32 War and Militaria


72500 PICCADILLY TUBE: A History of the First 100 Years by Mike Horne


The Piccadilly Line, as it is known today, was opened in 1906 as the somewhat more clumsily named Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, and ran between Hammersmith and Finsbury Park. Today it runs from Cockfosters to Heathrow Terminal 5, but its popularity saw it achieve practically its present-day size before the outbreak of WWII. Today, with its Heathrow terminus, it is a vital commuter link for London’s western and northern suburbs, many of which, such as Southgate, Cockfosters, Arnos Grove Wood Green, Acton, Sudbury Hill and Park Royal, were generated as a direct result of the railway. Its immediately


recognisable Art Deco stations include the highest number of Listed Buildings on the Underground, with many Charles Holden designed classics west of Acton and north of Turnpike Lane. It is the wealth of period photos complementing the well- researched text that absolutely astound. Diagrams, plans, photos of tunnelling in action, posters and other ephemera in b/w and colour. 144pp, 9" × 10".


£19.95 NOW £10


74790 MOTOR CAR MASCOTS AND BADGES by Peter Card


Some motorists of the past enthusiastically decorated their cars with mascots fitted to the radiator cap and as many as 23 car club badges fitted to the front radiator grille. This beautifully illustrated Shire handbook looks in detail at approved mascots, accessory mascots, motor meters which was a decorative engine temperature gauge fitted on the radiator cap. Stunning beautiful glass mascots, badges, these figurines of beach belles, golfers, aircraft, storks and other birds, monkeys and other animals is a visual feast plus gives many ideas for themed collections of varied, good-quality mascots. 56 page paperback, colour.


£5.99 NOW £3


74342 MORGANS TO 1997: A Collector’s Guide


by Roger Bell


First published in 1997, this 2005 reprint makes us marvel at the design and beauty of this now classic


car, from its three-wheeler beginnings onwards. Here are Morgan milestones - who, what, when and where, photographs on the assembly line, stuck in the mud at trials, winning gold medals, and examples of these fine vehicles. Here is the Morgan Plus 8 in a smart metallic grey finish with highly polished alloy wheels, early and later dashboards, beautiful colour photographs of Morgans battling hard during a race at the Bentley Drivers’ Club, Silverstone 1993, a 1966 Plus 4 Plus and the magnificent 2088cc Standard Vanguard engine in a Plus 4 of 1950. Photos, 128pp, large softback. £12.99 NOW £3


WAR AND MILITARIA


A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible.


- Polybius


74906 THEY GAVE ME A SEAFIRE


by Cdr. R. “Mike” Crosley Irreverent of naval tradition, customs and discipline and barely tolerated by the Royal Navy with whom they operated, the men of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve forged themselves into an élite whose prowess and contribution to the war effort has only recently been acknowledged. Often


equipped with inferior or unsuitable aircraft, flying “impossible” missions from unstable and unsuitable carriers with no guarantee of finding them again even if they did survive, they took the battle to their German, Italian and Japanese counterparts with incredible courage and élan. Mike Crosley joined the Metropolitan Police in early 1939, and, following the declaration of war, watched RAF fighters engaging German aircraft over London and decided that that was what he wanted to do instead. The RAF proved tricky to join, but the Fleet Air Arm was much more welcoming, and he was soon in the thick of things, flying a Sea Hurricane on the notorious Malta convoys. He graduated to a Seafire, a beautiful but often troublesome machine and ended the war commanding a squadron on HMS Implacable, part of the “forgotten” British Pacific Fleet, where he devised tactics for attacks on ground and sea targets that were revolutionary and dramatically reduced pilot and aircraft losses. Frank and frequently scathingly critical of the Navy top brass, Mike’s story is side-splittingly funny one moment and desperately tragic the next, a young man thrown into a war that would provide comradeship, exhilaration, terror and tragedy in almost equal amounts. Photos. 271pp, paperback. £8.99 NOW £4.50


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74994 AMERICAN CIVIL WAR: A Military History by John Keegan


For the past 50 years, John Keegan, one of the greatest military historians of our time, has been returning to the scenes of America’s most bloody war, to ponder its lingering conundrums. Out of a succession of mythic yet chaotic engagements he weaves an irresistible narrative, illuminated by telling comparisons to the


Napoleonic Wars, the First World War and other conflicts. Why, he asks, did fighting between such vastly mis- matched sides continue for four years? What prompted the dogged persistence of ill-trained, ill-equipped and often malnourished combatants? Although 200 to 300 battles are known to us by name, why was there such an absence of decisive encounters? Keegan examines these and other puzzles, uncovering dimensions of the conflict that have eluded earlier historians. Not only does he offer original and perceptive insights into psychology, demographics, ideology and economics, but also reveals the Civil War’s hidden shape - a consequence of leadership, the evolution of strategic logic and, above all geography. The American topography, he argues, presented a battle space of complexity and challenges virtually unmatched before or since. A refreshing new slant on an eternally compelling subject. 397 rough cut pages with illustrations in b/w, maps. 24 x 16cm, Knopf.


ONLY £7.50


75020 SS DIRLEWANGER BRIGADE: The History of the Black Hunters by Christian Ingrao


Based on archives from Germany, Poland and Russia, this unsettling book takes an unprecedented look at one of the darkest chapters in the history of World War I. It tells the shocking story of an anti-partisan unit of the Nazi army, which reported direct to Heinrich Himmler


and whose first members were mostly poachers, released from prisons and concentration camps because they were believed to have the ‘skills’ necessary for hunting and capturing partisan fighters in the forests of the Eastern Front. Their numbers were soon increased by others who were eager for a way out of imprisonment, including men who had been convicted of burglary, assault, murder and rape. Under the leadership of Oscar Dirlewanger, a convicted rapist and alcoholic, the men could do as they pleased. This was the group that helped put down the Warsaw Uprising, killing an estimated 35,000 men, women and children in one day. Even by Nazi standards, the brigade was considered unduly violent. After an investigation, many of its members were exiled to Belarus. Not for the fainthearted. 262 paperback pages with endnotes. £8.99 NOW £6


74706 GUERRILLA LEADER: T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt


by James J. Schneider In a bracingly fresh take on one of the great subjects of the modern era, a recognized international expert in military theory provides insights into T. E. Lawrence’s enduring influence on military leadership in the 21st century and his critical role in shaping the modern Middle East.


This exhaustively researched book provides a detailed account of the Arab revolt, from the stunning assault on the port city of Aqaba to the bloody, Pyrrhic victory at Tafileh. Lawrence emerged from the latter experience physically and mentally drained, incapable of continuing as a military commander and in the early stages of the post-traumatic stress disorder that would bedevil him for the rest of his life. The narrative is then carried forward to the final slaughter of the Turks at Tafas and the Arabs’ ultimate victory at Damascus. Just how did this obscure British junior intelligence officer, unschooled in the art of war, become ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and inspire a loosely affiliated cluster of desert tribes to band together in an all-or-nothing insurgency against their Turkish overlords? The answers have profound implications for our time, as a new generation of revolutionaries pulls pages from Lawrence’s playbook of irregular warfare. Weaving quotations from Lawrence’s own writings with the histories of his greatest campaigns, the author shows how this stranger in a strange land evolved over time into the model of the leader who eschews glory for himself but instead seeks to empower his followers. 328 pages with dramatis personae.


$28 NOW £6.50


74674 REVERIES ON THE ART OF WAR


by Maurice de Saxe At the age of 12, Dresden-born Maurice de Saxe (1696-1750) entered the Saxon army, beginning a long and successful military career that culminated in his promotion to Marshal of France where he retained full command of the main army directly under Louis XV in Flanders, becoming one of the greatest military leaders of the 18th


century. Combining his memoirs and general observations with brilliant military thinking, this book was written in a mere 13 days. It introduces revolutionary approaches to battles and campaigning at a time of changing military tactics and leadership styles, and stands as a classic of early modern military theory. His descriptions for establishing field camps was soon standard procedure. His ideas advanced weapon technology including the invention of a gun specially designed for infantrymen and the acceptance of breech- loading muskets and cannons. He introduced a specific attack column that required less training of the men and


rediscovered a military practice lost since the ancient Romans - the art of marching in cadence. He even delved into the minds and emotions of the soldiers on the battlefield. Unabridged facsimile reprint publication, 122pp in softback. £8.99 NOW £4


74993 AGE OF AIRPOWER


by Martin Van Creveld An internationally recognised expert on military history and strategy narrates the story of airpower from the scenes of its greatest exploits to the point where it is on the verge of being eclipsed, a victim of the changing nature of war and the ever more impersonal and computer-controlled weaponry of the future. The way in which war


is waged has changed dramatically since World War II. Then, bombers and fighters, as well as the development of radar and cutting-edge reconnaissance-and-attack strategies helped decide the course of the war. In the Pacific, American and Japanese aircraft carriers fought for supremacy. In the Atlantic, airpower incinerated cities on strategic bombing campaigns, and tracked and destroyed submarines and merchant navies. Late in the war, the shadows of B-17 Flying Fortresses filled the skies, harbingers of ruin that stirred panic amongst civilians. In 1945, airpower made international headlines when B-29 American bombers dropped two atomic bombs and brought the greatest conflict of all time to an abrupt end. However, contrary to the conventional wisdom, modern smart munitions have not made fighter bombers more effective against many kinds of targets than their predecessors in World War II used to be. In fact, US ground troops calling for air support in Iraq in 2003 did not receive it any faster than Allied forces did in France in 1944. As guerilla warfare becomes the norm, and as ballistic missiles, satellites, cruise missiles and drones increasingly take the place of prohibitively expensive manned combat aircraft, airpower triumphs are becoming a thing of the past. 23 x 16cm, first edition, 2011. A sobering 499 pages with b/w archive photos.


£25 NOW £7.50


75004 THE END: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany 1944-1945 by Ian Kershaw


At the end of WWII, millions had died or were dispossessed and the end of European civilizations seemed to have descended. Remarkably little attention has been paid to one of the most puzzling and vital questions of all: how and why did Nazi Germany hold out for as


long as it did, when following the consolidation of the Allied positions after D-Day, there was little doubt which way the war was swinging. The Third Reich did not surrender until Germany was reduced to rubble and almost totally occupied, and even during these final near-apocalyptic months the Nazis refused to sue for peace. The generals obeyed their orders and the regime continued with its ruthless persecution of Jews, prisoners and foreign workers. The unavoidable result of this point-blank refusal to acknowledge defeat was that the regime had to be stamped out with unprecedented brutality, something that is historically very rare. It was Hitler himself, desperate to avoid the “disgraceful” surrender of 1918, who was critical to the Third Reich’s fanatical determination, with those below him either unwilling or unable to challenge his absolute authority - the fate of those behind the failed plot to kill him in July 1944 made sure of that. Another factor was how Hitler used the patriotism of the German people to define its ideological enemies and to engender a siege mentality as the enemies of the Fatherland closed in. It was not until their leader ended his life in the Berlin bunker that the resolve of the remaining leaders and the people was finally broken. Kershaw’s erudite, revelatory and harrowing account of the death throes of the Third Reich from July 1944 to May 1945 is eye-opening and enthralling, drawing upon much new research and original testimony from both ordinary Germans and arch- Nazis from July 1944. Maps and 41 b/w photos, 564pp. $35 NOW £10


74751 SECRET LISTENERS


by Sinclair McKay Sub-titled ‘How the Y Service Intercepted German codes for Bletchley Park’. Behind the celebrated code-breaking that went on at Bletchley Park in


Buckinghamshire during the Second World War lies another secret. Before the messages of the German war machine could be decoded, thousands of young men and women had to locate and monitor


endless streams of radio traffic around the clock, and transcribe its Morse code at a speed few have ever managed since. They were part of the Wireless Listening Service, an organisation still little-known and, hitherto, unrecognised. Now, at last, based on dozens of interviews with surviving veterans, the hidden story of the Y Service and its vital contribution to the war effort can be told. The Y Service went wherever the war went. Its listeners might be posted to bustling Cairo to eavesdrop on Rommel’s Eighth Army, or to Casablanca in Morocco, or to Karachi for the Burma Campaign or, in one case even to the idyllic Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean to monitor Japan. On the other hand, they might find themselves in the more mundane Scarborough or Dorset, listening in to German submarines. To the men and women, many of them hardly out of school, some of these exotic postings were life-changing adventures. Even the journey out could be an epic voyage of troopships, flying boats and Indian railways. On the other hand, often, they had to endure 12-hour night shifts of dizzying concentration so that their messages could be relayed fast enough to affect the course of the war. An absolutely compelling 354 pages with b/w archive photos, map of the Y Service Principal Listening Stations. £20 NOW £7


73268 WINGS: One Hundred Years of British Aerial Warfare


by Patrick Bishop


As a young journalist during the Falklands conflict, the author witnessed the excitement of the RAF’s last real dogfight. Flight Lieutenant David Morgan and a colleague, both piloting Sea- Harriers, were keeping an eye on a friendly troop-carrier, when


suddenly two enemy A-4 Skyhawks dived out of the blue and launched an attack, obliterating the ship’s stern. Several more appeared as Morgan and his fellow-Harrier engaged in traditional aerial combat, bringing three planes down. The book ends with the 21st century conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where aerial combat is remote-controlled and the adrenalin rush of the dogfight is a thing of the past. 412pp, photos. £25 NOW £4


74269 AIR WAR OVER KHALKHIN GOL by Vladimir Kotelnikov


The Nomonhan Incident was another turning point in Second World War engagements. Historically, the boundary between Outer Mongolia and China had never been an easy subject to deal with. In particular, the Japanese stated their ownership of the right bank area at Khalkhin Gol River. After a number of engagements from June to December 1935, the light bombers and the attack aircraft were relocated further southwards and in January 1936, Soviet and Mongolian aircraft began performing regular joint barrage missions along the border. On the 3rd February 1936, about 600 Japanese soldiers crossed the border under the air cover of two reconnaissance aircraft. Starting with analysis of the forces, the first air to air actions, Moscow making arrangements, the second phase with Japanese bomb strikes, transport aviation’s role, Bain Tsagan, TB-3 night raids, and finally counting the cost, here all aircraft types are tabled such as the Kawasaki KI10 and Mitsubishi KI15 and the Russian heavy bomber Tupolev TB3 and Polikarpov R-5. With 24 pages of side on profile colour images of each aircraft plus masses of other images throughout the text, 112pp in huge softback 21 x 29cm, by Sam Publications. £19.99 NOW £6


74008 WORLD WAR II SECRET OPERATIONS HANDBOOK


by Stephen Hart and Chris Mann


Discover how anti-Nazi forces blew up enemy patrol bridges, sank ships in protected harbours, built underground weapons stores, created disguises and false identities, used secret radios,


improvised weapons from everyday objects and practiced unarmed combat in the last global war. It is a guide to clandestine operations and techniques used in Nazi-occupied territory covering the SOE, OSS and Maquis Guide to Sabotaging the Nazi War Machine. Line art, diagrams and maps, 320pp, softback.


$19.95 NOW £5


74425 WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA BATTLESHIPS An Illustrated History of


Battleships and Their Evolution by Peter Hore Here is the story of battleships of the world from 1860 to the present day, featuring informative and expert descriptions of over 150 ships and detailing their construction, function and history. The author examines the evolution of the battleship from the first ironclads and the revolutionary Dreadnoughts to the mighty ships of World War II and their final sorties during the Gulf War. Specification boxes provide at-a-glance info about each ship’s country of origin, launch date, size, weight, armament, power, performance and complement and, as a bonus, the volume includes facts and anecdotes. 256 softback pages, 550 colour and b/w photos.


ONLY £4


74550 CAIRO IN THE WAR 1939-1945


by Artemis Cooper


First published in 1989 and here in welcome 2003 reprint is a sparkling book on a demanding subject. For troops in the desert, Cairo meant fleshpots or brass hats. For well- connected officers, it meant polo at the Gezira Club and drinks at Shepheard’s. For the irregular warriors, Cairo was a city in which to throw countless parties before


the next mission behind enemy lines. For countless refugees, it was a stopping place in the long struggle home. The political scene was dominated by the British Ambassador Sir Miles Lampson. In February 1942 he surrounded the Abdin Palace with tanks and attempted to depose King Farouk. Five months later it looked as if the British would be thrown out of Egypt for good. Rommel’s horses were only 60 miles from Alexandria, but the Germans were pushed back and Cairo life went on. Meanwhile in the Egyptian Army, a handful of young officers were thinking dangerous thoughts. 386pp in paperback with photos. £10.99 NOW £5


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. 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 £3


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