If you are interested in books dealing with India and Britain's Colonial Wars, write to Lawrence Oxley, The Studio Bookshop, Alresford, Hants., England. Mr. Oxley has the largest selection of books for sale on the Indian Mutiny, for example, that I have ever seen.
Roger Moores has invested in a copy of the "Handbuch der Uniformkunde" and writes: "It is not bad at packing a surprising amount of detail into one volume. I reckon you could point all but the most obscure units up to standard from the info in this book. It's fairly easy to master a good dictionary. There are 440 pages close typed, and bags of illustrations (1600 figures it is claimed) and it covers all from about 1700 to 1937. There is naturally an emphasis cn German states (ideal for 7 Years War and Napoleonic period) but less on the Americans and Asiatic states. France gets about 50 pages, Britain about 21. It's available in Germany for 3 pounds, so with port duty etc., our English booksellers are not making much profit out of it."
Newell Chamberlin tells me that J. Hefter, Apartado 5179 Mexico City 19 D.F., Mexico, has a new book, a Bibliography of Works Pertaining to Spanish Military History and Uniforms. This is sold at $6.00 (U.S.) and contains a solid bibliography and a number of uniform plates, two in colour. Hefter is a dedicated military historian and for those who are interested in Latin American or Spanish history he is a valuable contributor. He is one of the most genuine men in the field I have ever known.
Jack Scruby will be publishing Aram Bakshinn's booklet, The Concise Guide to Military Miniatures, this June or July. The Guide will be an illustrated directory to the hobby listing approximately sixty designers, dealers and manufacturers of model soldiers, and related accessories in America, Great Britain, Germany and elsewhere.
Entries will include addresses, price information, descriptions and concise critiques. There will be a bibliography and a list of hobby periodicals with descriptions and subscription information with the aid of the Concise Guide which will probably sell for $1.00, the collector/wargamer will have access to sources for thousands of figures and accessories in all scales with minimum difficulty. If well received, this Guide will be revised and expanded every few years.
I am indebted to M. Raymond for details of a book entitled "A Guide to the Battlefields of Europe" by David Chandler (himself a keen wargamer) - it was the first Volume of a set of two. Inside are details of some 75 major battles fought throughout history. There ere battle plans f or about twenty of these and data concerning the object of the battle and the resulting numbers engaged and casualties (where known), the position of the field with respect to large cities, and a system of gradings to show how much the field today resembles that when the battle was fought. Even if you didn't intend to tour European battlefields it looks to be quite a mine of information. In addition to the 75 battles, there are brief notes concerning other less important affairs.
I also saw in the same shop a book in the Great Battles of History series on the Battle of Sadowa-Koniggratz in the AustroPrussian War of 1866, by Gurdon Craig. It struck me that although the Franco-Prussian War may have a few adherents and the American Civil War legions of them, we never hear of anyone dealing with this quite important conflict: without this Prussian victory there could have been no Franco-Prussian War for German Empire, and I don't need to say how much history might have been different then. Perhaps this monograph will inspire someone to start wargaming in this period: since Italy helped Prussia, variety can be had, and if one wishes to drift into the world of imagination, France or Russia could get involved as well.
"Guides to the Battlefields of Europe" is published by Evelyn at 30s, 0d. and "Koniggratz" by Weidenfeld and Nicholson at 32s.6d
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© Copyright 1965 by Donald Featherstone.
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