Reviews | War History

ON ASSIGNMENT: THE GREAT WAR – Review by Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes

I have worked in photo archives for donkey’s years, a genuine labour of love. I had to do research on Edward N Jackson because his…

THE BOOK THIEF – Movie review by Phil Hodges

Phil Hodges

Friday night and after a long week at work I decided to treat Mrs Hodges to a night at the cinema. “Not a war film,…

DVD: STALINGRAD 1942-43 – Review by Phil Hodges

Phil Hodges

Here we have another film documentary from the German Propaganda Kompanien (PK) told in the newsreel style of the Die Deutsche Wochenschau, the weekly cinema newsreel chronicling…

BEYOND THE REACH OF EMPIRE – Wolseley’s Failed Campaign to Save Gordon and Khartoum. Review by Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes

When his comrades were, at last, able to recover his body; they found him with a smile on his face.  Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burnaby was…

FRANCO’S CRYPT, Spanish Culture and Memory Since 1936 – Review by Chris Ball

Mark Barnes

There is a belief that after the Nationalist’s victory in the Spanish Civil War that Spain suffered a deliberate, collective amnesia, the Spanish for which…

RAF FIGHTER PILOTS OVER BURMA – Review by Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes

We are back, after a brief intermission, with a book from the Images of War series. This one comes courtesy of the highly respected Norman…

AFRIKA KORPS 1941-1942 and AFRIKA KORPS 1942-1943 DVD Review by Phil Hodges

Phil Hodges

When it comes to documentaries there are many different formats. Some hold your attention, some have you flicking between the programme and the daily paper and…

THE MONUMENTS MEN – Film Review by Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes

Billed as an action comedy, this film has been fairly mullered by film reviewers for having not a lot of either going on in close…

THE GREAT WAR ILLUSTRATED 1914 – Review by Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes

I’ve spent practically all my working life in the field of photographic archives. The way I work has changed immensely over the past decades, not…

FREELY I SERVED – Review by Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes

Autobiographies have many purposes. They allow us a window into the lives of the great and the good where we learn how it was to…

THE DEFENCE AND FALL OF GREECE 1940-41 – Review by Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes

We’re not done with January yet and my entirely non-existent book of the year chart already has a candidate in this enjoyable read from John…

DVD Review: BURMA -The Forgotten Army by Phil Hodges

Phil Hodges

  Well, what a delight! I’m always one for history to be told as it actually happened to the masses by the masses and not…