UNIFORMS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR by Philip Haythornthwaite. (74" x 54"; 192 pages including 65 pages of coloured illustrations. Blandford Press - £2.5Op.)
Armed with this mine of information and initially without consulting any other book, the wargamer can quite satisfactory embark upon building-up armies and fighting this fascinating conflict, the first of the modern wars. Not only does it give, in striking colour, the uniforms of all the combatants but it also goes quite deeply into the historical aspects of the war; the composition of the armies; the artillery and firearms and an Order. of Battle for Gettysburg.which provides enough names for the wargamer to satisfactorilly title all his regiments. It is invidious to assert that any of the fine books put out by Blandford is better than another, but this must surely rank among the best.
TANKS AND OTHER ARMOURED FIGHTING VEHICLES 1942-45 by B.T.White. (7'," x 5_2-"; 170 pages including 80 pages of coloured and 3 black white illustrations. Blandford Press - £2.75P.)
Yet another of the reliable books by an author who is internationally known as an expert on armoured fighting vehicles. This one, covering a most exciting period in the history of the A.F.V., has a particular personal interest because it shows all the vehicles with which my own regiment were equipped, in fact the Churchill VII Crocodile depicted in the book belonged to C Squadron 51st Royal Tank Regiment. In addition, there is text and illustrations of the tanks of every country involved in World War II at that time which makes the book an invaluable and reasonably priced guide for the wargamer.
NAVAL, MARINE AND AIR FORCE UNIFORMS OF WORLD WAR 2 by Andrew Mollo and Malcolm McGregor. (74" x 54,"; 231 pages including 80 pages of coloured illustrations. Blandford Press - £2.75p.)
Whilst not of so much immediate interest to wargamers, this book, companion to the very success• ful ARMY UNIFORMS OF WORLD WAR 2 by the same author and artist team, is the first book to cover the naval and air force uniforms of all the armies of World War 2. Well up to the usual Blandford standards it depicts interesting combat uniforms.
Also from Blandford come a trio of books on aircraft - All by Kenneth Munson.
- FIGHTERS 1939-45 - Attack and Training Aircraft
BOMBERS 1939-45 - Patrol and Transport Aircraft
BOMBERS IN SERVICE - Patrol and Transport Aircraft Since 1960
All 7 1/4" x 4 3"; 163 pages including 80 pages coloured illustrations - £2.lOp.
Finally and still with the Blandford Press Limited, I have four dust-jackets which will grace future series -
- WORLD UNIFORMS AND BATTLES 1815-50 by Philip Haythornthwaite and Michael Chappell.
AIR FORCE BADGES AND INSIGNIA OF WORLD WAR 2 by Guido Rosignoli.
RIBBONS OF ORDERS, DECORATIONS AND MEDALS by Guido Rosignoli.
HOVERCRAFT AND HYDROFOILS by Roy McCleavy.
MILITARY MODELLING ANNUAL 2 (9 1/4" x 7 3/4"; innumerable photos and line drawings. Patrick Stephens £2.95p.)
Packed with well illustrated (both black and white and colour) articles, the Annual contains a number of features of interest to wargamers. Don Simmons instructs on building radio-control tanks in MECHANIZED WARGAMES; Drawing for Model Makers by John Sandars contains a lot of useful informatio You can learn how to renovate battered Britains 54mm figures, then there are some coloured plates by Simkin of Indian Regiments and an article on U.S. Cavalry in the Indian Wars. There are a number of articles illustrated in colour on uniforms of various periods including one on Austro-Hungarian Army machine-gun units of World War I. The modern wargamer will find value in articles on camouflage guide to military vehicles and scratch-building the Panzer Jaeger I while John Sandars comes into t . picture again with an article on making wheels. A very well produced and useful Annual.
THE ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT CHINA 1027 BC - 1286 AD by John P. Greer. (94" x 72"; 122 pages; 135 line drawings. Wargames Research Group - £3.70p.)
This is the latest and most ambitious of all the productions of the Wargames Research Group and 25 whilst it might have a relatively limited specialist interest, there is no doubt that it is a unique and valuable volume. I imagine that all those enthusiasts in the Society of Ancients who eagerly seek new and unusual armies will be going through its pages with gusto as they weigh-up the respective values of these (to me) fascinating but hitherto quite mysterious armies. The book gives history of the organisation, tactics and training of both Chinese armies and their enemies; the major battles of the period; the weapons and uniforms of Chinese acid enemy soldiers; has a copious Bibliography and gives line drawings of all soldiers and equipment mentioned. The Wargames Research Group might not make a fortune out of this but they have certainly upheld their reputation for providing exclusive and otherwise unobtainable books and information for wargamers.
RENAISSANCE ARMIES 1480-1650 by George Gush. (94" x 74"; 128 pages. Many photographs, prints and line-drawings. Patrick Stephens Limited - £4.25p.)
The author needs no introduction to wargamers as he ranks amongst the greatest enthusiasts and the major contributors to the growth of our hobby. He does himself full justice in this well produced and illustrated book which quite justifies his official high ranking position in the Pike-and-Shot Society! The numerous illustrations, many from contemporary prints and engravings, ably illustrate the perhaps bizarre and diverse quality of the armies of the Renaissance and George's detailed chapters on various armies of belligerent nations of the period makes this an invaluable source of reference. In a way I am glad it was not out when I wrote the second volume of WARGAMES THROUGH THE AGES ].420-1783 because I might have been tempted to dive too deeply into it! On the other hand, it will be a fine complementary book to my forthcoming Wargaming in the Pike-and-Shot period, to be published by David and Charles next year.
From Publishers MacDonald and Jane's I have received the latest pair of World War 2 FACT FILES - SELF-PROPELLED ANTI-TANK AND ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS by Peter Chamberlain and John Milsom and HEAVY ARTILLERY by Peter Chamberlain and Terry Gander.
With such a multiplicity of wonderful books (many by these authors) on the arms and equipment of World War 2, the modernist wargamer should have no trouble whatsoever in turning out accurate armies. The first of these books depicts enough unusual vehicles to whet the appetite of any model maker and all of them are beautifully illustrated with new and hitherto unpublished photographs. The second volume not only depicts the guns of World War 2 but also many "period" looking weapons which were still around in 1939 and took some part in the fighting. Many of these old guns can be reproduced to arm our World War I and earlier armies where they might just sneak onto the wargames table. Otherwise heavy artillery in a.wargames context usually has to shoot "off the map" if realism is to be maintained. Nevertheless, this technical and practical fact of life does not deter from the undoubted merit of this beautifully illustrated book.
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© Copyright 1975 by Donald Featherstone.
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