Relatively little coverage has been made of Russian campaigns and battles during the Great Patriotic War in English language publications and books. What has been published in the Russian language has contained many distortions to fit the accounts into the ‘official’ Soviet view. When a book, such as this new title from Pen & Sword, appears in both Russian and English, based on extensive research and showing the Russian and German views, it is a rare and valuable historic account.
This book provides a very graphic presentation of an elite force from its participation in the Blitz on the Low Countries and France, to the battles in Normandy after the D-Day Landings and the fighting retreat into Germany. Text and extended captions ably support a fine photo selection.
As with other titles in this series, this is essentially a photo essay that contains many rare photographs from military archives. There are some familiar images that are used in most books covering WWII in Europe, but most images are published for the first time in a book available to the general public. The text is concise and adds to the images. Production quality is high.
Improbable though the workshop manual treatment of soldiers may seem, this book works very well and will allow a large readership to understand how the British Tommy became such and effective combatant in a new and terrible form of warfare. In an age of fully automatic rifles, carbines and pistols, it can be difficult to understand how effective a bolt action rifle can be in the hands of a well trained user. When the Germans first came under fire from Enfield rifle-armed Tommies, they though they were under machine gun fire
Traditionally, naval historians have concentrated on covering one relatively narrow area of naval activity, or attempted to cover the Second World War globally in every aspect of war on land, sea and in the air. This new book takes a refreshing new approach and collects a series of stories from around the world’s oceans, dividing the stories into periods of the war.
Once more we are at the point where Winter and Religious Celebrations take place
The FIRE Project Team wishes all of our readers a happy and fullfilling celebration and offer our Best Wishes to you for 2014, may it be a year of joy and advantage for you
