Historic Reading
"Airborne Armour" by Keith Flint
Well, what can I say about this book other than it is "the bible" for our club. Keith Flint has put together a fantastically informative and readable account of one of the most obscure military niche formations ever to exist. Landing a tank by a giant wooden glider straight into combat is right up there with flying airship 'aircraft carriers' flying biplanes off of them and aerosan propeller driven ski attack vehicles. If you want to know anything about the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, this book is the place to start. Anything else you are likely to read was probably researched as material contributing to this book anyway. I think the only things I know about the 6th AARR that aren't included in this book, are the occasional mention of tanks of the regiment in other soldier's recollections, and material I've received from some of the veterans of the regiment themselves in letters and phone conversations. You simply have to have this book. Period.
http://www.amazon.com/Airborne-Armour-Tetrarch-Hamilcar-Reconnaissance/dp/1906033803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358357261&sr=8-1&keywords=airborne+armour
"Go To It" by Peter Harclerode
The Illustrated History of the 6th Airborne Division. This is the most prominent history of the division, and breaks the contents down into the formation and training of the division, and then it's operational history. The operational history is broken down into the campaigns the divsion fought in, and those campaigns are broken down into a format covering the actions of the individual brigades and battalions in smaller stand-alone sections. So the reader can look into Operation Varsity, for instance, and within that chapter, flip the pages to find the heading for "6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment" to read what the regiment did during that operation. The illustrations give a very good representation of the various elements of the division through its history, although the narrative portion of the book is relatively brief when it comes to trying to cover so many units in a book of less than two pages. In particular, there are several errors in the narratives for the 6th AARR, such as describing the unit structure for the Normandy campaign using the structure that was actually implemented in the Fall of 1944 after the regiment returned to England. But if the book is balanced off "Airborne Armour" by Keith Flint, it is a book well worth having, and the best overall history of the 6th AB Division available.
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Peter-Harclerode/dp/184067136X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358358440&sr=1-2&keywords=Go+To+It+Peter+Harclerode
"The Last Drop" by Stephen Wright
Operatin Varsity, March 24-25, 1945. A very enjoyable read, and my personal favorite account of the battle. The author takes a similar approach to this book as Peter Harclerode took writing "Go To It". He covers both the british 6th Airborne Division and the US 17th Airborne Division's participation in the battle. He begins with chapters on planning, training, preparations, and the takeoff, and then goes into the battle itself with the rest of the book. Then, like "Go To It", he covers the events of the battle broken down by division, and within those chapters breaks the action down by unit, so that again, you can flip the pags until you find "Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment" to read specifically about the involvement of the 6th AARR. But don't skip the other unit accounts, because you will miss references to actions of the tanks of the regiment that were witnessed by soldiers from the other units. The book is entirely based on first hand accounts, as told by the participants themselves, with just enough background, detail and input from the author to tie all the accounts into a very readable and understandable history, as told by the participants.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Drop-Operation-Varsity/dp/081170310X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1358365989&sr=8-5&keywords=the+last+drop
"Bounce the Rhine" by Charles Whiting
Although the subtitle on the dust jacket says, "The Greatest Airborne Operation in History", it is misleading, as the book is really about all the operations from 1944 through 1945 that involved that attempted, or succeeded, in crossing the Rhine. The book is divided into four parts, and each part into several chapters, although none of the chapters are named, and those chapters only loosely tie the 'parts' together. So if you want to use the book as a reference after you're done with your first read, you had better have hiliter in hand and be prepared to dog ear pages to find anything later. The book starts with the withdrawal of 1st AB Division across the Rhine from Arnhem, and then goes on to cover pretty much anything that happened between then and the the final taking of Arnhem in April 1945. It's worth reading, and does actually cover Operation Varsity, but it is by no means a history of Operation Varsity. If you want a book that actually is ABOUT Operation Varsity, read "The Last Drop".
http://www.amazon.com/BOUNCE-RHINE-CHARLES-WHITING/dp/0436574004/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358366897&sr=1-1&keywords=bounce+the+rhin
"The History of the Glider Pilot Regiment" by Claude Smith
Claude Smith was a glider pilot in the regiment during the war, having flown into both Normandy and Arnhem, during which battle he was taken prisoner. He covers the regiment from its inception after the fall of France, to it's final disbandment in the 1950's, and includes operations in the far east as well as operations in the ETO and Mediterranean. It is THE best history for learning about glider operations of the british army. With maps of all operations, four sections of black and white photos, and quality artwork throughout, and written by one with personal experience, it is an excellent book.
http://www.amazon.com/HISTORY-GLIDER-PILOT-REGIMENT-Claude/dp/1844156265/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358370972&sr=1-1&keywords=history+of+the+glider+pilot+regiment
"A Bridge Too Far" by Cornelius Ryan
If you didn't already know it, this is the book that the movie of the same title was based on. And even with it's glitches, the movie is of course one of the best and most accurate war movies ever made, and reading the book shows you why it was chosen to become a movie. Ryan was one of the best military historians of the 20th Century, and although he only wrote three histories before he died of cancer, two of them were made into blockbuster films, this one, and "The Longest Day". "A Bridge Too Far" and the book "It Never Snows in September", from the german perspective of Operation Market Garden, are THE two books you should start with when reading about Operation Market Garden. Then you should start reading all the others......
http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Too-Far-Classic-Greatest/dp/0684803305/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358371482&sr=1-1&keywords=a+bridge+too+far
"It Never Snows in September" by Robert Kershaw
As mentioned above, if you want to know about Market Garden, you have to read this book. 364 pages long, packed with photographs, maps, with copies of orders to the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, diagrams of their Order of Battle, and extremely well organized and full of first hand accounts, when you read the book, it is hard to put down. I have read this particular book three times from cover to cover, and often refer back to it when reading other books, or when pondering "what if's". One of my favorite books of any historical period.
http://www.amazon.com/Never-Snows-September-German-Market/dp/1885119313/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358372977&sr=1-1&keywords=it+never+snows+in+september
"Arnhem Lift" by Louis Hagen
Louis Hagen was born and raised in Germany, the son of a prominent Jewish banker. While working as an apprentice engineer at BMW, he made some remarks about Hitler, and ended up in a concentration camp for six weeks. After being leveraged out by a family friend with connections, he left Germany and went to Britain. Long story short, he became a glider pilot, and piloted a Horsa into the Arnhem operation. Serving as infantry after the drop, he initially participated in assaults to expand the perimeter, and then served most of the rest of the operation on the eastern perimeter at Oosterbeek southeast of the Hartenstein hotel, engaged in house-to-house fighting. A lot of that time was spent in an attic, firing at forays by german tanks using a PIAT. He eventually was able to make it back over the Rhine. He wrote an account of the battle while recovering, and after recovery, was sent to southeast asia to serve as a glider pilot there. He discovered while there that his account of the battle had been published, and so did his superiors, and they re-assigned him as a war correspondent for the rest of the war. It is an excellent book, and one of the best personal accounts I've read of the fighting in the Oosterbeek perimeter by one who was there.
http://www.amazon.com/Arnhem-Lift-Fighting-Gilder-Remembers/dp/0850523753/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1358440268&sr=8-10&keywords=arnhem+lift
"Arnhem Spearhead" by James Sims
This is the only account of the battle at Arnhem written by a Private who was there. James Sims was in the mortar platoon of the 2nd Para, and made it to the bridge, where he fought until the end, wounded and taken prisoner. His is an excellent account from a young man who was a ranker, to say nothing of a first hand account of what it was like being in one of the toughest engagements in one of the worst situations fought on the western front. And it has the added appeal of giving insight into what it was like to serve on a mortar crew at that. While thumbing through the book for this review, and having recently done some mortar gunnery training with the club, I've realized I need to read this yet again. Good stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/Arnhem-Spearhead-Private-Soldiers-Story/dp/0722178700/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358443639&sr=1-1&keywords=arnhem+spearhead
"The Gunners at Arnhem" by Peter Wilkinson
This is more of a traditional researched history of the 'who, what, when and where' mold than most of the other books about Arnhem already reviewed here. This is the only book I know of that documents what the Airlanding Light Regiment, Royal Artillery, as well as the Airlanding Anti-tank Batteries, Royal Artillery did during the battle. It gives fairly exhaustive detail of what guns were where doing what and when, down to individual pieces when talking about the anti-tank guns. It also lists a large amount of information on who the crews and leaders were and what they were doing, including many lists of citations and the actions that earned those citations. And it's no wonder there were many citations. With all their jeeps destroyed and gun tires shredded from shrapnel and bullets, over and over, you read of the gun crews on the pack howitzers fighting it out at point blank range with tanks and assault guns until finally over-run, and even then the crews run to the rear to find PIATs to keep fighting with, and run to other guns with crews dead, to keep on fighting the guns to the last round. I haven't read accounts of gunners of any army in WW2 that compare. Unfortunately, it's been out of print for quite some time, and so the few copies available at the link are rather like gold.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Gunners-Arnhem-Peter-Wilkinson/dp/0953575403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361222291&sr=8-1&keywords=the+gunners+at+arnhem
"The Glider Soldiers" by Alan Wood
Alan Wood was aircrew in 38th Group during the war, serving on Halifaxes and Dakotas, towing Horsas, Hamilcars, dropping paratroops and supplies, snatching Hadrians and the whole bit. With that background, and having access to all the materials and resources that go along with that, he has written a very different kind of history than the other books reviewed here. It has short histories of the units that made up the airborne, glider and tug forces, but also contains a ton of technical and administrative info for those forces, down to cutaway construction diagrams of experimental gliders, lists of all the airfields and who was using them for what purpose, what types of tug were used by each glider school, etc. etc. On top of that, there are histories for each individual airborne operation of the war, and within those histories, are copies of orders for the mission, tables including what tug/glider combinations from what squadron were used by what airlanding unit with what chalk number and carrying what loads. And on top of all that, the dust jacket on the copy I own has artwork of a painting of Operation Varsity, with a Locust rolling across an LZ full of gliders and troops under fire with a sky full of gliders on their run-ins above. What more could one ask for?
http://www.amazon.com/GLIDER-SOLDIERS-History-British-Military/dp/0946771995/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361224098&sr=1-3&keywords=the+glider+soldiers
"An Arnhem Odyssey: Market Garden to Stalag IVB" by Jim Longson and Christine Tayor
Jim Longson was a Vickers Gunner in the 1st Border Regiment at Arnhem. The book is a collaboration between Jim and Christine Taylor, and is based on the recollections of Jim, along with the recollections of Ginger Wilson and Johnny Peters, both also of the Border Regiment. If you read this account along with the others reviewed here, you will start to get a fairly good understanding of the workings of the components that make up the airborne divisions. Although Jim's story is of Arnhem, he is representative of all the airborne. Jim was a Vickers gunner, James Sims listed above was a 3" mortar crewman. Peter Wilkinson's book covers the 3" howitzer and 6 and 17 pounder anti-tank gunners. Keith Flint covers the the armoured recce troops, and also discusses the 1st Airborne Recce Regiment in his book, who were at Arnhem and were equipped with nothing heavier than a jeep. Louis Hagen was a glider pilot flying into Arnhem, and served as infantry, fighting against german infantry in house to house fighting and operating the section's PIAT whenever armour got too close. Well anyway, back to Jim's story, he fought all the way through the battle of Arnhem up to the withdrawal across the Rhine, and during his and his mates second attempt to get across the river, they found themselves surrounded by bosche, and ended up in the bag. The second half of the book deals with his time as a POW, which unfortunately is also representative of so many airborne troopers from Arnhem. The book is full of photographs, and is an easy read.
http://www.amazon.com/Arnhem-Odyssey-Market-Garden-Stalag/dp/0850524490/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361225626&sr=1-1&keywords=an+arnhem+odyssey
"When Dragons Flew: An Illustrated History of The 1st Battalion The Border Regiment 1939-45" by Stewart Eastwood, Charles Gray and Alan Green
This book chronicles the 1st Bn The Border Regt from the time it left Palestine in 1939 up through becoming an airborne unit and it's role in the war, through the rebuilding of the battalion after Arnhem to its finaly duty in Norway. The book discusses the battalion's role in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, but the majority of the book is in chapter 8, that breaks down the action of the battalion day-by-day during operation Market. There are 9 appendixes to the book, detailing the Roll of Honor of the dead, the complete muster role of those at Arnhem, honors and awards, details of gliders, loads and personnel, operations orders, badges and insignia, etc. The book is lavishly illustrated with photos, a few in color, maps, and aerial photos.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Dragons-Flew-Stuart-Eastwood/dp/1857940482/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361226341&sr=1-1&keywords=when+dragons+flew
"Goodwood" by Ian Daglish
This is one of the "Stackpole Military History Series" books. I'd have to look at publishing dates to figure it out, but Ian Daglish also wrote a few titles for the "Over the Battelfield" series, as well as the "Battlground Europe" series, and I believe that some of those works were inspired by his work on this book, as they seem to follow inspiration that he put into this one. This isn't your typical Stackpole book, although I really enjoy the Stackpole series. Ian conducted exhaustive study of previous accounts of Goodwood, from both sides of the battle, and combed the national archives, went through the aerial photographs taken over the battlefield as it occurred, and the records left from the battlefield tours conducted by the British Army of the Rhine after the war, to put this book together. This is one of the best, most readable, and most understandable accounts of a tank battle (or any battle) that I've ever read. It is profuse with photos, with indicators from which direction you are looking toward what with references to maps and aerial photos, in sequence, to orient you to what he is explaining in the text. To back it all up, the narrative is balanced off the aerial photos taken during the battle, and it is pretty much impossible to dispute photographic real-time evidence. It is the best kind of history, in that it is about facts, data, evidence, and it is objective and investigative. He is not making any arguments about whether Monty was an idiot or a misunderstood genius or any kind of rubbish like that. He is simply, and effectively, presented what can be determined from the evidence available of what happened. Period. The appendixes alone are almost a book in themselves, fully 1/4 of the book, and are as interesting reading as the narrative itself. Profuse with photos, maps, diagrams, etc. etc. Excellent. The only comment I would make about the outcome of the battle itself, from one who was a career tanker, is consider this: Of the three armoured divisions engaged in the battle, only one had any real experience of fighting a large scale armoured battle, the 7th AD, and that was in desert fighting, and they were the last division in this battle to get into the fight, with the brunt of the combat borne by the 11th and Guards Armoured, whose experience to this point was largely based on training and theory in England. This was the first large scale offensive armoured battle fought by the british army on the continent of Europe since 1918. For what they were up against, in those conditions with the equipment they had, with the level of experience they had, I think they did a pretty damn good job. It doesn't really matter whether it was supposed to be a 'breakout' or not. They held the field at the end of the day, and continued to take more of it with every push until the germans collapsed. That's success, and that's all that matters in war.
http://www.amazon.com/Goodwood-Offensive-Normandy-Stackpole-Military/dp/B005GNMBH6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358445650&sr=1-1&keywords=goodwood+ian+daglish
"Typhoon Attack" by Norman Franks
When studying british airborne and armoured operations in WW2, you have to also study a little something about close air support, and that means "Tiffies". There's only one other account of Typhoon operations in print that I know of, which is "Soldier in the Cockpit", and that title really kind of misleads what you'd expect, as it's more about the author, and there isn't much in the book about the operations he conducted after becoming a pilot. "Tyhpoon Attack" is the book you need. It covers pretty much all of it, from development of the Typhoon to experimenting with dive bombing, glide bombing, rockets, tactics, and all the other technical aspects you're probably interested in. There are descriptions from the pilots themselves of anti-ship action, blowing bridges, railroad tunnels, V weapons sights, tank busting, shooting up columns of vehicles, all of it. The author bases the book on the first hand accounts of the pilots, tieing them all together with narrative to make it a very readable and enjoyable book.
http://www.amazon.com/Typhoon-Attack-Legendary-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811706435/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358446202&sr=1-1&keywords=typhoon+attack
"Tank Tactics" by Roman Jarymowycz
Roman Jarymowycz is a retired Canadian Army (reserve) tank officer who commanded the Royal Canadian Hussars. I would really enjoy having a conversation with him on the subject of the book. It's an excellent book, and surprisingly, the only book that I know of that analyzes tank tactics of WW2. You would think there would be alot written on armoured tactics, since it was the largest armoured war ever fought, but there isn't. On the simplest level, an example of a 'tactic', would be holding a rock in your hand and waiting for the other guy to throw his, so you can duck it and then attack him back when he is unarmed and busy picking up another rock. At the other end of the spectrum is strategy, which involves the master plan and is only concerned with the ratio of how good your guys with rocks are against the other guys, and to figure out how to be the only guy left at the end that still has guys with rocks. In between the two, is operations, which involves where to send your guys with rocks to fulfill the strategy, and keeping them supplied with rocks. Although the book is titled "Tank Tactics", it really is a discussion of all three. Technically, tactics would be a discussion of what goes on only below the operational level. In that respect, there really isn't alot about 'tactics' in the book. There are explanations and a couple of diagrams of things like the ranges of opposing weapons, what hull down and turret down positions and things like that are, but if you're looking for in depth explanation of how a british tank squadron did it's job in an armoured division, it's not going to be in here. A contention I have with the guy is his repeated emphasis that if operations in Normandy had been conducted the way the Red Army was conducting operations on the eastern front, it would have been a quicker and more decisive campaign, and that (which I fully agree with) the russians by the summer of 1944 were masters of the art, and the western armies were amateurs still trying to figure out how it should be done. What I have the contention with, and if this guy was a colonel, he ought to know better, even if STAVKA was in charge in Normandy (there's actually a chapter about that), they would have been under the same constraints. There's a saying, "amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics", which is absolutely true. And in that, there's a bid difference between an army that has been fighting constantly for three full years figuring it out, and one who's first real battle is just being fought. And there's a big difference in what you can achieve with the room to deploy a thousand tanks over several miles of suitable country at a location of your choosing on a front of 2000 miles, with a rear area 1000 miles deep, with reserves and logistics columns literally 100 miles long each, lined up and ready to move to exploit success against the weakest possible sector of enemy front you can find. Even STAVKA would have struggled to enlarge a beach head 60 miles wide, in unsuitable terrain, against a massed dug in army, with a bridgehead not even large enough to have enough road space to stage columns of reserves and logistics. The only way you could compare in the way that Roman espouses, is if you completely dried the English Channel to open up the same opportunities to the western allies that the Russians had on their 2000 mile front.
So anyway, the book isn't really much about tank tactics, it's more about operational doctrine. But it is an excellent book about tank/armoured warfare in WW2, and well worth reading for that.
http://www.amazon.com/Tank-Tactics-Normandy-Lorraine-Stackpole/dp/0811735591/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358449265&sr=1-1&keywords=tank+tactics
"The Black Bull: From Normandy to the Baltic with the 11th Armoured Division" by Patrick Delaforce
Having been reading more about british airborne and armoured combat in the last two years than I have in the last 10, it took me a while to get around to reading about the 11th Armoured Division. From my other readings, I had picked up that it was purportedly the best of the british armoured force in the war. So I was curious to see what made it so much better than its peers. I didn't know what to expect when getting the book, and found when I got it that it is basically a compilation of first person accounts from men who were in the division that are compiled in chronological order. It isn't a "history" per se, but more a collection of memoirs. You have to read other histories that talk about the division and its actions in conjunction with this book to really get an idea of what was different about the division. The biggest difference was Pip Roberts, the division commander. Not fitting the mould of the stereotypically stuffy british officer that isn't interested in much other than polo and being a proper gentleman, Pip Roberts was truly a professional soldier that saw what worked and what didn't and took the appropriate actions accordingly to make things work. That of course rubs off on subordinates, and establishes an atmosphere and character of how business is conducted throughout an organization. Compare that to Guards Armoured Division, who didn't want to be on tanks in the first place, never liked them, and reverted back to being Foot Guards immediately after the war ended. Not exactly a conducive attitude for achieving success as an armoured force.
If you want to know what it was like to be a soldier IN a successful armoured division, this is the book for that.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Bull-Normandy-Armoured-Stackpole/dp/0811708977/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358449179&sr=1-1&keywords=the+black+bull+11th+armoured+division
"Taming the Panzers: 3rd RTR at War" by Patrick Delaforce
Although this history covers the 3rd Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment from its beginning in the First World War all the way through the end of WW2, it is primarily about its WW2 activity. Patrick Delaforce was a Royal Horse Artillery officer in 11th Armoured Division during the war, assigned as an FOO with the 29th Armoured Brigade (home of 3rd RTR) from the "Great Swan" after the breakout from Normandy through the cessation of hostilities. The 3rd RTR fought in nearly every campaign of the war from the battle for France in 1940, Greece, Crete, North Africa, and Northwest Europe, missing only Sicily and Italy. They started with Vickers Mk VI light tanks defending Calais, and ended with Comets on the Elbe River, fighting with almost every tank issued to the british army in between. If you're not already familiar with men like Bill Close and Jim Caswell already from other readings, you will be by the time you're done with this book. I think this is the only account I've ever read that gives you a good idea of what it was like in a tank regiment ALL the way through the war.
http://www.amazon.com/TAMING-THE-PANZERS-Montys-Batallions/dp/1848688202/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361827744&sr=8-1&keywords=taming+the+panzers
"Armoured Guardsmen: a War Diary from Normandy to the Rhine" by Robert Boscawen
Here is the anti-companion to "The Black Bull" reviewed above. Robert Boscawen was a graduate of Eton, Cambridge and Sandhurst, and I admire him and honor him as I do any veteran. But professionally speaking, his memoirs give an insight into why the Guards Armoured was not on par with 11th Armoured. Throughout his memoir, whether it's in England, or on the continent during the hositilities, he is constantly talking about the level of comforts or lack thereof of his circumstances. While his men are in harbour with the tanks, he is habitually driving off with fellow officers looking for other entertainment, including hunting, looking for eating establishments, driving from the front line off to Brussels and other places of interest and whatnot. He even mentions what a bore training was, and he wasn't really interested in it. Yes, he fought, lost his men in battle, and was a soldier, enduring what soldiers endure, but he was not a professional by the standards of most armies. A stereotype of the "gentleman in uniform". Unfortunately, when that old quote when the british soldier was asked by the american soldier, "what do your officers actually do" and he responds, "they show us how to die", this is the kind of thing the man was talking about. I hate to seem mean, and especially as on 1 April 1945 Robert Boscawen's tank was knocked out and he was severely burned, and some of his crew were killed. He ended the war in hospital, and the photos of him after the war clearly show the severe burn scars all over his face. But even reading his account of the engagement that ended the war for him, as a professional tanker, it was poorly handled, and the results were predictable. When I was a tanker, we refered to men as either "tankers", or "tank riders". Someone who habitually leaves his men to go find more 'pleasant' pursuits would fall under the latter category. The real troop leader was one of his sergeants.
But again, there aren't alot of memoirs of british tankers during the war out there, and to get an idea of what it was like, this book is as valid as any other.
http://www.amazon.com/Armoured-Guardsmen-Normandy-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811735273/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358450749&sr=1-1&keywords=armoured+guardsmen
"Military Training in the British Army, 1940-1944" by Timoth Harrison Place
Subtitled "From Dunkirk to D-Day", the author sticks to that time and subject, but he does illustrate in chapter 9 the culmination of that training in the experience of combat after combat operations commence after D-Day. Particularly regarding the performance of armour. If you want to know why the british army performed the way it did in Normandy and subsequently, you have to read this book. It will leave you with a distaste for the british military establishment, but it is what it is. If you don't want to be very disgusted by the british military establishment of the time, don't read this book and the book "Death by Design: British Tank Development in the Second World War" back to back. Luckily for me, I read a couple of other books in between these two. The books chapters cover the Dissemination of Doctrine, "Full-Sail" exercises, Infantry and Battle Drill, the failure of Infantry, the Armoured arm, Armoured divisions, Tank Co-operation with Infantry, Armour in North-West Europe, and a conclusion. In a nutshell, doctrine was poorly and loosely conceived, poorly disseminated, rarely adhered too, meddled with between personalities and departments, and the subjects of doctrine and training in the end were largely left to units and commanders themselves to be figured out and implemented, if at all. If I recall correctly, the author points out somewhere in the book that the term 'doctrine' itself, was not officially recognized by the british army until after the Gulf War of 1991. Although the book is pretty scathing, it does point out good things that happened to prepare the soldiers that had their first taste of combat during the war in Normandy, and it is arguable that the british army had the best artillery arm of any army during the war, which is why the author barely touches that subject.
For people like members of our club, who try to portray soldiers of the british army during the war, this book is indispensable for understanding how those soldiers were prepared to fight.
http://www.amazon.com/Military-Training-British-Army-1940-1944/dp/0714650374/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358374342&sr=1-1&keywords=military+training+in+the+british+army+1940-1944
"One Night in June" by Kevin Shannon and Stephen Wright
Kevin Shannon's father Bill took part in Operation Tonga, and Stephen Wright's (who authored "The Last Drop" reviewed above) uncle Billy Marfleet was killed in Operation Tonga. Kevin's father's memoirs form the basis of this book. There are God only knows how many books about seizing Pegasus Bridge and Merville Battery during D-Day, but relatively little about the rest of what happened happened during the early hours of 6th June before the sun came up that morning, from the perspective of the rest of 6th Airborne Division. This book fills in a huge hole in that regard, with personal accounts of the landings and subsequent combat that night as told by the glider pilots who were there. A large portion of the gliders flown in that night carried 6 pounder and 17 pounder anti-tank guns to set up an anti-tank screen on the southern and southeastern perimeter of the air head to guard against counter-attacks by the 21st Panzer and 12 SS Panzer divisions. Upon safely delivering their cargos and troops into the LZ's, the glider pilots were trained to assist their delivered troops by helping man the weapons and operate the equipment they delivered, as well as fighting as infantry and providing leadership, being trained to operate all the way up to taking command of combat platoons if need be. This is what they did during the night of Tonga, and this book tells that story. Excellent reading.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Night-June-Airlife-Classics/dp/1840371838/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358441551&sr=1-1&keywords=one+night+in+june
"Death by Design: British Tank Development in the Second World War" by Peter Beale
As mentioned above, you might not want to read this book and the previous book back-to-back. The book asks, and answers, the question why the country that invented the tank in WW1 failed to dominate the design and employment of the tank in WW2. The answers are not a happy story, and again, you want to take the men responsible for the failures and pick them up by the necks and shake them into sensibility. But they were who they were, and they did what they did. In a nutshell you had a colonial army that hadn't fought a war on the continent in 100 years, who reluctantly accepted tanks as a solution to a unique problem, that after the war never expected to fight a similar war again. They reverted to their colonial mentality and old cavalry traditions, and a return to "real soldiering". Then a world financial collapse that cut the budget, and the disbandment of the experimental mechanized forces that showed much promise, mostly due to interservice rivalry. Then a rush to produce any kind of tank whatsovever following the fall of France, by an unprepared industry, in a relatively small country, with no clear idea of just what type of machine was needed. The argument of the function of a tank, whether it was primarily an infantry support weapon, or a weapon of exploitation and pursuit, was never settled throughout the war. On top of that, things one would assume were a given, like the men tasked with designing tank cannon actually talking to the men who designed the tanks, were not a given, and things like the excellent 17 pounder gun not having a tank to be put into, were no accident, there simply was no requirement for it. The improvised Sherman Firefly was the culmination of a sergeant and officer on their own inititiative adapting it into a Sherman, and presenting it to the authorities, who wisely took up the project as an official matter. If it weren't for them, there wouldn't have been a british tank with the ability to take on contemporary german army until the Comet in the final months of the war. Well anyway, we portray a british armoured regiment, and this is something to be read to understand the equipment we would have been dealing with.
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Design-Peter-Beale/dp/075245370X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358375492&sr=1-4&keywords=death+by+design
"Troop Leader, a Tank Commander's Story" by Bill Bellamy
Bill Bellamy was a tanker in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars" of the 7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats), joining the division in North Africa and serving with it throughout the rest of the war. He started as a Transport Troop Commander, and quickly became a Troop Commander of a troop of Cromwell tanks after landing in Normandy. Very late in the war, his unit turned in their Cromwells for american built M24 Chaffees. His is an excellent account of what it was like to be a tanker in the british army during the war. Very readable, and very well spoken, you can't help liking him. A great book for someone portraying a british tanker.
http://www.amazon.com/Troop-Leader-Tank-Commanders-Story/dp/0750945346/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358376412&sr=1-1&keywords=troop+leader+a+tank+commander%27s+story
"Jake Wardrop's Diary: a Tank Regiment Sergeants's Story" by George Forty
Jake Wardrop served in the 5th RTR (5th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment) during it's entire service in WW2. Arriving in the Western Desert just after Wavell's trouncing of the Italians, Jake fought throughout the rest of the North African campaign, in Italy, through Normandy, all the way into Germany, being killed while his tank was being engaged by a panzerfauste ambush, in the final weeks of the war. Mr. Forty investigates what actually happened to Jake in his last battle, as Jake was not able to do it himself. The book is part biography, tieing Jake's diary in with the events he was taking part in, explaining the war from his perspective. The book includes several appendixes that clarifying who all the people were that Jake mentions in his diary, explain details of the tanks he speaks of, lists war memorials erected in the memory of the 7th Armoured Division, the "Desert Rats", and a final appendix of notes to the chapters in the book. There are only a limited number of books that explain what it was like to be a british tanker during the war, and this is one of them that you must get.
http://www.amazon.com/JACK-WARDROPS-DIARY-Regiment-Sergeants/dp/1848685807/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358442602&sr=1-1&keywords=jake+wardrop%27s+diary
"Two Sides of the Beach" by Edmund Blandford
The book is a compendium of short reminiscenses from british and german soldiers who fought in the Normandy campaign, starting on D-Day and ending with the german escape across the Seine river. Although billed as being from a wide range of allied and german forces, it is only the reminiscences of the british that are incuded. Scant mention of the canadians, americans or other allied forces are included in the narrative, and the author is quite an enthusiastic fan of Monty and quite not a fan of pretty much anyone else, particularly american, but up to and including many of Monty's own subordinate british commanders. But the words of the troops are very worthwhile reading. For someone portraying british soldiers of the war, this is an excellent resource to see it from their eyes. Something in particular, is the reinforcement of the image of the british soldier and his tea. Constantly, they are mentioning tea and biscuits. As soon as they stop an attack, brewing the tea, in between stonks, tea and biscuits. Escape from german captivity and back to friendly lines, just in time for tea and biscuits. Even the germans in the book talk about survival of the shelling, being over-run by british tanks and infantry, and being sent to the british rear, to be given tea and biscuits. A couple of other notable mentions are a running theme that during operations like Goodwood, although the tank losses were heavy, the manpower losses were relatively light, and the crews knew that there were plenty more tanks where the other ones had come from to replace them. Also, one incident of a 3" mortar crew. They had fired so many bombs off that the barrel overheated, so they swapped out barrels, only to have that one overheat and a bomb got stuck in the hot barrel. So they threw the hot barrel with bomb stuck in it out of their pit toward the germans, and it blew up, killing some germans right outside their pit.
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Sides-Beach-Invasion-Defense/dp/0785813675/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359563577&sr=8-1&keywords=two+sides+of+the+beach
"Colossal Cracks: Montgomery's 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe, 1944-45" by Stephen Hart
'Colossal Cracks' was more-or-less Montgomery's method, or strategy, for defeating the germans. I say it that way, because although I expected a concise answer somewhere in the book that defines 'Colossal Cracks', there isn't one. For students of WW2, familiar with terms like "Blitzkrieg", defined as "Lightning War", or "Carpet Bombing", which pretty much explains itself, I figured "Colossal Cracks", would be defined something like creating a large crack in the german front, which could be exploited. Not the case at all. Not until you reach page 74 (well over 1/3 of the way through the book), do you find "The Fundamentals of Monty's Operational Technique". These fundamentals are listed right after a paragraph that states, "in 1945 Montgomery defined eight principles of modern war that constituted the 'essentials of success.' " If it was only in the last months of the war that he finally explained how to achieve success to anyone, it is no wonder that there has been so much criticism of his methods, since for the entire campaign in the ETO up to that point, aparently no-one knew what his methods were. But even once the author finally gets around to addressing details of Monty's operational technique, the first thing he does, is explain that Montgomery had his own ideas about how to conduct operations, but then didn't even stick to his own ideas, and used them indiscriminately which confused his subordinates, and how even in Monty's post-war writings, were imprecise, and (my observation) rambling. But although the whole issue is very foggy, the fundamentals are supposed to be, Under the heading "Colossal Cracks I: The Set-Piece Battle" are; "The Master Plan", "Concentration", "Firepower Based Attrition", "Caution", and "Alternate Thrusts". Under "Colossal Cracks II: The Other Elements" are; "Maintenance of the Initiative", "Balance", "Administratinon", "Airpower", and "Ancillary Elements of Monty's Approach (still under 'Colossal Cracks II') "Grip", "Flank Protection", "Surprise", "Flexibility", "Cooperation", "Simplicity" and "The Assimilation of Combat Lessons". The rest of the book, about 60 pages, describes Dempsey's handling of British 2nd Army and Crerar's handling of Canadian 1st Army, and how their performance fit in (or not) with Montgomery's ideas of "Colossal Cracks". Well, take it for what you will. The hardest part of reading this book, which I found tiresome, was getting through the first 41 pages, which pointed out God knows how many times (I don't want to remember) the "fragility of morale" of the british troops of the 21st Army Group. Thinking I had finally passed the pounding of my head with the "fragility of morale", there in the third pagraph of the next chapter, I was already getting hit again with the "fragile morale of the 21st Army Group's citizen soldiers". Well anyway, if portraying a british soldier of the war, this book will give you some insight into the hierarchy of why the british army was operating the way it did in northwest Europe. Bottom line is that whether you like Monty or not, or the way he conducted the campaign, we won the war. In war, that is all that matters.
http://www.amazon.com/Colossal-Cracks-Montgomerys-Northwest-Stackpole/dp/0811733831/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359566292&sr=1-1&keywords=colossal+cracks
"Over the Battlefield: Operation Bluecoat, Breakout from Normandy" by Ian Daglish
Ian Daglish, as in his other works, again brings together plenty of in-depth research, maps, aerial photographs, and memoirs to paint an excellent picture of how this operation, one of the final of the Normandy campaign, was conducted. For those of us who are portraying armoured reconnaissance troops, this is quite refreshing, as we finally see british armoured recce troops probing deep into gaps found in the german lines, capturing "Dickie's Bridge" and holding it until relieved by tanks driving deep to exploit the success, fluid armoured battles of exploitation and counter-attack, and clear examples of what made the reputation of 11th Armoured Division a cut above the rest. When it comes to studying what british armoured reconnaissance was supposed to be about, this is a good book to read. Make sure when looking for this book, that you don't confuse it with the "Operation Bluecoat" book of the "Battleground Europe" series, also written by Ian Daglish, that are battlefield tour guides. The tour book by Daglish of the same operation was published in 2003, and this more comprehensive history of the operation was published by Daglish in 2009. This later book is a greatly expanded version of th earlier tour guide, with more of everthing in it, without the tour notes and information.
http://www.amazon.com/OPERATION-BLUECOAT-BATTLEFIELD-Breakout-Normandy/dp/1848840497/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359567191&sr=1-1&keywords=operation+bluecoat
"7th Armoured Division at Villers Bocage" by David Porter
This is from the "Visual Battle Guide" series, which has a companion book "1st SS Panzer Division at Villers Bocage". Although it doesn't have anything in particular to do with 6th AARR, it is a good insight into armoured operations of the British Army in Normandy, and the 7th Armoured was the only armoured division equipped with Cromwells as it's primary tank, which the 6th AARR also operated, so if you want a link, there it is. The book gives a brief history of the 7th AD up to Normandy, and goes into detail of the makeup of the division, it's equipment and training, personnel issues, and has lots of graphs, photos, charts and whatnot, and finishes up with a chapter on the actual combat at Villers Bocage and the Battle of the Brigade Box. This is a good one-book introduction to british armoured combat in Normandy, as the way it is set up, it gives a good 'snap-shot' of a british armoured unit's history, makeup, equipment, training, tactics and doctrine, and performance in combat all in one book with lots of visuals to illustrate it.
http://www.amazon.com/7TH-ARMOURED-DIVISION-VILLERS-BOCAGE/dp/1908273771/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360959302&sr=8-1&keywords=7th+armoured+division+at+villers+bocage
"D-Day, the First 72 Hours" by William F. Buckingham
This is an excellent analysis of the critical initial assault force phase of the invasion and the german reaction to it. After the first 72 hours, the allied follow on forces began to make their presence felt, so this book is strictly concerned with the establishment of the beach head. It begins with an analysis of the forces involved, the planning process, and the preparations and expectations of both sides up until the launching of the attack. It then breaks down what happened in 12 hour increments for the next three days, until the follow on forces begin combat operations and the initial assault is considered over. There is alot of insight into what was going on between the 6th Airborne Division and the german 711th, 716th, 346th Infantry Divisions and the 21st Panzer Division. Of particular interest is the information regarding Kampfgruppe Von Luck, which was the most serious armoured threat to the 6th Airborne Division. Although Von Luck had 21st armoured recon battalion, and an unknown number of Mk IV tanks and assault guns from Panzer Regiment 22 and Stug Battalion 200 under his control, nowhere did he make any significant dent in the airborne perimeter, and the 6th Airborne logs never mention anything that would constitute anything heavier than what they considered armoured probes. Certainly no mention of a concentrated armoured assault. Whenever groups of german armour get too close to the airborne forces, they're thrashed severely, such as the first encounter at about 03:00 on 6th June when 6 armoured half tracks probing north are knocked out in quick succession by two PIAT teams just north of Troarn. Probably the biggest thorn was the battle for Breville on the Bois de Bavent Ridge, and this wasn't caused by 21st Panzer, but from elements of the 346th Division moved down from Le Havre and supported by a small armoured force supplied by 15th Army. It is clear from this book that the 12th SS passed too far south of the Airborne Perimeter to have made any contact with the 6th AB, and that What elements 21st Panzer did commit against 6th AB were ineffective.
http://www.amazon.com/D-Day-First-Hours-Revealing-History/dp/075242842X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360961227&sr=1-1&keywords=d-day+the+first+72+hours
Well, what can I say about this book other than it is "the bible" for our club. Keith Flint has put together a fantastically informative and readable account of one of the most obscure military niche formations ever to exist. Landing a tank by a giant wooden glider straight into combat is right up there with flying airship 'aircraft carriers' flying biplanes off of them and aerosan propeller driven ski attack vehicles. If you want to know anything about the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, this book is the place to start. Anything else you are likely to read was probably researched as material contributing to this book anyway. I think the only things I know about the 6th AARR that aren't included in this book, are the occasional mention of tanks of the regiment in other soldier's recollections, and material I've received from some of the veterans of the regiment themselves in letters and phone conversations. You simply have to have this book. Period.
http://www.amazon.com/Airborne-Armour-Tetrarch-Hamilcar-Reconnaissance/dp/1906033803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358357261&sr=8-1&keywords=airborne+armour
"Go To It" by Peter Harclerode
The Illustrated History of the 6th Airborne Division. This is the most prominent history of the division, and breaks the contents down into the formation and training of the division, and then it's operational history. The operational history is broken down into the campaigns the divsion fought in, and those campaigns are broken down into a format covering the actions of the individual brigades and battalions in smaller stand-alone sections. So the reader can look into Operation Varsity, for instance, and within that chapter, flip the pages to find the heading for "6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment" to read what the regiment did during that operation. The illustrations give a very good representation of the various elements of the division through its history, although the narrative portion of the book is relatively brief when it comes to trying to cover so many units in a book of less than two pages. In particular, there are several errors in the narratives for the 6th AARR, such as describing the unit structure for the Normandy campaign using the structure that was actually implemented in the Fall of 1944 after the regiment returned to England. But if the book is balanced off "Airborne Armour" by Keith Flint, it is a book well worth having, and the best overall history of the 6th AB Division available.
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Peter-Harclerode/dp/184067136X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358358440&sr=1-2&keywords=Go+To+It+Peter+Harclerode
"The Last Drop" by Stephen Wright
Operatin Varsity, March 24-25, 1945. A very enjoyable read, and my personal favorite account of the battle. The author takes a similar approach to this book as Peter Harclerode took writing "Go To It". He covers both the british 6th Airborne Division and the US 17th Airborne Division's participation in the battle. He begins with chapters on planning, training, preparations, and the takeoff, and then goes into the battle itself with the rest of the book. Then, like "Go To It", he covers the events of the battle broken down by division, and within those chapters breaks the action down by unit, so that again, you can flip the pags until you find "Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment" to read specifically about the involvement of the 6th AARR. But don't skip the other unit accounts, because you will miss references to actions of the tanks of the regiment that were witnessed by soldiers from the other units. The book is entirely based on first hand accounts, as told by the participants themselves, with just enough background, detail and input from the author to tie all the accounts into a very readable and understandable history, as told by the participants.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Drop-Operation-Varsity/dp/081170310X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1358365989&sr=8-5&keywords=the+last+drop
"Bounce the Rhine" by Charles Whiting
Although the subtitle on the dust jacket says, "The Greatest Airborne Operation in History", it is misleading, as the book is really about all the operations from 1944 through 1945 that involved that attempted, or succeeded, in crossing the Rhine. The book is divided into four parts, and each part into several chapters, although none of the chapters are named, and those chapters only loosely tie the 'parts' together. So if you want to use the book as a reference after you're done with your first read, you had better have hiliter in hand and be prepared to dog ear pages to find anything later. The book starts with the withdrawal of 1st AB Division across the Rhine from Arnhem, and then goes on to cover pretty much anything that happened between then and the the final taking of Arnhem in April 1945. It's worth reading, and does actually cover Operation Varsity, but it is by no means a history of Operation Varsity. If you want a book that actually is ABOUT Operation Varsity, read "The Last Drop".
http://www.amazon.com/BOUNCE-RHINE-CHARLES-WHITING/dp/0436574004/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358366897&sr=1-1&keywords=bounce+the+rhin
"The History of the Glider Pilot Regiment" by Claude Smith
Claude Smith was a glider pilot in the regiment during the war, having flown into both Normandy and Arnhem, during which battle he was taken prisoner. He covers the regiment from its inception after the fall of France, to it's final disbandment in the 1950's, and includes operations in the far east as well as operations in the ETO and Mediterranean. It is THE best history for learning about glider operations of the british army. With maps of all operations, four sections of black and white photos, and quality artwork throughout, and written by one with personal experience, it is an excellent book.
http://www.amazon.com/HISTORY-GLIDER-PILOT-REGIMENT-Claude/dp/1844156265/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358370972&sr=1-1&keywords=history+of+the+glider+pilot+regiment
"A Bridge Too Far" by Cornelius Ryan
If you didn't already know it, this is the book that the movie of the same title was based on. And even with it's glitches, the movie is of course one of the best and most accurate war movies ever made, and reading the book shows you why it was chosen to become a movie. Ryan was one of the best military historians of the 20th Century, and although he only wrote three histories before he died of cancer, two of them were made into blockbuster films, this one, and "The Longest Day". "A Bridge Too Far" and the book "It Never Snows in September", from the german perspective of Operation Market Garden, are THE two books you should start with when reading about Operation Market Garden. Then you should start reading all the others......
http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Too-Far-Classic-Greatest/dp/0684803305/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358371482&sr=1-1&keywords=a+bridge+too+far
"It Never Snows in September" by Robert Kershaw
As mentioned above, if you want to know about Market Garden, you have to read this book. 364 pages long, packed with photographs, maps, with copies of orders to the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, diagrams of their Order of Battle, and extremely well organized and full of first hand accounts, when you read the book, it is hard to put down. I have read this particular book three times from cover to cover, and often refer back to it when reading other books, or when pondering "what if's". One of my favorite books of any historical period.
http://www.amazon.com/Never-Snows-September-German-Market/dp/1885119313/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358372977&sr=1-1&keywords=it+never+snows+in+september
"Arnhem Lift" by Louis Hagen
Louis Hagen was born and raised in Germany, the son of a prominent Jewish banker. While working as an apprentice engineer at BMW, he made some remarks about Hitler, and ended up in a concentration camp for six weeks. After being leveraged out by a family friend with connections, he left Germany and went to Britain. Long story short, he became a glider pilot, and piloted a Horsa into the Arnhem operation. Serving as infantry after the drop, he initially participated in assaults to expand the perimeter, and then served most of the rest of the operation on the eastern perimeter at Oosterbeek southeast of the Hartenstein hotel, engaged in house-to-house fighting. A lot of that time was spent in an attic, firing at forays by german tanks using a PIAT. He eventually was able to make it back over the Rhine. He wrote an account of the battle while recovering, and after recovery, was sent to southeast asia to serve as a glider pilot there. He discovered while there that his account of the battle had been published, and so did his superiors, and they re-assigned him as a war correspondent for the rest of the war. It is an excellent book, and one of the best personal accounts I've read of the fighting in the Oosterbeek perimeter by one who was there.
http://www.amazon.com/Arnhem-Lift-Fighting-Gilder-Remembers/dp/0850523753/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1358440268&sr=8-10&keywords=arnhem+lift
"Arnhem Spearhead" by James Sims
This is the only account of the battle at Arnhem written by a Private who was there. James Sims was in the mortar platoon of the 2nd Para, and made it to the bridge, where he fought until the end, wounded and taken prisoner. His is an excellent account from a young man who was a ranker, to say nothing of a first hand account of what it was like being in one of the toughest engagements in one of the worst situations fought on the western front. And it has the added appeal of giving insight into what it was like to serve on a mortar crew at that. While thumbing through the book for this review, and having recently done some mortar gunnery training with the club, I've realized I need to read this yet again. Good stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/Arnhem-Spearhead-Private-Soldiers-Story/dp/0722178700/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358443639&sr=1-1&keywords=arnhem+spearhead
"The Gunners at Arnhem" by Peter Wilkinson
This is more of a traditional researched history of the 'who, what, when and where' mold than most of the other books about Arnhem already reviewed here. This is the only book I know of that documents what the Airlanding Light Regiment, Royal Artillery, as well as the Airlanding Anti-tank Batteries, Royal Artillery did during the battle. It gives fairly exhaustive detail of what guns were where doing what and when, down to individual pieces when talking about the anti-tank guns. It also lists a large amount of information on who the crews and leaders were and what they were doing, including many lists of citations and the actions that earned those citations. And it's no wonder there were many citations. With all their jeeps destroyed and gun tires shredded from shrapnel and bullets, over and over, you read of the gun crews on the pack howitzers fighting it out at point blank range with tanks and assault guns until finally over-run, and even then the crews run to the rear to find PIATs to keep fighting with, and run to other guns with crews dead, to keep on fighting the guns to the last round. I haven't read accounts of gunners of any army in WW2 that compare. Unfortunately, it's been out of print for quite some time, and so the few copies available at the link are rather like gold.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Gunners-Arnhem-Peter-Wilkinson/dp/0953575403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361222291&sr=8-1&keywords=the+gunners+at+arnhem
"The Glider Soldiers" by Alan Wood
Alan Wood was aircrew in 38th Group during the war, serving on Halifaxes and Dakotas, towing Horsas, Hamilcars, dropping paratroops and supplies, snatching Hadrians and the whole bit. With that background, and having access to all the materials and resources that go along with that, he has written a very different kind of history than the other books reviewed here. It has short histories of the units that made up the airborne, glider and tug forces, but also contains a ton of technical and administrative info for those forces, down to cutaway construction diagrams of experimental gliders, lists of all the airfields and who was using them for what purpose, what types of tug were used by each glider school, etc. etc. On top of that, there are histories for each individual airborne operation of the war, and within those histories, are copies of orders for the mission, tables including what tug/glider combinations from what squadron were used by what airlanding unit with what chalk number and carrying what loads. And on top of all that, the dust jacket on the copy I own has artwork of a painting of Operation Varsity, with a Locust rolling across an LZ full of gliders and troops under fire with a sky full of gliders on their run-ins above. What more could one ask for?
http://www.amazon.com/GLIDER-SOLDIERS-History-British-Military/dp/0946771995/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361224098&sr=1-3&keywords=the+glider+soldiers
"An Arnhem Odyssey: Market Garden to Stalag IVB" by Jim Longson and Christine Tayor
Jim Longson was a Vickers Gunner in the 1st Border Regiment at Arnhem. The book is a collaboration between Jim and Christine Taylor, and is based on the recollections of Jim, along with the recollections of Ginger Wilson and Johnny Peters, both also of the Border Regiment. If you read this account along with the others reviewed here, you will start to get a fairly good understanding of the workings of the components that make up the airborne divisions. Although Jim's story is of Arnhem, he is representative of all the airborne. Jim was a Vickers gunner, James Sims listed above was a 3" mortar crewman. Peter Wilkinson's book covers the 3" howitzer and 6 and 17 pounder anti-tank gunners. Keith Flint covers the the armoured recce troops, and also discusses the 1st Airborne Recce Regiment in his book, who were at Arnhem and were equipped with nothing heavier than a jeep. Louis Hagen was a glider pilot flying into Arnhem, and served as infantry, fighting against german infantry in house to house fighting and operating the section's PIAT whenever armour got too close. Well anyway, back to Jim's story, he fought all the way through the battle of Arnhem up to the withdrawal across the Rhine, and during his and his mates second attempt to get across the river, they found themselves surrounded by bosche, and ended up in the bag. The second half of the book deals with his time as a POW, which unfortunately is also representative of so many airborne troopers from Arnhem. The book is full of photographs, and is an easy read.
http://www.amazon.com/Arnhem-Odyssey-Market-Garden-Stalag/dp/0850524490/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361225626&sr=1-1&keywords=an+arnhem+odyssey
"When Dragons Flew: An Illustrated History of The 1st Battalion The Border Regiment 1939-45" by Stewart Eastwood, Charles Gray and Alan Green
This book chronicles the 1st Bn The Border Regt from the time it left Palestine in 1939 up through becoming an airborne unit and it's role in the war, through the rebuilding of the battalion after Arnhem to its finaly duty in Norway. The book discusses the battalion's role in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, but the majority of the book is in chapter 8, that breaks down the action of the battalion day-by-day during operation Market. There are 9 appendixes to the book, detailing the Roll of Honor of the dead, the complete muster role of those at Arnhem, honors and awards, details of gliders, loads and personnel, operations orders, badges and insignia, etc. The book is lavishly illustrated with photos, a few in color, maps, and aerial photos.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Dragons-Flew-Stuart-Eastwood/dp/1857940482/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361226341&sr=1-1&keywords=when+dragons+flew
"Goodwood" by Ian Daglish
This is one of the "Stackpole Military History Series" books. I'd have to look at publishing dates to figure it out, but Ian Daglish also wrote a few titles for the "Over the Battelfield" series, as well as the "Battlground Europe" series, and I believe that some of those works were inspired by his work on this book, as they seem to follow inspiration that he put into this one. This isn't your typical Stackpole book, although I really enjoy the Stackpole series. Ian conducted exhaustive study of previous accounts of Goodwood, from both sides of the battle, and combed the national archives, went through the aerial photographs taken over the battlefield as it occurred, and the records left from the battlefield tours conducted by the British Army of the Rhine after the war, to put this book together. This is one of the best, most readable, and most understandable accounts of a tank battle (or any battle) that I've ever read. It is profuse with photos, with indicators from which direction you are looking toward what with references to maps and aerial photos, in sequence, to orient you to what he is explaining in the text. To back it all up, the narrative is balanced off the aerial photos taken during the battle, and it is pretty much impossible to dispute photographic real-time evidence. It is the best kind of history, in that it is about facts, data, evidence, and it is objective and investigative. He is not making any arguments about whether Monty was an idiot or a misunderstood genius or any kind of rubbish like that. He is simply, and effectively, presented what can be determined from the evidence available of what happened. Period. The appendixes alone are almost a book in themselves, fully 1/4 of the book, and are as interesting reading as the narrative itself. Profuse with photos, maps, diagrams, etc. etc. Excellent. The only comment I would make about the outcome of the battle itself, from one who was a career tanker, is consider this: Of the three armoured divisions engaged in the battle, only one had any real experience of fighting a large scale armoured battle, the 7th AD, and that was in desert fighting, and they were the last division in this battle to get into the fight, with the brunt of the combat borne by the 11th and Guards Armoured, whose experience to this point was largely based on training and theory in England. This was the first large scale offensive armoured battle fought by the british army on the continent of Europe since 1918. For what they were up against, in those conditions with the equipment they had, with the level of experience they had, I think they did a pretty damn good job. It doesn't really matter whether it was supposed to be a 'breakout' or not. They held the field at the end of the day, and continued to take more of it with every push until the germans collapsed. That's success, and that's all that matters in war.
http://www.amazon.com/Goodwood-Offensive-Normandy-Stackpole-Military/dp/B005GNMBH6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358445650&sr=1-1&keywords=goodwood+ian+daglish
"Typhoon Attack" by Norman Franks
When studying british airborne and armoured operations in WW2, you have to also study a little something about close air support, and that means "Tiffies". There's only one other account of Typhoon operations in print that I know of, which is "Soldier in the Cockpit", and that title really kind of misleads what you'd expect, as it's more about the author, and there isn't much in the book about the operations he conducted after becoming a pilot. "Tyhpoon Attack" is the book you need. It covers pretty much all of it, from development of the Typhoon to experimenting with dive bombing, glide bombing, rockets, tactics, and all the other technical aspects you're probably interested in. There are descriptions from the pilots themselves of anti-ship action, blowing bridges, railroad tunnels, V weapons sights, tank busting, shooting up columns of vehicles, all of it. The author bases the book on the first hand accounts of the pilots, tieing them all together with narrative to make it a very readable and enjoyable book.
http://www.amazon.com/Typhoon-Attack-Legendary-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811706435/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358446202&sr=1-1&keywords=typhoon+attack
"Tank Tactics" by Roman Jarymowycz
Roman Jarymowycz is a retired Canadian Army (reserve) tank officer who commanded the Royal Canadian Hussars. I would really enjoy having a conversation with him on the subject of the book. It's an excellent book, and surprisingly, the only book that I know of that analyzes tank tactics of WW2. You would think there would be alot written on armoured tactics, since it was the largest armoured war ever fought, but there isn't. On the simplest level, an example of a 'tactic', would be holding a rock in your hand and waiting for the other guy to throw his, so you can duck it and then attack him back when he is unarmed and busy picking up another rock. At the other end of the spectrum is strategy, which involves the master plan and is only concerned with the ratio of how good your guys with rocks are against the other guys, and to figure out how to be the only guy left at the end that still has guys with rocks. In between the two, is operations, which involves where to send your guys with rocks to fulfill the strategy, and keeping them supplied with rocks. Although the book is titled "Tank Tactics", it really is a discussion of all three. Technically, tactics would be a discussion of what goes on only below the operational level. In that respect, there really isn't alot about 'tactics' in the book. There are explanations and a couple of diagrams of things like the ranges of opposing weapons, what hull down and turret down positions and things like that are, but if you're looking for in depth explanation of how a british tank squadron did it's job in an armoured division, it's not going to be in here. A contention I have with the guy is his repeated emphasis that if operations in Normandy had been conducted the way the Red Army was conducting operations on the eastern front, it would have been a quicker and more decisive campaign, and that (which I fully agree with) the russians by the summer of 1944 were masters of the art, and the western armies were amateurs still trying to figure out how it should be done. What I have the contention with, and if this guy was a colonel, he ought to know better, even if STAVKA was in charge in Normandy (there's actually a chapter about that), they would have been under the same constraints. There's a saying, "amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics", which is absolutely true. And in that, there's a bid difference between an army that has been fighting constantly for three full years figuring it out, and one who's first real battle is just being fought. And there's a big difference in what you can achieve with the room to deploy a thousand tanks over several miles of suitable country at a location of your choosing on a front of 2000 miles, with a rear area 1000 miles deep, with reserves and logistics columns literally 100 miles long each, lined up and ready to move to exploit success against the weakest possible sector of enemy front you can find. Even STAVKA would have struggled to enlarge a beach head 60 miles wide, in unsuitable terrain, against a massed dug in army, with a bridgehead not even large enough to have enough road space to stage columns of reserves and logistics. The only way you could compare in the way that Roman espouses, is if you completely dried the English Channel to open up the same opportunities to the western allies that the Russians had on their 2000 mile front.
So anyway, the book isn't really much about tank tactics, it's more about operational doctrine. But it is an excellent book about tank/armoured warfare in WW2, and well worth reading for that.
http://www.amazon.com/Tank-Tactics-Normandy-Lorraine-Stackpole/dp/0811735591/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358449265&sr=1-1&keywords=tank+tactics
"The Black Bull: From Normandy to the Baltic with the 11th Armoured Division" by Patrick Delaforce
Having been reading more about british airborne and armoured combat in the last two years than I have in the last 10, it took me a while to get around to reading about the 11th Armoured Division. From my other readings, I had picked up that it was purportedly the best of the british armoured force in the war. So I was curious to see what made it so much better than its peers. I didn't know what to expect when getting the book, and found when I got it that it is basically a compilation of first person accounts from men who were in the division that are compiled in chronological order. It isn't a "history" per se, but more a collection of memoirs. You have to read other histories that talk about the division and its actions in conjunction with this book to really get an idea of what was different about the division. The biggest difference was Pip Roberts, the division commander. Not fitting the mould of the stereotypically stuffy british officer that isn't interested in much other than polo and being a proper gentleman, Pip Roberts was truly a professional soldier that saw what worked and what didn't and took the appropriate actions accordingly to make things work. That of course rubs off on subordinates, and establishes an atmosphere and character of how business is conducted throughout an organization. Compare that to Guards Armoured Division, who didn't want to be on tanks in the first place, never liked them, and reverted back to being Foot Guards immediately after the war ended. Not exactly a conducive attitude for achieving success as an armoured force.
If you want to know what it was like to be a soldier IN a successful armoured division, this is the book for that.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Bull-Normandy-Armoured-Stackpole/dp/0811708977/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358449179&sr=1-1&keywords=the+black+bull+11th+armoured+division
"Taming the Panzers: 3rd RTR at War" by Patrick Delaforce
Although this history covers the 3rd Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment from its beginning in the First World War all the way through the end of WW2, it is primarily about its WW2 activity. Patrick Delaforce was a Royal Horse Artillery officer in 11th Armoured Division during the war, assigned as an FOO with the 29th Armoured Brigade (home of 3rd RTR) from the "Great Swan" after the breakout from Normandy through the cessation of hostilities. The 3rd RTR fought in nearly every campaign of the war from the battle for France in 1940, Greece, Crete, North Africa, and Northwest Europe, missing only Sicily and Italy. They started with Vickers Mk VI light tanks defending Calais, and ended with Comets on the Elbe River, fighting with almost every tank issued to the british army in between. If you're not already familiar with men like Bill Close and Jim Caswell already from other readings, you will be by the time you're done with this book. I think this is the only account I've ever read that gives you a good idea of what it was like in a tank regiment ALL the way through the war.
http://www.amazon.com/TAMING-THE-PANZERS-Montys-Batallions/dp/1848688202/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361827744&sr=8-1&keywords=taming+the+panzers
"Armoured Guardsmen: a War Diary from Normandy to the Rhine" by Robert Boscawen
Here is the anti-companion to "The Black Bull" reviewed above. Robert Boscawen was a graduate of Eton, Cambridge and Sandhurst, and I admire him and honor him as I do any veteran. But professionally speaking, his memoirs give an insight into why the Guards Armoured was not on par with 11th Armoured. Throughout his memoir, whether it's in England, or on the continent during the hositilities, he is constantly talking about the level of comforts or lack thereof of his circumstances. While his men are in harbour with the tanks, he is habitually driving off with fellow officers looking for other entertainment, including hunting, looking for eating establishments, driving from the front line off to Brussels and other places of interest and whatnot. He even mentions what a bore training was, and he wasn't really interested in it. Yes, he fought, lost his men in battle, and was a soldier, enduring what soldiers endure, but he was not a professional by the standards of most armies. A stereotype of the "gentleman in uniform". Unfortunately, when that old quote when the british soldier was asked by the american soldier, "what do your officers actually do" and he responds, "they show us how to die", this is the kind of thing the man was talking about. I hate to seem mean, and especially as on 1 April 1945 Robert Boscawen's tank was knocked out and he was severely burned, and some of his crew were killed. He ended the war in hospital, and the photos of him after the war clearly show the severe burn scars all over his face. But even reading his account of the engagement that ended the war for him, as a professional tanker, it was poorly handled, and the results were predictable. When I was a tanker, we refered to men as either "tankers", or "tank riders". Someone who habitually leaves his men to go find more 'pleasant' pursuits would fall under the latter category. The real troop leader was one of his sergeants.
But again, there aren't alot of memoirs of british tankers during the war out there, and to get an idea of what it was like, this book is as valid as any other.
http://www.amazon.com/Armoured-Guardsmen-Normandy-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811735273/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358450749&sr=1-1&keywords=armoured+guardsmen
"Military Training in the British Army, 1940-1944" by Timoth Harrison Place
Subtitled "From Dunkirk to D-Day", the author sticks to that time and subject, but he does illustrate in chapter 9 the culmination of that training in the experience of combat after combat operations commence after D-Day. Particularly regarding the performance of armour. If you want to know why the british army performed the way it did in Normandy and subsequently, you have to read this book. It will leave you with a distaste for the british military establishment, but it is what it is. If you don't want to be very disgusted by the british military establishment of the time, don't read this book and the book "Death by Design: British Tank Development in the Second World War" back to back. Luckily for me, I read a couple of other books in between these two. The books chapters cover the Dissemination of Doctrine, "Full-Sail" exercises, Infantry and Battle Drill, the failure of Infantry, the Armoured arm, Armoured divisions, Tank Co-operation with Infantry, Armour in North-West Europe, and a conclusion. In a nutshell, doctrine was poorly and loosely conceived, poorly disseminated, rarely adhered too, meddled with between personalities and departments, and the subjects of doctrine and training in the end were largely left to units and commanders themselves to be figured out and implemented, if at all. If I recall correctly, the author points out somewhere in the book that the term 'doctrine' itself, was not officially recognized by the british army until after the Gulf War of 1991. Although the book is pretty scathing, it does point out good things that happened to prepare the soldiers that had their first taste of combat during the war in Normandy, and it is arguable that the british army had the best artillery arm of any army during the war, which is why the author barely touches that subject.
For people like members of our club, who try to portray soldiers of the british army during the war, this book is indispensable for understanding how those soldiers were prepared to fight.
http://www.amazon.com/Military-Training-British-Army-1940-1944/dp/0714650374/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358374342&sr=1-1&keywords=military+training+in+the+british+army+1940-1944
"One Night in June" by Kevin Shannon and Stephen Wright
Kevin Shannon's father Bill took part in Operation Tonga, and Stephen Wright's (who authored "The Last Drop" reviewed above) uncle Billy Marfleet was killed in Operation Tonga. Kevin's father's memoirs form the basis of this book. There are God only knows how many books about seizing Pegasus Bridge and Merville Battery during D-Day, but relatively little about the rest of what happened happened during the early hours of 6th June before the sun came up that morning, from the perspective of the rest of 6th Airborne Division. This book fills in a huge hole in that regard, with personal accounts of the landings and subsequent combat that night as told by the glider pilots who were there. A large portion of the gliders flown in that night carried 6 pounder and 17 pounder anti-tank guns to set up an anti-tank screen on the southern and southeastern perimeter of the air head to guard against counter-attacks by the 21st Panzer and 12 SS Panzer divisions. Upon safely delivering their cargos and troops into the LZ's, the glider pilots were trained to assist their delivered troops by helping man the weapons and operate the equipment they delivered, as well as fighting as infantry and providing leadership, being trained to operate all the way up to taking command of combat platoons if need be. This is what they did during the night of Tonga, and this book tells that story. Excellent reading.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Night-June-Airlife-Classics/dp/1840371838/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358441551&sr=1-1&keywords=one+night+in+june
"Death by Design: British Tank Development in the Second World War" by Peter Beale
As mentioned above, you might not want to read this book and the previous book back-to-back. The book asks, and answers, the question why the country that invented the tank in WW1 failed to dominate the design and employment of the tank in WW2. The answers are not a happy story, and again, you want to take the men responsible for the failures and pick them up by the necks and shake them into sensibility. But they were who they were, and they did what they did. In a nutshell you had a colonial army that hadn't fought a war on the continent in 100 years, who reluctantly accepted tanks as a solution to a unique problem, that after the war never expected to fight a similar war again. They reverted to their colonial mentality and old cavalry traditions, and a return to "real soldiering". Then a world financial collapse that cut the budget, and the disbandment of the experimental mechanized forces that showed much promise, mostly due to interservice rivalry. Then a rush to produce any kind of tank whatsovever following the fall of France, by an unprepared industry, in a relatively small country, with no clear idea of just what type of machine was needed. The argument of the function of a tank, whether it was primarily an infantry support weapon, or a weapon of exploitation and pursuit, was never settled throughout the war. On top of that, things one would assume were a given, like the men tasked with designing tank cannon actually talking to the men who designed the tanks, were not a given, and things like the excellent 17 pounder gun not having a tank to be put into, were no accident, there simply was no requirement for it. The improvised Sherman Firefly was the culmination of a sergeant and officer on their own inititiative adapting it into a Sherman, and presenting it to the authorities, who wisely took up the project as an official matter. If it weren't for them, there wouldn't have been a british tank with the ability to take on contemporary german army until the Comet in the final months of the war. Well anyway, we portray a british armoured regiment, and this is something to be read to understand the equipment we would have been dealing with.
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Design-Peter-Beale/dp/075245370X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358375492&sr=1-4&keywords=death+by+design
"Troop Leader, a Tank Commander's Story" by Bill Bellamy
Bill Bellamy was a tanker in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars" of the 7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats), joining the division in North Africa and serving with it throughout the rest of the war. He started as a Transport Troop Commander, and quickly became a Troop Commander of a troop of Cromwell tanks after landing in Normandy. Very late in the war, his unit turned in their Cromwells for american built M24 Chaffees. His is an excellent account of what it was like to be a tanker in the british army during the war. Very readable, and very well spoken, you can't help liking him. A great book for someone portraying a british tanker.
http://www.amazon.com/Troop-Leader-Tank-Commanders-Story/dp/0750945346/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358376412&sr=1-1&keywords=troop+leader+a+tank+commander%27s+story
"Jake Wardrop's Diary: a Tank Regiment Sergeants's Story" by George Forty
Jake Wardrop served in the 5th RTR (5th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment) during it's entire service in WW2. Arriving in the Western Desert just after Wavell's trouncing of the Italians, Jake fought throughout the rest of the North African campaign, in Italy, through Normandy, all the way into Germany, being killed while his tank was being engaged by a panzerfauste ambush, in the final weeks of the war. Mr. Forty investigates what actually happened to Jake in his last battle, as Jake was not able to do it himself. The book is part biography, tieing Jake's diary in with the events he was taking part in, explaining the war from his perspective. The book includes several appendixes that clarifying who all the people were that Jake mentions in his diary, explain details of the tanks he speaks of, lists war memorials erected in the memory of the 7th Armoured Division, the "Desert Rats", and a final appendix of notes to the chapters in the book. There are only a limited number of books that explain what it was like to be a british tanker during the war, and this is one of them that you must get.
http://www.amazon.com/JACK-WARDROPS-DIARY-Regiment-Sergeants/dp/1848685807/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358442602&sr=1-1&keywords=jake+wardrop%27s+diary
"Two Sides of the Beach" by Edmund Blandford
The book is a compendium of short reminiscenses from british and german soldiers who fought in the Normandy campaign, starting on D-Day and ending with the german escape across the Seine river. Although billed as being from a wide range of allied and german forces, it is only the reminiscences of the british that are incuded. Scant mention of the canadians, americans or other allied forces are included in the narrative, and the author is quite an enthusiastic fan of Monty and quite not a fan of pretty much anyone else, particularly american, but up to and including many of Monty's own subordinate british commanders. But the words of the troops are very worthwhile reading. For someone portraying british soldiers of the war, this is an excellent resource to see it from their eyes. Something in particular, is the reinforcement of the image of the british soldier and his tea. Constantly, they are mentioning tea and biscuits. As soon as they stop an attack, brewing the tea, in between stonks, tea and biscuits. Escape from german captivity and back to friendly lines, just in time for tea and biscuits. Even the germans in the book talk about survival of the shelling, being over-run by british tanks and infantry, and being sent to the british rear, to be given tea and biscuits. A couple of other notable mentions are a running theme that during operations like Goodwood, although the tank losses were heavy, the manpower losses were relatively light, and the crews knew that there were plenty more tanks where the other ones had come from to replace them. Also, one incident of a 3" mortar crew. They had fired so many bombs off that the barrel overheated, so they swapped out barrels, only to have that one overheat and a bomb got stuck in the hot barrel. So they threw the hot barrel with bomb stuck in it out of their pit toward the germans, and it blew up, killing some germans right outside their pit.
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Sides-Beach-Invasion-Defense/dp/0785813675/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359563577&sr=8-1&keywords=two+sides+of+the+beach
"Colossal Cracks: Montgomery's 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe, 1944-45" by Stephen Hart
'Colossal Cracks' was more-or-less Montgomery's method, or strategy, for defeating the germans. I say it that way, because although I expected a concise answer somewhere in the book that defines 'Colossal Cracks', there isn't one. For students of WW2, familiar with terms like "Blitzkrieg", defined as "Lightning War", or "Carpet Bombing", which pretty much explains itself, I figured "Colossal Cracks", would be defined something like creating a large crack in the german front, which could be exploited. Not the case at all. Not until you reach page 74 (well over 1/3 of the way through the book), do you find "The Fundamentals of Monty's Operational Technique". These fundamentals are listed right after a paragraph that states, "in 1945 Montgomery defined eight principles of modern war that constituted the 'essentials of success.' " If it was only in the last months of the war that he finally explained how to achieve success to anyone, it is no wonder that there has been so much criticism of his methods, since for the entire campaign in the ETO up to that point, aparently no-one knew what his methods were. But even once the author finally gets around to addressing details of Monty's operational technique, the first thing he does, is explain that Montgomery had his own ideas about how to conduct operations, but then didn't even stick to his own ideas, and used them indiscriminately which confused his subordinates, and how even in Monty's post-war writings, were imprecise, and (my observation) rambling. But although the whole issue is very foggy, the fundamentals are supposed to be, Under the heading "Colossal Cracks I: The Set-Piece Battle" are; "The Master Plan", "Concentration", "Firepower Based Attrition", "Caution", and "Alternate Thrusts". Under "Colossal Cracks II: The Other Elements" are; "Maintenance of the Initiative", "Balance", "Administratinon", "Airpower", and "Ancillary Elements of Monty's Approach (still under 'Colossal Cracks II') "Grip", "Flank Protection", "Surprise", "Flexibility", "Cooperation", "Simplicity" and "The Assimilation of Combat Lessons". The rest of the book, about 60 pages, describes Dempsey's handling of British 2nd Army and Crerar's handling of Canadian 1st Army, and how their performance fit in (or not) with Montgomery's ideas of "Colossal Cracks". Well, take it for what you will. The hardest part of reading this book, which I found tiresome, was getting through the first 41 pages, which pointed out God knows how many times (I don't want to remember) the "fragility of morale" of the british troops of the 21st Army Group. Thinking I had finally passed the pounding of my head with the "fragility of morale", there in the third pagraph of the next chapter, I was already getting hit again with the "fragile morale of the 21st Army Group's citizen soldiers". Well anyway, if portraying a british soldier of the war, this book will give you some insight into the hierarchy of why the british army was operating the way it did in northwest Europe. Bottom line is that whether you like Monty or not, or the way he conducted the campaign, we won the war. In war, that is all that matters.
http://www.amazon.com/Colossal-Cracks-Montgomerys-Northwest-Stackpole/dp/0811733831/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359566292&sr=1-1&keywords=colossal+cracks
"Over the Battlefield: Operation Bluecoat, Breakout from Normandy" by Ian Daglish
Ian Daglish, as in his other works, again brings together plenty of in-depth research, maps, aerial photographs, and memoirs to paint an excellent picture of how this operation, one of the final of the Normandy campaign, was conducted. For those of us who are portraying armoured reconnaissance troops, this is quite refreshing, as we finally see british armoured recce troops probing deep into gaps found in the german lines, capturing "Dickie's Bridge" and holding it until relieved by tanks driving deep to exploit the success, fluid armoured battles of exploitation and counter-attack, and clear examples of what made the reputation of 11th Armoured Division a cut above the rest. When it comes to studying what british armoured reconnaissance was supposed to be about, this is a good book to read. Make sure when looking for this book, that you don't confuse it with the "Operation Bluecoat" book of the "Battleground Europe" series, also written by Ian Daglish, that are battlefield tour guides. The tour book by Daglish of the same operation was published in 2003, and this more comprehensive history of the operation was published by Daglish in 2009. This later book is a greatly expanded version of th earlier tour guide, with more of everthing in it, without the tour notes and information.
http://www.amazon.com/OPERATION-BLUECOAT-BATTLEFIELD-Breakout-Normandy/dp/1848840497/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359567191&sr=1-1&keywords=operation+bluecoat
"7th Armoured Division at Villers Bocage" by David Porter
This is from the "Visual Battle Guide" series, which has a companion book "1st SS Panzer Division at Villers Bocage". Although it doesn't have anything in particular to do with 6th AARR, it is a good insight into armoured operations of the British Army in Normandy, and the 7th Armoured was the only armoured division equipped with Cromwells as it's primary tank, which the 6th AARR also operated, so if you want a link, there it is. The book gives a brief history of the 7th AD up to Normandy, and goes into detail of the makeup of the division, it's equipment and training, personnel issues, and has lots of graphs, photos, charts and whatnot, and finishes up with a chapter on the actual combat at Villers Bocage and the Battle of the Brigade Box. This is a good one-book introduction to british armoured combat in Normandy, as the way it is set up, it gives a good 'snap-shot' of a british armoured unit's history, makeup, equipment, training, tactics and doctrine, and performance in combat all in one book with lots of visuals to illustrate it.
http://www.amazon.com/7TH-ARMOURED-DIVISION-VILLERS-BOCAGE/dp/1908273771/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360959302&sr=8-1&keywords=7th+armoured+division+at+villers+bocage
"D-Day, the First 72 Hours" by William F. Buckingham
This is an excellent analysis of the critical initial assault force phase of the invasion and the german reaction to it. After the first 72 hours, the allied follow on forces began to make their presence felt, so this book is strictly concerned with the establishment of the beach head. It begins with an analysis of the forces involved, the planning process, and the preparations and expectations of both sides up until the launching of the attack. It then breaks down what happened in 12 hour increments for the next three days, until the follow on forces begin combat operations and the initial assault is considered over. There is alot of insight into what was going on between the 6th Airborne Division and the german 711th, 716th, 346th Infantry Divisions and the 21st Panzer Division. Of particular interest is the information regarding Kampfgruppe Von Luck, which was the most serious armoured threat to the 6th Airborne Division. Although Von Luck had 21st armoured recon battalion, and an unknown number of Mk IV tanks and assault guns from Panzer Regiment 22 and Stug Battalion 200 under his control, nowhere did he make any significant dent in the airborne perimeter, and the 6th Airborne logs never mention anything that would constitute anything heavier than what they considered armoured probes. Certainly no mention of a concentrated armoured assault. Whenever groups of german armour get too close to the airborne forces, they're thrashed severely, such as the first encounter at about 03:00 on 6th June when 6 armoured half tracks probing north are knocked out in quick succession by two PIAT teams just north of Troarn. Probably the biggest thorn was the battle for Breville on the Bois de Bavent Ridge, and this wasn't caused by 21st Panzer, but from elements of the 346th Division moved down from Le Havre and supported by a small armoured force supplied by 15th Army. It is clear from this book that the 12th SS passed too far south of the Airborne Perimeter to have made any contact with the 6th AB, and that What elements 21st Panzer did commit against 6th AB were ineffective.
http://www.amazon.com/D-Day-First-Hours-Revealing-History/dp/075242842X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360961227&sr=1-1&keywords=d-day+the+first+72+hours
REFERENCE BOOKS
"Uniforms of the WWII Tommy" by David Gordon
The ultimate reference for uniforms and insignia of the WW2 British and British Commonwealth soldier. An exhaustive study, 658 pages in length, profusely illustrated with photographs, mostly black and white, but with 23 pages of color plates at the back. Everything is covered, from details of buttons and manufacturing tags to variations between items manufactured in different locations to markings on the backs of snaps. If you could only have one book on the subject of WW2 british uniforms and insignia, this would be the one you should have.
http://visualcollector.com/
"Weapons of the WWII Tommy" by David Gordon
The ultimate reference for weapons of the WW2 British and British Commonwealth soldier. As with Uniforms of the WW2 Tommy, this is an exhaustive study, 778 pages in length, profusely illustrated with photographs, mostly black and white, but with 7 pages of color plates at the back. Everything is covered, from details of pistols, rifles, submachineguns, machineguns, mortars, flame throwers, grenades, and all the other vital weapons, to the details of ammunition, manufacturing marks, disassembled diagrams, cleaning kits, examples of cases and carriers, pretty much everything there is to be said and shown, he has. Even the obscure weapons like northover projectors and vehicle mounted aircraft rockets. Again, if you could only have one book on the subject of WW2 british weapons, this would be the one you should have.
http://visualcollector.com/
"Equipment of the WWII Tommy" by David Gordon
The ultimate reference for equipment of the WW2 British and British Commonwealth soldier. As with Uniforms of the WW2 Tommy and Weapons of the WW2 Tommy, this is an exhaustive study, 658 pages in length, profusely illustrated with photographs, mostly black and white, but with 8 pages of color plates at the back. Everything is covered, from variations in the methods of manufacturing the simplest webbing straps to the plethora of shovels, picks, hand tools and cooking equipment used, to rubber inflatable dummy "Landing Craft Tank"s to documents, paperwork and parachute packs. If you want to know the difference between a No. 4 Mk I bayonet and a Mk II, Mk II* and Mk III bayonet and see several examples of manufacturer marks for them, it's all in there. Again, if you could only have one book on the subject of WW2 british equipment, this would be the one you should have.
http://visualcollector.com/
"From D-Day to VE-Day: The British Soldier" by Jean Bouchery
This book should be bought as a companion book to David Gordon's books. Anything that's in this book is covered in much more exhaustive detail - and then some - in David's books, but this book adds color photographs of much of the uniforms and equipment in David's books that are primarily in black and white.
http://www.amazon.com/From-D-Day-VE-Day-British-Soldier/dp/2352500176/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1360963468&sr=8-2&keywords=from+d-day+to+ve+day+the+british+soldier
"RAF Airborne Forces Manual" Edited by John Tanner
This is Volume 8 in the RAF Museum Series that reprints official publications from WW2. This book reprints the official air publications for RAF paratroop aircraft and gliders from 1942 to 1946. All the details of aircraft conversions and special equipment for bombers and transports, loading and dropping procedures, seating arrangement for paratroops, vehicle and equipment tie-down apparatus and procedures for gliders, it's all in there.
http://www.amazon.com/RAF-Airborne-Forces-Manual-Publications/dp/0882544853/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361827820&sr=1-1&keywords=RAF+airborne+forces+manual
Pegasus Bridge & Horsa Bridge" by Carl Shilleto
This is one of the "Battleground" series of books that cover Normandy, and is a more detailed and separated account written earlier for the series by the same author, that combined these bridges into a volume that also covered the Dives bridges and Merville Battery. If you have read any of this series of books, they can vary in their style, as they're written by different authors. They are intended as guide books for tourists to use in visiting the sites, but they actually tend to give quite detailed accounts of small actions along with maps, diagrams and photos of the areas the actions took place in. Much of it is information you won't find in typical histories. Carl Shilleto does a particularly good job of this. Sometimes a book like this will be all history, with a couple of pages at the end to give you tips on visiting the site. Carl gives background, the history, the photos, the maps, the tips on where to go and what's there now to see, the whole bit, in a logical sequence and very well organized format. The one thing I think he could have done better, that some of the other books like this do, is have better and more maps tied in with the narrative that list the stopping points on them, with what you're looking at from that point, from the perspective of photos taken during the war and photos of the sites now. But in spite of that, it's an excellent book, as are his others.
http://www.amazon.com/PEGASUS-BRIDGE-HORSA-Battleground-Europe/dp/1848843097/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358367682&sr=1-1&keywords=pegasus+bridge+%26+horsa+bridge
"Operation Varsity: The British and Canadian Airborne Assault" by Tim Saunders
Another of the "Battleground" series. Although this is in the reference section, as it's intended as a battlefield tour guide like the rest of the series, it's really more of a history, as it is a 206 page book, and the only 'touring' info is a 10 page guide tacked on at the end of the book. The rest is all straight history, with personal accounts tied together by the author. The book is loaded with photos, maps and diagrams, with many of the maps being the actual topographical maps of the areas fought in. The book is arranged like many others, with the background and preparation taking up the first chapters, a single chapter on the amphibious portion of the operation, and the majority of the book devoted to the airborne operation itself, divided into chapters by units. There is a small section on the 6th AARR, that mostly re-caps the info found in other books on the subject, although on page 153 there is an account by a private Taylor of the 12th Devons describing watching a hamilcar crash land through a railroad control box, and watching a tank drive out of the crashed glider with guns blazing. At some point I'll cross reference to see if I can figure out which of the 7 tanks that made it to the LZ that this might be. Well worth adding to your library.
http://www.amazon.com/OPERATION-VARSITY-Canadian-Airborne-Battleground/dp/184415601X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358439552&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=operation+varsity+the+british+and+canadian+airborne+assault
"Arnhem, The Bridge" by Frank Steer
This is one of the "Battleground Europe" (different than the "Battleground" series mentioned above) books included in their "Market Garden" series of titles. These are also guides for the tourist, and this one is particularly good as a reference as the ones by Carl Shilleto are. Well written and combining the history well with the descriptions of where to go and what to see there, this one has several good maps and diagrams in it, particularly of the areas in the city around and west of the bridge, showing block by block what happened, and plenty of aerial photos with numbers imposed on the buildings and streets with keys telling what happened at each building and location. Very useful for anyone trying to reconstruct the battle for historical purposes or wargaming. This particular title in the series includes a synopsis of the aftermath of the battle, one-page biographies of John Frost and Wilhelm Bittrich, and a full page list of recommended selected reading
http://www.amazon.com/ARNHEM-BRIDGE-Battleground-Europe-Market/dp/0850529395/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358372401&sr=1-1&keywords=battleground+europe+arnhem+the+bridge
"Operation Bluecoat" by Ian Daglish
This is the "Battleground Europe" battlefield tour guide from their Normandy series of books. Don't confuse it with the "Over the Battlefield" book of the same title also written by Ian Daglish 6 years more recently. See the entry in the "Historic Reading" section above for that title. I have both of them. Unless you want the tour notes that are in this book because it is designed to be a tour book, don't bother with this one, and buy the other one instead. It has everything this one has, expanded to about three times the size, with more photos, maps, history, etc. etc.
http://www.amazon.com/OPERATION-BLUECOAT-Battleground-Europe-Daglish/dp/0850529123/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359567191&sr=1-2&keywords=operation+bluecoat
"Orne Bridgehead" by Lloyd Clark
This is one of the "Battle Zone Normandy" tour guide books. It is probably the best short history of what was going on in the 6th Airborne Division bridgehead during June that there is. Although it's a guide for tourists, the explanation of who was doing what is very clear, and the maps included are the best in any book I have of the 6th AB area of operations. The best is the one on pages 30-31, which I am considering for using as the template for another terrain board at some point. More maps in larger detail are spread through the book, and you'll have to look at these for some of the locations, particularly to follow the action at St. Come, as it isn't on the above mentioned map. I have a much clearer understanding of what went on from 6 June through 12th June with the 6th AB after reading this book than I have ever had in the past. Not alot about the 6th AARR, as there usually never is in other histories either, but there are some useful tidbits, and it is clear that they were making regular forays out of the Bois de Bavent south into the areas that they would have ventured into had Parkerforce been enacted.
http://www.amazon.com/Orne-Bridgehead-Battle-Zone-Normandy/dp/0750930098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360009893&sr=8-1&keywords=Orne+bridgehead
"FUBAR: Soldier Slang of World War II" by Gordon L. Rottman
Although the book covers slang of all the major combatants of WW2, so is a great resource for any reenactor, our primary interest is the slang of the British Commonwealth armies. Out of a 297 page book, a full 80 pages is devoted to the Commonwealth. Our club uses the book as a basis for a game we play to learn the slang of those we strive to portray. We call the game "FUBAR", after the book, and we have made cards with one term and its definition per card. The game is played by turns, with the last person up questioning the next person. You have ten seconds to get the term right, and if not, you do a shot. It's good training.
The ultimate reference for uniforms and insignia of the WW2 British and British Commonwealth soldier. An exhaustive study, 658 pages in length, profusely illustrated with photographs, mostly black and white, but with 23 pages of color plates at the back. Everything is covered, from details of buttons and manufacturing tags to variations between items manufactured in different locations to markings on the backs of snaps. If you could only have one book on the subject of WW2 british uniforms and insignia, this would be the one you should have.
http://visualcollector.com/
"Weapons of the WWII Tommy" by David Gordon
The ultimate reference for weapons of the WW2 British and British Commonwealth soldier. As with Uniforms of the WW2 Tommy, this is an exhaustive study, 778 pages in length, profusely illustrated with photographs, mostly black and white, but with 7 pages of color plates at the back. Everything is covered, from details of pistols, rifles, submachineguns, machineguns, mortars, flame throwers, grenades, and all the other vital weapons, to the details of ammunition, manufacturing marks, disassembled diagrams, cleaning kits, examples of cases and carriers, pretty much everything there is to be said and shown, he has. Even the obscure weapons like northover projectors and vehicle mounted aircraft rockets. Again, if you could only have one book on the subject of WW2 british weapons, this would be the one you should have.
http://visualcollector.com/
"Equipment of the WWII Tommy" by David Gordon
The ultimate reference for equipment of the WW2 British and British Commonwealth soldier. As with Uniforms of the WW2 Tommy and Weapons of the WW2 Tommy, this is an exhaustive study, 658 pages in length, profusely illustrated with photographs, mostly black and white, but with 8 pages of color plates at the back. Everything is covered, from variations in the methods of manufacturing the simplest webbing straps to the plethora of shovels, picks, hand tools and cooking equipment used, to rubber inflatable dummy "Landing Craft Tank"s to documents, paperwork and parachute packs. If you want to know the difference between a No. 4 Mk I bayonet and a Mk II, Mk II* and Mk III bayonet and see several examples of manufacturer marks for them, it's all in there. Again, if you could only have one book on the subject of WW2 british equipment, this would be the one you should have.
http://visualcollector.com/
"From D-Day to VE-Day: The British Soldier" by Jean Bouchery
This book should be bought as a companion book to David Gordon's books. Anything that's in this book is covered in much more exhaustive detail - and then some - in David's books, but this book adds color photographs of much of the uniforms and equipment in David's books that are primarily in black and white.
http://www.amazon.com/From-D-Day-VE-Day-British-Soldier/dp/2352500176/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1360963468&sr=8-2&keywords=from+d-day+to+ve+day+the+british+soldier
"RAF Airborne Forces Manual" Edited by John Tanner
This is Volume 8 in the RAF Museum Series that reprints official publications from WW2. This book reprints the official air publications for RAF paratroop aircraft and gliders from 1942 to 1946. All the details of aircraft conversions and special equipment for bombers and transports, loading and dropping procedures, seating arrangement for paratroops, vehicle and equipment tie-down apparatus and procedures for gliders, it's all in there.
http://www.amazon.com/RAF-Airborne-Forces-Manual-Publications/dp/0882544853/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361827820&sr=1-1&keywords=RAF+airborne+forces+manual
Pegasus Bridge & Horsa Bridge" by Carl Shilleto
This is one of the "Battleground" series of books that cover Normandy, and is a more detailed and separated account written earlier for the series by the same author, that combined these bridges into a volume that also covered the Dives bridges and Merville Battery. If you have read any of this series of books, they can vary in their style, as they're written by different authors. They are intended as guide books for tourists to use in visiting the sites, but they actually tend to give quite detailed accounts of small actions along with maps, diagrams and photos of the areas the actions took place in. Much of it is information you won't find in typical histories. Carl Shilleto does a particularly good job of this. Sometimes a book like this will be all history, with a couple of pages at the end to give you tips on visiting the site. Carl gives background, the history, the photos, the maps, the tips on where to go and what's there now to see, the whole bit, in a logical sequence and very well organized format. The one thing I think he could have done better, that some of the other books like this do, is have better and more maps tied in with the narrative that list the stopping points on them, with what you're looking at from that point, from the perspective of photos taken during the war and photos of the sites now. But in spite of that, it's an excellent book, as are his others.
http://www.amazon.com/PEGASUS-BRIDGE-HORSA-Battleground-Europe/dp/1848843097/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358367682&sr=1-1&keywords=pegasus+bridge+%26+horsa+bridge
"Operation Varsity: The British and Canadian Airborne Assault" by Tim Saunders
Another of the "Battleground" series. Although this is in the reference section, as it's intended as a battlefield tour guide like the rest of the series, it's really more of a history, as it is a 206 page book, and the only 'touring' info is a 10 page guide tacked on at the end of the book. The rest is all straight history, with personal accounts tied together by the author. The book is loaded with photos, maps and diagrams, with many of the maps being the actual topographical maps of the areas fought in. The book is arranged like many others, with the background and preparation taking up the first chapters, a single chapter on the amphibious portion of the operation, and the majority of the book devoted to the airborne operation itself, divided into chapters by units. There is a small section on the 6th AARR, that mostly re-caps the info found in other books on the subject, although on page 153 there is an account by a private Taylor of the 12th Devons describing watching a hamilcar crash land through a railroad control box, and watching a tank drive out of the crashed glider with guns blazing. At some point I'll cross reference to see if I can figure out which of the 7 tanks that made it to the LZ that this might be. Well worth adding to your library.
http://www.amazon.com/OPERATION-VARSITY-Canadian-Airborne-Battleground/dp/184415601X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358439552&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=operation+varsity+the+british+and+canadian+airborne+assault
"Arnhem, The Bridge" by Frank Steer
This is one of the "Battleground Europe" (different than the "Battleground" series mentioned above) books included in their "Market Garden" series of titles. These are also guides for the tourist, and this one is particularly good as a reference as the ones by Carl Shilleto are. Well written and combining the history well with the descriptions of where to go and what to see there, this one has several good maps and diagrams in it, particularly of the areas in the city around and west of the bridge, showing block by block what happened, and plenty of aerial photos with numbers imposed on the buildings and streets with keys telling what happened at each building and location. Very useful for anyone trying to reconstruct the battle for historical purposes or wargaming. This particular title in the series includes a synopsis of the aftermath of the battle, one-page biographies of John Frost and Wilhelm Bittrich, and a full page list of recommended selected reading
http://www.amazon.com/ARNHEM-BRIDGE-Battleground-Europe-Market/dp/0850529395/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358372401&sr=1-1&keywords=battleground+europe+arnhem+the+bridge
"Operation Bluecoat" by Ian Daglish
This is the "Battleground Europe" battlefield tour guide from their Normandy series of books. Don't confuse it with the "Over the Battlefield" book of the same title also written by Ian Daglish 6 years more recently. See the entry in the "Historic Reading" section above for that title. I have both of them. Unless you want the tour notes that are in this book because it is designed to be a tour book, don't bother with this one, and buy the other one instead. It has everything this one has, expanded to about three times the size, with more photos, maps, history, etc. etc.
http://www.amazon.com/OPERATION-BLUECOAT-Battleground-Europe-Daglish/dp/0850529123/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359567191&sr=1-2&keywords=operation+bluecoat
"Orne Bridgehead" by Lloyd Clark
This is one of the "Battle Zone Normandy" tour guide books. It is probably the best short history of what was going on in the 6th Airborne Division bridgehead during June that there is. Although it's a guide for tourists, the explanation of who was doing what is very clear, and the maps included are the best in any book I have of the 6th AB area of operations. The best is the one on pages 30-31, which I am considering for using as the template for another terrain board at some point. More maps in larger detail are spread through the book, and you'll have to look at these for some of the locations, particularly to follow the action at St. Come, as it isn't on the above mentioned map. I have a much clearer understanding of what went on from 6 June through 12th June with the 6th AB after reading this book than I have ever had in the past. Not alot about the 6th AARR, as there usually never is in other histories either, but there are some useful tidbits, and it is clear that they were making regular forays out of the Bois de Bavent south into the areas that they would have ventured into had Parkerforce been enacted.
http://www.amazon.com/Orne-Bridgehead-Battle-Zone-Normandy/dp/0750930098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360009893&sr=8-1&keywords=Orne+bridgehead
"FUBAR: Soldier Slang of World War II" by Gordon L. Rottman
Although the book covers slang of all the major combatants of WW2, so is a great resource for any reenactor, our primary interest is the slang of the British Commonwealth armies. Out of a 297 page book, a full 80 pages is devoted to the Commonwealth. Our club uses the book as a basis for a game we play to learn the slang of those we strive to portray. We call the game "FUBAR", after the book, and we have made cards with one term and its definition per card. The game is played by turns, with the last person up questioning the next person. You have ten seconds to get the term right, and if not, you do a shot. It's good training.
