Ian Allan the Publishers put out some fine books and their Autumn and Winter 1976 list shows the are keeping up their standards. Among those listed are WARSHIPS OF THE WORLD: Part I: Major Classes the first of a planned series which detail and illustrate all warship classes of the world's major navies and record their operational histories. Then there is the sequel to the successful DESERT RAT AT WAR in NORTH AFRICA by George Forty - this one DESERT RATS AT WAR IN EUROPE - truly a nostalgia volume for many of our older subscribers. Christopher Foss has written INFANTRY WEAPONS OF THE WORLI covering pistols, sub-machine guns, light, medium and heavy machine guns, light mortars and light ant tank weapons; then there is 51st HIGHLAND DIVISION AT WAR by Roderick Grant, telling of a very famous World War II formation that took part in more battles of that war than any other infantry group. Ther are a number of good books on World War II aircraft including LUFTWAFFE HANDBOOK by Alfred Price and two new volumes in their "Sea Battles in Close Up" - No.16 JAVA SEA and BATTLE OF THE MARIANAS. Final by C.R.M.Messenger is THE BLITZKRIEG STORY telling of Hitler's lightning war techniques of combining tanks, aircraft and motorised infantry into powerful armoured spearheads thrusting deep into an enemy territory. A tempting selection!
Yesterday I received from THE WOODFORD BOOKSHOP, 33 Victoria Road, South Woodford, London E18 1LJ their Military Booklist Number 4 July 1976 and, being devoted to British Colonial warfare I found it absolutely fascinating and so full of books both known and unknown as to almost form a bibliography for a number of aspects of British Colonial warfare. For example, there are 321 pages listing books on the Indian Mutiny and large numbers of Histories of Indian Regiments including thirty books on the Gurkhas! In addition, the list includes many books dealing with other wars, including the SpanishCivil War, Korea, and a lot of off-beat operations besides naval and air books and a whole host of other mouth-watering literary goodies. Some of them seem remarkably cheap, others the reverse but oD has to pay for the service of finding these books and making them available. This book list is very interesting reading and well worth a subscription of 50P per annum for four such lists.
Regrettably it has to be announced that the American wargaming magazine THE COURIER has had to go out of business as Dick Bryant, its Editor, just found that it all got a little too much for him and that he was getting further and further behind. I never could quite understand how I have managed to keep the Newsletter going on time since about 1962 - maybe I do less work otherwise or I work faster than most! Anyway, Courier has been taken over by a publication new to me LITTLE WARS which seems to be run by Tom Kash and well-known American wargamer Garry Gygax from P.O.Box 756, Lake Geneva, Wise., U.S.A. 53147. Readers of the Newsletter who have subscriptions to Courier will be comforted by the knowledge that their subscriptions will be honoured by them receiving two copies of LITTLE WARS for every three copies of the Courier due to them. Many of the Courier writers will continue to write for Little Wars and it is hoped that the style and spirit of Courier will continue to be reflected in its pages. It would be interesting to receive a copy of Little Wars for review in these pages as I have not the slightest idea whether it is a new publication or exactly what it owes to its "steal" of the title of the famed and immortal book of that name by H.G.Wells. I must confess that I would have expected a little more originality.
Rumours are also around that SWORD AND LANCE may be discontinued as in the case of Dick Bryant of the Courier, its Editor has had to capitulate to pressure of work and cease editing the magazine. Subscribers might not realise exactly what good value they got in Sword and Lance because its printing costs together with postage and the like must have been very high so that it was only possible to sell it at its price by the Editor and his associates working on it as a hobby on a non-profit basis. But the labourer is worthy of his hire and there is no one in the wargaming world (or any other world come to that) who should sit back and expect people to churn out edifying material for them without paying the proper price for it. Now I come to think of it however, I am not so sure that I am not in almost the same boat with WARGAMER'S NEWSLETTER! Right, enough of that, the good old Newsletter keeps on when they are all going broke around me!!
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© Copyright 1976 by Donald Featherstone.
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