War and Militaria 31


72567 DOCTOR SEUSS & CO. GO TO WAR


by André Schiffrin Even hardcore fans may be unaware of Theodor Seuss’ previous career as the political cartoonist for PM, the wartime New York daily newspaper and one of a group of distinguished cartoonists which


also included Al Hirschfield, Saul Steinberg and Arthur Szyk. This book is an astonishing treasure trove of over 300 incisive political cartoons by Dr. Seuss and 12 others, published between April 1941 and August 1945, which offers, particularly to British readers, a totally different set of perspectives of WWII. Scathing, vigorous and provocative, the cartoons come from a time when US involvement in the war was by no means a foregone conclusion, and later, when victory was by no means guaranteed.


Appeasers such as Lindbergh are lampooned


mercilessly, and we particularly liked the Uncle Sam bird, which bears a


striking resemblance to a Star Belly Sneech, sitting contentedly on his “star-spangled


fanny” as the bombs and bullets fly all around him! 280pp softback, 8¾” square format. £15.99 NOW £7


70810 LANCASTER: The Biography


by Tony Iveson and Brian Milton Squadron Leader Tony Iveson DFC joined 617 Squadron The Dambusters in 1944 and flew three sorties against the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway. Lancasters dropped Barnes Wallis’s ‘Bouncing Bombs’ on Germany’s Ruhr Valley Dam to earn the Dambusters’ name. This is a proud story of the finest heavy bomber of any nation and a man who went on to complete over 2,000 hours on them. 256pp in paperback. 16 pages of colour and b/w photos. £7.99 NOW £3


73076 THE GUN by C. J. Chivers


In August 1949, just as the diplomatic cables were crackling with the news of the first atomic bomb test, the factories that built it were despatching the first deliveries to the Soviet Army. It was the Avtomat Kalashnikova - the automatic designed by Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov - in 1947, famously given the acronym AK-47. It is the


AK-47’s spread across the face of the globe and the impact it has had in those 60 years which is the subject of Christopher Chiver’s exhaustive study. A searing examination of modern conflict and official folly, he mixes battlefield reportage and painstaking combing of declassified military documents. He puts the AK-47 and its derivatives, knock-offs and companion weapons in their social, historical and technological context. 481pp paperback.


$16 NOW £5


72800 BRITAIN AT WAR 1939-1945 by Richard Overy


A very expensively produced outsize hardback which contains rare removable documents, maps and memorabilia in facsimile and has been published in association with The Imperial War Museum. This package transports the reader right back into the heart of the action - Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, ‘Sea Lion’, the Blitz, St Nazaire, Singapore, the Dams Raid, Alamein, Anzio, D-Day, Arnhem and many more engagements are all presented concisely with maps, photographs and documents. The documents include the Munich Agreement, Hitler’s Directive No. 1 which ordered the invasion of Poland, a calculation about the interception of the Graf Spee, French Intelligence maps, a Flying Log Book, notes from Churchill’s famous ‘The Few’ speech, Montgomery’s orders for the Battle of El Alamein, the front page of the Eight Army News announcing the invasion of mainland Italy, a message from double-agent ‘Garbo’ and even Field Marshal Montgomery’s handwritten notes for D-day among them. Colour maps. £30 NOW £10


72466 PLAYING THE GAME: The British Junior Infantry Officer on the Western Front 1914-18


72801 BRITAIN’S SECRET WAR 1939-1945: How Espionage, Codebreaking and Covert Operations Helped Win the War by Michael Smith


Here are removable - facsimile - documents from the archives of MI5, MI6 and SOE, bringing to life as never before the era, personalities and events of World War II. They include intelligence reports, annotated by Churchill, revealing Nazi atrocities in Eastern Europe and Russia, a diagram of the ‘Garbo’ network of invented contacts which was used by double agent Jean Pujol when convincing the Nazis he had a whole spy ring operating in Britain, the order for Operation Gunnerside, including maps and diagrams laying out the attack, and many more. Even astrologers and a stage magician were brought in to help extract allied aircrew from Nazi- occupied Europe. 63 pages 29cm x 25cm in very tough slipcase. Photos. £30 NOW £10


72818 1944-1945 THE VICTORY IN EUROPE EXPERIENCE: From D-Day to the Destruction


of the Third Reich by Julian Thompson The 11 months from June 1944 to May 1945 remain the most momentous in modern human history. The Allied invasion and recapture of mainland Europe began with the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 and went on to include many of the most famous battles of WWII and events such as the taking of Hitler’s HQ, the discovery of the horrors of the concentration camps, the suicide of Hitler on 29 April 1945 and the subsequent unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, and VE Day, Tuesday 8 May 1945. Published in association with the Imperial War Museum, as well as a quite magnificent retelling of events from D-Day, lavishly illustrated with over 200 colour and b/w photos and 20 full-colour battle maps, there are over 30 facsimile items of rare memorabilia integrated into the book’s pages. These include maps, diaries, letters, declassified top secret documents, booklets, propaganda leaflets and posters, which are either newly researched and previously unpublished, held in MoD files or exhibited at the IWM or in other collections around the world. Some leave you speechless, such as Major Hugh Stewart’s account of what he saw as he walked into Belsen, one of Hitler’s last telegrams and his “Political Testament”, both written in his final days in the Reich Chancellery bunker and Eisenhower’s handwritten note. Plus a 72 minute audio CD, “We Fought in Europe”, a collection of first-hand accounts from veterans of the northwest Europe campaign. 64pp, 12¼”×10½”. £30 NOW £12


71879 THE FIFTH PILLAR by Michael Tillotson


Subtitled ‘The Life and Philosophy of the Lord Bramall KG’, the book has a foreword by Sir Alistair Horne. Lord Bramall spoke out vigorously against the war in Iraq. Lord Bramall first put forward his concept of ‘Fifth Pillar’ in the 1980s when the Soviet Union was perceived to present the paramount threat to peace. British defence policy then


rested on four pillars: maintenance of the nuclear deterrent, defence of the UK, ground and air contributions to the defence of NATO’s European Central Region and naval and air contributions to the defence of the eastern Atlantic. 40 plates and six maps. 338pp.


£8.99 NOW £1.50 73138 OPERATION SUICIDE: The


Remarkable Story of the Cockleshell Raid by Robert Lyman


This enthralling account of one of the Second World War’s most iconic missions features a cast of characters ranging from Blondie Hasler, the ingenious and courageous leader of the raid, to the Comtesse de Milleville, who risked outrageous danger during the time that she ran a secret French Resistance network. At nightfall on December 7th 1942, twelve British canoeists arrived by submarine off the coast of France. They had been entrusted with the formidable task of infiltrating the dockyards of Bordeaux and wreaking havoc on the German shipping they found there. Manning their fragile ‘cockles’ through the turbulent waters of the Bay of Biscay, and making an assault on a port bristling with German soldiers, who had been ordered to execute any Allied Commando they captured, their prospects looked bleak. It was fully expected that all would die in the attempt. 346 paperback pages with b/w archive photos. Maps and Illus.


£8.99 NOW £4.50 71257 DIRECTORY OF BRITISH MILITARY


by Christopher Moore-Bick The Edwardian ideal of war as a gentlemanly game was shattered in 1914. Poets such as Sassoon and Owen recorded unspeakable brutality and suffering among the rank and file, while historians have pointed to a tragic level of


incompetence at strategic level. This fascinating study breaks new ground by looking in detail at the letters and diaries of a group in between these extremes, the junior infantry officers. Mail and parcels were treasured luxuries, not only for their contents but because their speedy arrival reassured men in the trenches that the war machine was working. Leadership qualities were still regarded as a public school preserve, and the author examines the effects of their education on the way young men coped with the situation at the front. He also looks at the problems of inexperienced young men who might find themselves commanding older conscripts, some with distinguished careers in civilian life. 327pp. £25 NOW £7.50


AIRCRAFT: Volume Two by Terry Hancock Hancock provides a wealth of indispensable facts and figures for the aircraft types of bombers, over-sea reconnaissance, transports, tankers and long-range surveillance. Covering over 650 aircraft from 1907 to 2010, here is the full service record of, and which squadrons flew, each variant of the Lancaster, when the Martin-Baker ejector seat was fitted to the Vulcan (1960), exactly how much a Hercules can carry (almost 30 tons) and how long it has been doing it (45 years), everything about the mighty Wellington or the payload (28 tons) and nickname (wokka-wokka) of the Chinook helicopter. Very well illustrated, appendices for crew, engine manufacturers, weaponry, abbreviations and in particular the roles/types, as there are many dual purpose types here, or those which were modified for different roles. Also includes a list of errata for volume one code 71256 and apologies for errors in indexing and page numbering. 320pp. £25 NOW £9


70811 HURRICANE: The Last Witness by Brian Milton


Eighteen of the surviving pilots who flew the Hurricane during World War Two tell what it was like to fly and fight in this iconic aircraft, not only over the White Cliffs of Dover, but also during the Battle of France, the defence of Malta, the intense heat of the North African desert, in the freezing temperatures of the Arctic wastes and in the suffocating humidity of the Far East. Bob


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Stanford Tuck, a celebrated ace who flew Spitfires, was not at first impressed by the Hurricane. Around 60% of claimed ‘kills’ fell to the guns of Hurricane pilots and the only Victoria Cross awarded to a member of Fighter Command during the war went to Flight Lieutenant Eric Nicolson of 249 Squadron. 256 pages, 32 photos. £18.99 NOW £6


71975 BOMBERS: From the


First World War to Kosovo by David Wragg


Begins with a brief overview of the origins of aerial bombardment which, astonishingly, go back several thousand years. Then come the early raids of the First World War - including Zeppelin airship and bomber operations over Britain, and Royal Flying Corps


attacks on German targets, as well as the use of the bomber between the wars by the Germans in the Spanish Civil War, by the Italians in Abyssinia and by the Japanese in China. Here, vividly brought to life, are Germany’s use of the Blitzkrieg in the opening years, the RAF/USAAF combined bomber offensives, the use of dive- and torpedo-bombers in the Pacific by the US and Japan, the USAAF’s fire raids on Tokyo, and the dropping of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He also discusses how, during the Gulf War in 1991, credit went to the cruise missiles, despite the deployment of bombers. 280 paperback pages 19.5cm x 26cm, colour and b/w. £20 NOW £5


72271 TARGET LONDON: Under Attack from


the V-Weapons During WWII by Christy Campbell


At Bletchley Park, a most unusual partnership, a professor of German linguistics and a London-born physicist with a love of practical jokes, was interpreting hundreds of decrypted signals. Their work allowed them to make sense of the scrambled stream of messages from French, Danish and Polish patriots who risked their lives to deliver news about the German ‘revenge’ weapons. Then a key message was interpreted from the underground factory called Mittelwerk. Here is the shadowy world of secret intelligence, fighter pilots, the citizens of the Hague, the deceivers of the Double Cross Committee, and the German engineers, soldiers and airmen. 516 pages, photos and maps. £20 NOW £6.50


71310 THE THIRD REICH: A Chronicle by Richard Overy


At once authoritative and informative, this chronicle is enhanced by extensive quotations from documents, letters, diaries and oral testimony, and accompanied by dozens of original and striking images of the era. There are also ‘fact boxes’ which explore many of the important aspects of the Third Reich in greater detail. Here, in a no-holds-barred account are all the details of the rise and fall of Nazi power, the concentration camps, the roles played by its protagonists, such as Martin Bormann, Rudolph Hess, Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering, the deterioration of its leader into madness, the futile attempts of horrified dissidents to kill Hitler and put the brakes on the reign of terror and the final showdown with the forces of the Allies. 408 pages packed with photos in colour and b/w, many never before seen, and maps. £25 NOW £9.50


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72668 TWILIGHT YEARS: The Paradox of Britain


Between the Wars by Richard Overy


By the end of World War I, Britain had become a laboratory for modern thought and experimentation. Intellectuals, politicians, scientists and artists, among them Arnold Toynbee, Aldous Huxley and H. G. Wells, sought a vision for a rapidly


changing world. Colouring their innovative ideas and concepts, from eugenics to Freud’s concept of the unconscious, was a creeping fear that the West was staring at the end of civilisation. Britain had not suffered from economic collapse, occupation, civil war or any of the ideological conflicts of inter-war Europe. The author postulates that the coming of the second war was almost welcomed by Britain’s leading thinkers. 522 pages with b/w illus.


$35 NOW £8


71452 EASTERN FRONT: Day By Day by Steve Crawford


Allows the reader to see at a glance the key battles, such as the great encirclement engagements of 1941 - Minsk, Smolensk and Kiev, the sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, and Operation Bagration, sidebars on all the main commanders who led the German and Soviet armies, such as Guderian, Zhukov, Manstein, Vatutin, Rokossovsky, Model and Konev. Also detailed, in parallel to the military manoeuvres, are the political events, such as the activities of the SS and Einsatzgruppen murder squads, that influenced the outcome. Here too is the technology such as the Ju-87 Stuka dive-bomber, the T-34 Tiger and Panther tanks. 192 pages 22.5cm by 29cm. Illus plus dozens of maps in colour.


£18.99 NOW £6


71470 1938: Hitler’s Gamble by Giles MacDonogh


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The year 1938 was one of cataclysmic change for Germany. Peace was hanging by a thread and Nazi anti-Semitism took a new turn. The Blomberg-Fritsch Crisis in January, the Anschluss in March that melded Austria to the Reich, Hitler’s alliance with Mussolini in May, the Kendrick Crisis in August which destroyed the British Intelligence Network in Germany and the expulsion of the Polish Jews in October, November’s Reichskristallnacht and the Kindertransporte beginning ferrying children to safety in December. Following the pogrom to the 10th November, as many as 30,000 Jews were shoved into concentration camps. 407pp in paperback, photos. £9.99 NOW £4.50


71447 BRITISH SOLDIER IN EUROPE 1939-1945 by Peter Doyle and Paul Evans


From his first arrival in France in 1939 through to the victory over the Nazis in 1945, and even to the Victory in Japan in 1946, this splendid info-packed volume examines the everyday objects associated with the British soldier


in wartime. From uniforms to weapons, boots to blanco - a whitener for the soldiers’ puttees - from postcards to


phrasebooks, and insignia to ephemera, it provides a visual encyclopedia of the everyday life of the combatant. In many cases, these items have become highly collectable and the book contains extensive info for collectors. 208 pages 22cm x 30.5cm jammed with photos of contemporary documents and equipment in colour and b/w.


£25 NOW £8


71945 AN END OF WAR: Fatal Final Days to VE Day, 1945 by Ken Tout


As conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan remind us today, war does not necessarily end when a ceasefire is declared. Using his own experiences on the front line as well as interviews with many veterans, the author recounts how the last gasps of the German Army in 1944-1945 saw some of the fiercest and most fanatical fighting of the whole war. Major offensives included Hitler’s last desperate attempt to reverse the tide in the Battle of the Bulge, and the Western Allies’ epic struggle to cross the Rhine. Also explored are battles for the Hochwald and the Reichwald. 249 moving pages, archive photos, maps. £18.99 NOW £4


71272 OVER FIELDS OF FIRE: Flying the Sturmovik on the Eastern Front 1942-45 by Anna Timofeeva-Egorova


Born in 1916, Anna Egorova worked as a rock-breaker on the Moscow Metro before serving as a front line pilot in World War II. Flying a U-2, Egorova swooped and dived to avoid Messerschmitts and eventually had to land, holed in 87 places with a cylinder gone and the petrol tank breached. Hearing the Division Colonel Toupanov was selecting pilots for combat regiments Egorova blagged her way into piloting the state of the art ground-attack Sturmoviks. In 1944 she was shot down, taken to a German camp with horrific burns and left to die. But Russian camp surgeon Sinyakov, noted for his miraculous operations, insisted on treating her. Interrogated as a collaborator by SMERSh as the war came to an end, she was eventually freed. 206pp, photos.


£25 NOW £5


72803 COMMANDO 50TH ANNIVERSARY: Commando for Action and Adventure by George Low


The official history of Commando comic books, published to celebrate their 50th anniversary. This blockbuster volume features: Six of the best Commando comic books ever, with commentaries, The 50 best iconic full- colour cover artworks, Profiles of the best Commando comic-strip and cover artists, Profiles of the best Commando story writers. Complete Commando comic- book title listing and the inside story of the Commando comic-book bunker and HQ at DC Thomson in Dundee. Here are tales of adventure, daring, honesty, dependability and the triumph of decency, packed with speech and thought bubbles and perfectly rendered Spitfires and Hurricanes. 176 pages 29cm x 36cm. £19.99 NOW £6.50


72483 TRENCH WARFARE 1850-1950 by Anthony Saunders


Usually considered to have started in the siege of Sebastopol in the Crimean War, trench warfare is defined as occurring when there is stalemate, with both attackers and defenders unable to make any headway but with the resources to dig themselves in. Pioneered in the American Civil War, trench warfare was developed fully in the war between the Russians and Japanese in the early 20th century. In World War I it led to a new strategic development known as “deep battle” where an army would operate not just at the front but aim to penetrate and disable the support troops. It was used extensively in the


European theatre of World War II, by the Americans in the Pacific, and again in the Korean and the two Gulf Wars. This book examines the relation between mobility and firepower over a fascinating 100-year period, describing in detail developments in artillery, explosives and strategy. 231pp, bibliography, photos.


£19.99 NOW £7


Gift Pull Out Guide pages 17-20


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