Reviews | War History

Images of the National Archive Armistice -Diverse Offerings From Pen & Sword

Mark Barnes

The victory summer of 1919 saw important visitors drop anchor off my home town. The Atlantic Fleet sailed into the Thames Estuary with a great…

Book Review: CAPTURED ARMS

Mark Barnes

Heaps of captured arms have been a symbol of victory since time immemorial. The Second World War was no different, especially for a Nazi regime…

Book Review: Images of War Quartet From Pen & Sword

Mark Barnes

The Images of War series from Pen & Sword are no strangers to my dusty corner of the WHO monolith, and this latest batch continues to…

Book Review: SPY PILOT-By Francis Gary Powers Jr. and Keith Dunnavant

Mark Barnes

From the moment this book dropped through my letterbox, it had me thinking back several decades to a TV drama featuring Lee Majors in the…

Book Review: How Can Man Die Better- by Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes

Company volleys fired from these rifles created the loudest noise any living Zulu had ever heard in 1879. Their stopping power was brutal. If you…

Book Review- CITY BOYS AT WAR

Mark Barnes

The Fairey Battles of the AASF were thrown at the enemy but suffered terrible losses It is quite understandable that books about the chaos of…

Book Review-Forgotten Tanks and Guns of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s

The period between the wars offered up all manner of oddities as governments and companies attempted to develop fighting vehicles that would be numerous, effective…

Kangaroo Squadron American Courage in the Darkest Days of WW2

Mark Barnes

I am pleased to get my reviewing year off to a blistering start with this superb book from the historian Bruce Gamble. In it, he…

Vietnam An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975

Mark Barnes

There has been far too much ink expended on the Vietnam War to waste time trying to pick out merits of much of the decision-making…

United States Army Armored Divisions Of The Second World War

Mark Barnes

Michael Green has had a busy year by the look of things because he is back with another instalment of his illustrated histories produced under…

Wolseley Was Critical of The Award of The VC to British officers at Rorke’s Drift

Mark Barnes

I recently reviewed a biographical history of the men who flew on the famous Doolittle Raid of 1942 where I professed strong approval of that…

The World Of The Battleship

Mark Barnes

I come from a family with a seafaring tradition and although it skipped my direct branch because my father preferred khaki to blue in 1939…