What's your 'Bible'?

The information gathered throughout the years about Arnhem, and recently the RA bible The 1939-1945 Commemoration book

 

Being relatively knew to all this I must say that I find the ATB's books absolutely brilliant. I've nearly finished both volumes of D-Day (150ish pages to go) and have found the reading absolutely fascinating. Panzers in Normandy next followed by Ruckmarsch

Thanks for recommending them to me

Edit - Copied this post and moved further eulogising of ATB to the primary thread on them, here: Those_Nice_Folk_at_After_the_Battle.

 

I've finally managed to get hold of my own copy of part two of my own 'bible'. Clay Blair's 'Hitler's U-Boat War: Part 2 - The Hunted. Even more pleasingly its cost less than a tenner.

 

I've seen some old favorites here, like the Munson books. I have a paperback edition of Bill Gunston's Fighting Aircraft of World War II, and often look at it together with a more recent Jane's illustrated guide to WWII aircraft. Both are in color, with many excellent illustrations. The Chamberlain and Ellis book on Allied tanks is a wonderful old standby. I also have a sadly battered 1970's edition of Smith's Small Arms of the World, which has excellent coverage of WWII era weapons. John Weeks' Infantry Weapons and Hogg's The Guns 1939-1945 are much-thumbed. I also rely on B.T. White's book on WWII combat vehicles.

 

I'm traveling this week so am away from my library. All I have with me is The Illustrated History of Fighters by Mike Spick to give me a quick printed 'fix' when I begin to suffer withdrawl.

 

Rather than a book I find that when I am researching places I will be sitting in front of the computer with the following pages open:-

Google Maps, particularly useful when going into Streetview

Northern Ireland Environmental Agency map viewer on “Defence Heritage”

I could not progress my research without them.

 

After the Battle for me Then and Now Blitz 1,2 and 3.
plus the other AtBs
so not one

then you see a snippit in one of the tomes and it drives you via Google to search more

 

I've just converted and ordered a copy of the Historic Military Vehicles Directory. God knows where it's going to go, but I don't suppose he will tell me anyway now I'm an apostle of Prophet Poop.

Before I saw the [head]light, two that seemed to come off the shelf more than most were Joslen's Orders of Battle and Bouchery's British Soldier Vol 2 as it's a handy quick reference.

 

this helps as well

 

Adam,

I am not competitive of course but my copy is tattier than yours. As for Bart's Fighting Vehicles Directory of WWII which I bought in 1969! It is now a pile of loose leaves.

But I don't like change and I will not be replacing them.

Mike

 

As my research is directed toward the Canadian Army, my current bibles are:

Falconer, D.W. Battery Flashes of W.W. II: Thumbnail Sketches of Canadian Artillery Batteries 1939-45. Privately Published, 1985.

Nicholson, Colonel G.W.L. The Gunners of Canada: The History of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery: Volume II: 1919-1967. Toronto: McCelland and Stewart Ltd., 1972.

Kerry, Colonel A. J. and McDill, Major W.A. The History of the Royal Canadian Engineers Volume II- 1936-46 Ottawa: Military Engineers Association of Canada, 1966.

But in general, I have also relied on the following for guidance:

Frederick, J.B.M. Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660-1978. Volumes 1 & 2. East Ardsley, Wakefield, Yorkshire: Microform Academic Publishers, 1984.

Joslen, H.F. Orders of Battle. London: HMSO, 1960.

My Joslen is from the 2nd Impression printed in 1968 and purchased when I was 18.

 

Not WW2 but WW1 and it is the Border Regiment in the Great War by Col. H. C. Wylly for me.

Mike.

 

Gordon's " British Battles and Medals ".


PUT

 

The History of the Corps of the Royal Canadian Engineers Volume II. It is always the first place I look for anything RCE.

 

A new contender:

Regiments: Regiments and Corps of the British Empire and Commonwealth 1758-1993: A Critical Bibliography of their Published Histories by Roger Perkins.

This is the 1994 update of his similarly titled 1989 book. The later version is in red leather - not bad for a tenner for a very decent ex-lib copy!

 

In line with a New Year resolution made many years ago I continue NOT to buy any new books.

I am,however, quite happy with buying books on Kindle and with that in mind have finally bought Carlo D'Este's "Bitter Victory".

Having survived a whole month of action in Sicily I am looking forward with much pleasure to see if the book is as good as they say it is !

Ron

 

Ron, I know what you mean - when one's shelves are already full of books, buying more starts to become awkward!

I recently purchased and reread "The Crucible of Battle" by Barry Pitt (two volumes). That's long enough to be a bible...