Here we offer a selection of our favourite books on military history. Some are the books we have used as sources for this site, some are good introductions to their subjects and others are interesting oddities.
We also have a selection of 712 longer book reviews.
All links on this site go straight to the relevant Amazon web site (currently we link to the UK, US and Canadian sites), where you can place orders for any of the books listed here.
Recent Reviews
Click for full list of recent reviews
 Kharkov 1942 - The Wehrmacht strikes back, Robert Forczyk. Despite the subtitle this actually looks at two offensives in the Kharkov area in the spring of 1942 - an initially successful Soviet offensive that stretched the German lines and a pre-planned German blow that took advantage of the Soviet move to inflict a heavy defeat on Timoshenko's armies and weaken the Soviet southern armies in advance of the main German offensive of 1942. [read full review] |
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 French Cruisers 1922-1956, John Jordan & Jean Moulin. Split into technical and historical sections, so looks at the design of the cruisers class by class before turning to their peacetime and wartime experiences. The text is supported by very high quality accurately labelled plans of the ships and a good selection of photos. These were interesting ships, with some unusual features and that often had a very dramatic time during the Second World War. [read full review] |
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 Adventurous Empires - The Story of the Short Empire Flying Boats, Phillip E. Sims. A look at the history of the Short Empire Flying Boat, from the pioneering long-distance routes flow by Imperial Airways to their unglamorous but vital role as a long range passenger transport aircraft during the Second World War. An interesting account of the adventurous and rather more romantic early days of civil aviation, with a useful section of the wartime service of the Empire boats. [read full review] |
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 Salamanca 1812 - Wellington's Year of Victories, Peter Edwards. A look at Wellington's campaigns of 1812, from the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz to the triumph at Salamanca, the failure at Burgos and the retreat back to Portugal at the end of a year that saw the French permanently forced out of large parts of Spain. A good account of this campaign, copiously illustrated with carefully used eyewitness accounts. [read full review] |
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 Hornet's Sting, Derek Robinson. Second in the author's RFC Quartet, following a fictional RFC squadron during the harsh fighting of 1917. Characters come and go with brutal frequency, while on the ground the Third Battle of Ypres turns into the muddy fiasco of Passchendaele. The focus of the story is Hornet Squadron itself, and the desperate battles forced upon it by the RFC's policy of offensive flying. The result is a harsh but compelling look at life in the RFC during one of its hardest moments. [read full review] |
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 War Story, Derek Robinson. First in the author's RFC Quartet. We accompany a brash but inexperienced new pilot as he joins a fictional RFC squadron where he quickly makes himself unpopular and finds his experiences of a combat to be very different from his expectations. Life expectancy for a pilot is short, and characters disappear quite suddenly. The way in which the survivors deal with this stress is the main thrust of the book, and the contrast between the vigorous parties and the vicious fighting is at the heart of this excellent novel. [read full review] |
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 The Battle East of Elsenborn and the Twin Villages, William C.C. Cavanagh. A very detailed examination of ten day's of fighting on the American left during the Battle of the Bulge, looking at the battles that saw outnumbered and under strength American units delay the main thrust of the German offensive for long enough to allow the Americans to form a new defensive line on the Elsenborn ridge and stop the main German thrust before it made any real progress. [read full review] |
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 British Cruisers of the Victorian Era, Norman Friedman. Looks at the evolution of the British cruiser during a period of massive technological change. We start with ships that were effectively Napoleonic frigates but with auxiliary steam engines, and end with the fast turret armed turbine powered cruisers of the First World War (the last generation of ships before the battlecruisers). A splendid book that focuses on the design process as much as on the physical details of the ships, asking why a particular type of ship was built and looking at the many compromises that produced each design. [read full review] |
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 Images of War: Hitler's Boy Soldiers, The Hitlerjugend Story, Hans Seidler. A photographic history of the Hitlerjugend's role in the German war machine, from pre-war training to the raising and virtual destruction of the 12.SS Panzer Division 'Hitlerjugend', finishing with the German use of Hitlerjugend as child soldiers in the last battles of the war. A good collection of interesting pictures, although with some flaws in the captions. [read full review] |
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 The Light Dragoons, A Regimental History, Eric Hunt. A history of the 13th, 15th, 18th and 19th Regiments of Light Dragoons and the modern Light Dragoons, the product of two sets of mergers between the earlier regiments. This history follows all four regiments from the early eighteenth century to the present day, tracing their involvement in the major and minor conflicts of the last three hundred years. [read full review] |
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Harry Smith's Last Throw: The Eighth Frontier War, 1850-53, Keith Smith. Based around a detailed history of the fighting in the Eighth Frontier War (on the frontier of the Cape Colony, South Africa), supported by a good background history of the cape and the previous frontier wars. Some chapters come from an earlier text by Neville Mapham, mainly focusing on detailed accounts of particular campaigns. [read full review] 
Crisis in the Pacific - The Battles for the Philippine Islands by the Men Who Fought Them, Gerald Astor. An excellent account of the Second World War in the Philippines, from the pre-war American colony to the disasters of 1941-42, the long struggle of the resistance to MacArthur's eventual return and the costly battles that followed. The excellent text is based around first hand accounts of the fighting from the American point of view, both military and civilian. [read full review] 
Images of War: Fighters under Construction in World War Two, Graham M. Simons. A super entry in the Images of War series showing most major British fighters at various stages of construction, allowing us to understand the underlying structures hidden beneath their skins. Also includes sections on propellers, the 20mm cannon, engines and the manufacturing process itself. A very useful book for anyone interested in Second World War aircraft. [read full review] 
Pacific War Ghosts: Travels to the South Pacific Battlefields of World War II, Tony Maxwell. Combines a history of four key Pacific island battles and an account of visits to Papua Mew Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Bougainville, Ballale and Tarawa. Supported by a good mix of wartime and modern photos, the travelogues are interesting but a little too short, while the battle histories are clear and well written. [read full review] 
