BUCCANEER BOYS – Review by Mark Barnes
If things seem bad today, then a look at the 1960s shows a time when the fortunes of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces were really beginning…
ARMOURED HUSSARS – Images of the Polish 1st Armoured Division 1939-47 – Review by Mark Barnes
Here we have an eagerly awaited book that does not take much reviewing. The author’s father Alexsander was a warrant officer who gave a life…
WHIRLWIND – Westland’s Enigmatic Fighter – Review by Mark Barnes
The Westland Whirlwind was designed in the late 1930s when the Air Ministry were looking for a cannon armed fighter to supplement the specification for…
CARIBBEAN VOLUNTEERS AT WAR – Review by Mark Barnes
It was the Friday of another Longest Week and I was ploughing through the mud at the swampy finale to the War & Peace Show’s…
WOLFHILDE’S HITLER YOUTH DIARY 1939-46 – Review by Mark Barnes
We were sent this interesting book from the United States where the rise in publication of personal accounts and diaries through self-publishing and, equally importantly,…
BRITISH BATTLESHIPS 1889-1904, BRITISH BATTLESHIPS OF WORLD WAR ONE and BRITISH BATTLESHIPS 1919-1945
This is one of those occasions when I need us to look back at a review published some time ago that is fine as it…
D-DAY – THE LAST OF THE LIBERATORS – Some of the Last Veterans of the Normandy Landings Retrace Their Steps Seventy Years Later
On the day Operation Goodwood started in July 1944; Kenneth Sturdy found himself in the unenviable position of being the target of bombs dropped short…
A WHEATCROFT PANTHER’S PROGRESS – Leicestershire, 2014 by Mark Barnes
We were delighted to be invited by the Wheatcroft Collection to attend the Engine Start-Up day when the Maybach power unit to be fitted into…
LAWRENCE IN ARABIA, War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Review by Mark Barnes
A much younger me tried to read the Seven Pillars of Wisdom and failed. I suppose I was looking for a war adventure book…
US MARINE CORPS FIGHTER SQUADRONS OF WORLD WAR II – Review by Mark Barnes
There was another war a long way from Europe that entailed fleets and armies travelling huge distances to collectively experience all the see-saw stuff –…
ARMOURED WARFARE AND THE FALL OF FRANCE 1940 – Review by Mark Barnes
If you like your tanks, there is no question that the early years offered up a colourful mix of types from all the belligerents which…
THE BOMBER COMMAND WAR DIARIES – Review by Mark Barnes
It’s a while since I reviewed the re-release of Martin Middlebrook’s epic account of the devastation of Hamburg by the RAF and USAAF in 1943.…