd.com) and/or Po Valley (army.mil). I haven't read them, but am aware they have some quite detailed maps, which are easily understood.
Hi, Finally got round to reading Angelo Caravaggio's "21 Days in Normandy: Maj. Gen. George Kitching and the 4th Canadian Armoured Division" which I've been meaning to pick up since it was published. As well as detailing the Division's somewhat challenging missions during Totalise and Tractable, it certainly brought out the confusion of the operations to close the Falaise Gap from 16 - 21 August at which point Kitching was relieved by Simonds. Given the constraints imposed on Kitching both in training his division in the UK and then on his operational freedom by Simonds in Normandy, I thought Caravaggio makes a pretty sound case that Kitching was hard done. He certainly highlights the extent to which Simonds overbearing style of command reduced the likelihood of successful exploitation of the opportunities which his innovative phase I assault tactics created. My only gripe is the eternal one of the lack of sufficient detail in the accompanying maps to follow the convoluted progress of operations over the complicated terrain. Nevertheless, I think it is a worthy addition to anyone's library of Normandy books. Regards Tom
In case you don't, I have Kitching's memoirs (Mud & Green Fields) Let me know if you need to check anything. Edit: comical auto-correct corrected!
Well I just got egged on a bit and ordered a copy of the illustrated history of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps. I've read a library copy but... eh, oh well. It was being sold by the Ontario Reg't Museum shop and even with shipping it will probably be worth it. I'll post pictures when I get it because it is well laid out and illustrated.