Military History Book Shop

The Silver Bayonet – A Wargame of Napoleonic Gothic Horror, Joseph A. McCullough. An entertaining skirmish scale game that combines the Napoleonic period with gothic horror, seeing teams of competing specialists from different European powers attempting to investigate and defeat monsters from European folklore, so we see musketeers, riflemen etc taking on vampires, goblins or werewolves, in quick moving scenarios. A nice simple D10 based system with a wide range of attributes shared between the heroes, monsters and weapons, a potentially rather brutal combat system (but with mitigation), and a nice experience system that will reward success without letting the winning team pull too far ahead (Read Full Review)

War Story – Occupied France, Dave Neale & David Thompson. A cooperative adventure game that is a combination of a pick your own adventure game and a board game, with the players taking on the role of a team of four SOE agents infiltrating occupied France. Each agent has different stats, some have special abilities, so the choice of agents affects your game. Early choices will have a long term impact, with the game keeping track of the results of earlier encounters and sending you on different paths later on depending on earlier results, so each game will play differently. Plays well, and with linked scenarios has plenty of scope for replaying. Works well as a solo game, but will feel very different with a team arguing about every choice! (Read Full Review)

Pearl Harbor – Japan’s Greatest Disaster, Mark E. Stille. A detailed examination of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, looking at the planning on the Japanese side (both for the attack itself and the overall war), the American defences of Hawaii, how the attack was actually carried out, and its long term impact. Makes a very good argument that the attack was a major strategic mistake for the Japanese, uniting the Americans in a way little else might have done, while doing spectacular but surprisingly unimportant damage to the US Pacific Fleet. Also argues that the Japanese plan included a series of major flaws and only the poor American response saved them from a costly setback(Read Full Review)

Sumatra 1944-45 – The British Pacific Fleet’s oil campaign in the Dutch East Indies, Angus Konstam. Looks at the Royal Navy’s return to Far Eastern waters as an offensive force, the series of carrier raids against the Japanese controlled oil industry on Sumatra that both helped cripple that industry and gave the British valuable experience before they joined the Americans in the Okinawa campaign. Demonstrates how quickly the Royal Navy learnt to emulate the US Navy, taking advantage of their vast experience of large scale carrier operations (Read Full Review)

The Dummy Drome, Rob More. Looks at a decoy airfield built at Sarclet in Caithness, acting as a decoy for RAF Wick. Written by a native of the area, who was born three and a half years before the outbreak of war, and so can combine his own childhood memories with the stories told by older relatives and locals. Covers local memories of the construction and operation of the dummy drome, and then moves on to the Home Guard, Auxiliary Unit and the underwater flame projectors build into local beaches. An excellent examination of the impact of the Second World War on a very remote and rural part of Scotland (Read Full Review)

Devil’s Fire, Southern Cross – The Conclusion of the Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign October 1943-February 1944, Jeffrey R. Cox. The last in an impressive series of books that covers the Solomon Islands campaign of the Second World War, looking at the invasion of Bougainville and the decision to bypass Rabaul and the resulting smaller scale invasions that effectively isolated that major Japanese base. Very good on the naval and air aspects of the campaign, with good coverage of the Japanese and American sides of the conflict (Read Full Review)

Emperor Titus – The Right Hand of Vespasian, Marc Hyden. Looks at the life of the second Flavian emperor, and the first Roman emperor to success his biological father. Much of the book covers his time as a general during the First Jewish-Roman War, both before and after his father’s rise to the throne. His short reign saw the destruction of Pompeii and the completion of the Colosseum, two of the most iconic events in Roman history, so despite his short reign he was still a major figure (Read Full Review)

Royal Navy Monitors of World War II – Britain’s battleship-calibre gunboats, Angus Konstam. A look at the four monitors operated by the Royal Navy during the Second World War, all armed with two 15in guns. Only two or three were ever in use at the same time, but we see how they made a significant contribution to the fighting in Normandy and at Walcheran as well as examining the wider use of naval gunfire support.(Read Full Review)

Super-Battleships of World War I – the lost battleships of the Washington Treaty, Angus Konstam. Looks at the designs for even larger battleships produced during and just after the First World War, in Japan, the UK and the USA, focusing on the design process that created them, the Washington Naval Treaty that cancelled most of them, the technical specs of the various designs and finally how they might have been modified if they had entered service (Read Full Review)

Spitfire I – Phoney War and Battle of France, Tony Holmes. Looks at the development, production, entry into service, pilot training and tactics and the first combat experience of the Spitfire Mk I, a period where it was uncertain how good the new fighter would actually be, and where it started to prove it was equal to the established Bf 109.(Read Full Review)

Konstam, Angus, Royal Navy Grand Fleet 1914-18, Britain’s last supreme naval fleet. A good introduction to the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet, the most powerful naval force of its day, and a key factor in the eventual Allied victory in the First World War by imposing the distant naval blockade on Germany. Looks at the background to its development, the ships themselves, their guns, armour etc, how the fleet was organised and how it performed during the First World War, demonstrating the vital role the fleet played in the eventual Entente victory. (Read Full Review)

Soviet Motor Torpedo Boats of World War II, Przemyslaw Budzbon. Looks at the Soviet motor torpedo boats of the Second World War, developed originally from the British Coastal Motor Boats of the First World War. Produced in large numbers, the early designs were unseaworthy and prone to corrode, while later wooden boats were produced in limited numbers. Covers their design, and their wartime achievements (Read Full Review)

A Photographic History of London’s Ceremonial Regiments, Ben Skipper. A very visual examination of the regiments of the Household Division, currently the Househould Cavalry Regiment, Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards, looking at their entire histories, which in several cases go back to the seventeenth century, emphasising that they are all high class combat units as well as having a ceremonial role. The impressive collecton of photographs support that, with a mix of watertime pictures showing them in their combat role and more colourful pictures of their ceremonial duties (Read Full Review)

Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events that Created New York and Shaped America, Russell Shorto. A fascinating study of the events that led to the English capture of New Amsterdam in 1664, the year before war broke out with the Dutch, looking at the background to the capture in England, the Netherlands and North America, the lives of the key figures on each side, and how what could have become a brief but bloody conflict instead saw a peaceful transfer of the Dutch colony, a rarity in clashes between the two powers (Read Full Review)

Opening the Gates of Hell – Operation Barbarossa, June-July 1941, Richard Hargreaves. A very detailed examination of the first couple of weeks of Operation Barbarossa, the period that saw the biggest German advances across the widest front, but also appalling atrocities committed by both sides and by local nationalists. Starts with a very atmospheric couple of chapters on the immediate days before the conflict and the first day of the fighting, showing how varied people’s expectations were in June 1941, before moving onto detailed accounts of the fighting, seen from both sides, and of the many atrocities committed across the front (Read Full Review)

Theirs the Strife – The Forgotten Battles of British Second Army and Armeegruppe Blumentritt, April 1945, John Russell. Looks at the short but bitter battles between the advancing British and a mixed bag of German forces including a naval infantry battalion and troops from a Waffen-SS training unit, on the lines of the Weser and Aller rivers. Covers a period of about two weeks, which saw the British make steady progress against unexpectedly determined resistance, before breaking through the Aller lines. Good material on the opposing forces as well as detailed accounts of the main battles of this short campaign (Read Full Review)

Nemesis – Medieval England’s Greatest Enemy, Catherine Hanley. Looks at the reign of one of the most successful Medieval French monarchs, Philip Augustus, through the lens of his relationship with the four English kings of his reign – Henry II, Richard I, John and Henry III – and how he was able to take advantage of their frequent family arguments to transform the balance of power in France. An excellent study of the reign of Philip Augustus that demonstrates clearly how he was able to effectively destroy the Angevin Empire in France, leaving Henry III with only the core of Aquitaine (Read Full Review)

Fearless – The Diary of an 18 Year Old at War in the Falklands, Kevin J. Porter. An excellent account of the Falklands War, combining the wartime diary of the author with his own more detailed memories and reflections. Porter served with the signals team on the amphibious warfare ship HMS Fearless, a key part of the task force and command ship for the Commodore Amphibious Warfare and 3 Commando Brigade, putting him at the heart of the battle. We get a detailed account of the fierce battles in Falklands Sound. Major incidents such as the attack on HMS Plymouth are documented by extracts from other diaries, filling gaps in Porter’s original work. We finish with Porter’s post war experiences, which went from an immediate high on the task force’s return to Britain and his return to home at Millom, to the disasterous impact of his prolonged post-war binge on his naval career, and his later career as a hypnotherapist (Read Full Review)

The Athenian Army 507-322 BC, Nicholas Sekunda. Looks at the Athenian army from its famous peak during the Persian Wars, through the costly wars against Sparta and on to the final breaking of Athenian military power by the Macedonians. Demonstrates that the Athenian army was always more complex than just a hoplite only force, with cavalry, mounted archers and light infantry all playing a part. Also shows how the nature of the Athenian army changed during these two centuries of near constant warfare, and how robust the system was, able to bounce back quite quickly after defeats to the city’s local rivals. (Read Full Review)

Soviet Tanks at Kursk 1943, William E. Hiestand. Looks at the role of Soviet armour in the battle of Kursk, the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front. Covers the way Soviet armoured forces were organised, their tactical doctrine (and why they were generally less effective than the Germans), looks at the Soviet tanks and self propelled guns and lend-lease vehicles that were used and then moves onto the battle itself, where the Soviets lost more tanks (many during counter-attacks), but the outnumbered Germans were unable to make a breakthrough before their focus had to move elsewhere. A good examination of the Soviet use of armour at this battle (Read Full Review)

Allied Tanks at El Alamein 1942, William E. Hiestand. Looks at the second battle of El Alamein, which emerges as a clear turning point in British armoured warfare, with the tanks that would serve for the rest of the war (Sherman and Churchill) fighting alongside the older tanks used in the desert, and a clear improvement in British armoured tactics (if not quite getting things right), which combined with the long range of the Sherman’s 75mm gun to effectively destroy Rommel’s armoured forces and start an Axis retreat that didn’t end until Tunisia (Read Full Review)

Beutepanzers of World War II – Captured Tanks and AFVs in German service, Steven J. Zaloga. Looks at the fate of the very large number of armoured fighting vehicles captured by the Germans during the Second World War, revealing that little use was made of most of them, but with sizable sections on the use of French and Italian vehicles, which were captured in much larger numbers and with their industrial base intact, allowing them to be maintained and used for police and security work as well as being converted into self propelled guns (Read Full Review)

Operation Steinbock 1944 – The Luftwaffe’s disastrous last Blitz over England, Chris Goss. Looks at the Luftwaffe’s last attempt to carry out a major bombing campaign over Britain, in the first half of 1944, carried out in response to a direct order from Hitler, and which had little impact in Britain, but did critically weaken the German bomber force in the months before the D-Day landings (Read Full Review)

Japanese Combined Fleet – 1942-43, Guadalcanal to the Solomons Campaign, Mark Stille. Looks at perhaps the most intensive period of surface naval warfare of the Second World War, the prolonged series of battles around Guadalcanal and in the Solomon Islands, which saw the Japanese win many of the night battles, taking advantage of their excellent torpedoes, but suffer heavy losses that eventually forced them to withdraw from Guadalcanal and degraded their abilities for the rest of the war (Read Full Review)

Defectors from the Reich: The Double Agent and the Adventurer, David Tremain. Looks at two men who defected from Nazi Germany to Britain, focusing on how their cases were handled by the British intelligence services, using a vast array of contemporary documents to build up a picture of the rather complex world of the defector. First looks at a Swiss adventurer who sailed solo to West Africa where he defected, then a German SS officer who defected in 1944 for dubious reasons. Very heavy on sources, so shows how these men were dealt with by the British, but could do with more supporting text (Read Full Review)

Birdman of Auschwitz: The Life of Günther Niethammer, Nicholas Milton. Looks at the career of one of the more unusual men to serve as a guard at Auschwitz, a famous ornithologist and author of the authoratitive guide to German birds of his period, completed during his time in the SS. Focuses on how an apparently decent man could appear cope with the horrors of what was going on around him, in this case by apparently ignoring them and focusing instead as much as possible on his study of birds (although also putting in requests to leave Auschwitz) (Read Full Review)

‘Rosy’ Wemyss Admiral of the Fleet, John Johnson-Allen. Looks at the life of one of the less familiar senior British Admirals of the First World War, responsible for many of the successes at Gallipoli, working with the Arab Revolt and who ended the war as First Sea Lord and helped to negotiate the armistice that ended the First World War, after a peacetime career that included leisurely state visits and time setting up the naval college at Osborne on the Isle of Wight (Read Full Review)

US Army Ford M8 and M20 Armored Cars, Didier Andres. Looks in detail at the development and structure of these two closely related light armored cars, which entered service in 1943. Covers the development in great detail, as well as individual components, from the radios to the guns, and includes photographic surveys of early, mid and late production vehicles, showing how they changed over time. Finishes with a good selection of photographs from the front, showing how the M8 and M20 were actually used (Read Full Review)

RMS Queen Mary – 101 Questions & Answers about the Great Transatlantic Liner, David Ellery. An interesting approach to the history of the great liner, organised mainly into 101 questions with fairly short answers, covering her construction, peacetime and wartime careers and her time in retirement at Long Beach. Includes her wartime service as a troopship, where she carried nearly one million soldiers around the world, relying on her great speed to avoid the enemy. (Read Full Review)

Mediterranean Sweep, Thomas McKelvey Cleaver. Looks at the long and costly air campaign in Italy, which lasted for almost two years, and ended with one of the most succesful air interdiction campaigns, dramatically cutting the amount of supplies the Axis armies in northern Italy were receiving. Shows how this campaign, taking advantage of lessons learnt in North Africa and Sicily, was able to help the Allies avoid defeats at Salerno and Anzio, and eventually helped win a total victory(Read Full Review)

Hitler Strikes North – The Nazi Invasion of Norway and Denmark, 9 April 1940, Jack Greene and Alessandro Massignani. Looks at the Nazi invasions of Norway and Denmark with an emphasis on the German plans and the Norwegian defenses, including detailed information on what defenses were available at each location that was attacked, how they were manned and how effective they were. Shows how the Norwegian government and military were caught short when the Germans attacked, what damage they could have done if all of their coastal defences were fully manned, and the impact of the loss of all major Norwegian cities on the very first day of the invasion. An excellent single volume history of this campaign (Read Full Review)

Mukden 1905 – Russia and Japan’s Battle for Manchuria, John Valitutto. Looks at the key campaign that saw Japan inflict a series of defeats on Imperial Russia, increasing their own military reputation and establishing a foothold in Manchuria, and winning what was the largest modern land battle to that time. Shows how difficult it was to win a decisive victory with two modern armies, a precursor to the bloodshed on the Western Front. (Read Full Review)

After Jutland - The Naval War in Northern European Waters, June 1916-November 1918, James Goldrick. Looks at the problems faced by the rival navies in the second half of the First World War, as they learnt the lessons of Jutland and adapted to a world in which the U-boat, mine and increasing the aircraft were starting to pose a bigger threat. We see the Grand Fleet learning its lessons and becoming a more potent weapon, while never really getting the chance to prove it, the High Seas Fleet show more activity than often believed before decaying in 1918, and small ship operations in the Channel causing problems for the British much of the time. Also looks at the war in the Baltic, where ice posed a major problem, trapping the Russian fleet in port over the winter. An excellent work that demonstrates how active the naval war was after Jutland, and how much effort went into solving the problems posed by new technology that was changing the nature of naval warfare (Read Full Review)

Borneo 1945 – The Last Major Allied Campaign in the South-West Pacific, Angus Konstam. Looks at the last major land battles in the South-West Pacific, where fighting was still going on when the Japanese surrendered. Covers the reasons for the campaign, the commanders, their armies and plans, and the three main battles of the campaign, at Tarakan, Brunei and Balikpapan(Read Full Review)

Crescent Dawn – The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age, Si Sheppard. A detailed account of the great expansion of the Ottoman Empire in its first three centuries, from its origins as one of many small powers in Anatolia to almost its peak, ruling much of the Balkans, the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa, and threatening to break out into the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Covers Ottoman expansion into the Balkans, Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa, the defeat of the Mamluks and the long wars with the revived Persians, as well as the rise of Ottoman naval power. Ends with a look at the Portuguese entry into the Indian Ocean, and the European search for Prestor John, a mythical Christian ruler eventually merged in the western mind with the rulers of Ethiopia, part of a wider attempt to find allies against the Ottoman power (Read Full Review)

The Nazi and Japanese Human Experimention Programmes – Biological War Crimes during WW2, Tim Heath. Looks at some of the most horrifying war crimes committed by the Germans and Japanese during the Second World War, a mix of genuine if horrific medical experiments, mass murder and what appears to be appalling sadism with little other purpose. Supported by an extensive use of eyewitness accounts, from people ranging from junior German medical staff to survivors of the atrocities, collected by the author over many years. A harrowing read, but also a valuable examination of a very dark corner of the Second World War (Read Full Review)

A6M2/3 Zero-sen – New Guinea and the Solomons 1942, Michael John Claringbould. Looks at the Zero’s use as a land based fighter in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, two campaigns in which they were able to more than hold their own against Allied fighters but at a high cost in experienced fighter pilots which saw the picture begin to change in 1942. Covers the design of the Zero, the training of the pilots and the organisation of their units as well as the actual fighting. This includes bomber escort, interception and ground attack missions, showing how flexible the Zero was (Read Full Review)

Wartime Industry, Neil R. Storey. Looks at several key aspects of the British war industry of the Second World War, starting with the first mass produced item, gas masks, and moving on to the major shadow factory scheme, shipyards, minitions, tanks, vehicles, uniforms and boots, before finishing with a look at the workforce who filled all of these factories (Read Full Review)

Wartime Entertainment – How Britain Kept Smiling Through the Second World War, Anton Rippon and Nicola Rippon. A wide ranging look at the forms of entertainment available in Britain during the Second World War, covering sport, music, theatre, cinema, dances, radio etc. Goes beyond being a simple look at the popular music, films and starts of the era to cover the debates about what sort of entertainment was suitable for wartime, how to provide it, exactly what the famous stars of the period should do, as well as the risks of gathering large crowds in entertainment venues, with several being hit by German bombs causing some large scale tragedies (Read Full Review)

Abandon Ship – The Real Story of the Sinkings in the Falklands War, Paul Brown. Looks at all of the major warships sunk during the Falklands War, starting with the Belgrano and moving onto the seven British ships lost during the conflict. This book looks at those losses, giving each its own chapter, and looking at the events leading up to the attack, the damage that was inflicted, and how the crews reacted in the aftermath of the attack. Shows failings on both sides, along with many examples of individual bravery in the aftermath of the attacks (Read Full Review)

The Hundred Years War 1337-1453, Anne Curry. A splendid shorter account of the Hundred Years War written by one of the most highly respected experts on the period, and with excellent sections on the situation before the war, the less familiar periods of the conflict, the impact it had on civilians and trade, as well as the famous battles of the war. An excellent study of this long war that cast a shadow over Anglo-French relations for centuries afterwards (Read Full Review)

The Gladius - The Roman Short Sword, M.C. Bishop. Covers an impressive range of topics, including how the gladius entered Roman service after being encountered in Spain, why its combination of a strong stabbing point and two strong cutting edges made it so flexible, the many different ways in which it was constructed, and the contemporary Roman debates about how it should be used in battle, and the impact that would have on Roman formations. An excellent look at one of the key weapons behind the success of the Roman army over such a long period (Read Full Review)