Warships of the Soviet Fleet 1939-1945 Vol I Major Combatants

Warships of the Soviet Fleet 1939-1945 Vol I Major Combatants written by

Przemyslaw Budzbon , Jan Radziemski, Marek Twardowski and published

by Seaforth Publishing - £45.00 - Hardback - Pages 352

Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War the details of Soviet ships, their activities and fates remain an enigma to the West. In wartime such information was classified and after a brief period of glasnost (‘openness’) the Russian state has again restricted access to historical archives. Therefore, the value – and originality – of this work is difficult to exaggerate. It sees the first publication of reliable data on both the seagoing fleets and riverine flotillas of the Soviet Navy, listing over 6200 vessels from battleships to river gunboats, and mercantile conversions as well as purpose-built warships. Divided into three volumes, this first covers major surface warships down to MTBs and armoured gunboats, as well as submarines.

For every class there is a design history analysing strategic, tactical and technical considerations, and individual ship detail includes construction yard, key building dates, commissioning, fleet designations, relocations and ultimate fate. Once a closely guarded secret, the wartime loss of every ship and boat (over 1000) is described. Furthermore, the confusion caused by frequent name changes is clarified by indexes that run to 16,000 items.

By following the ships through both their wartime and earlier history, the book reveals many aspects of Russian history that remain highly sensitive: clandestine co-operation with Weimar Germany and fascist Italy, the NKVD-enforced closure of Soviet borders, the ‘Gulag Fleet’, the faked Metallist sinking that excused the military occupation of Estonia, and the ill-conceived pact with Nazi Germany. Restrictions recently imposed on historical publications in Russia mean this book could certainly not have been published there – as proven by the fact that most of the authors' Russian collaborators preferred not to disclose their identities.

This book has been a really informative and comprehensive read, a lot of time has been taken to present great detail for the reader, like what had been said detail has not often been made available to the west for secretive reasons. For a start I should just say that for some reason I just love a book with a map on the inside cover and this book does, I don’t know why, maybe it reminds me of old history books of the past. 

The book starts off with a great chapter that emphasises Organisation, Ship Types, Fleets, Ship Constructors, Ship Building Programmes, Quality and Performance. This was all really good to read because they set the scene for what was to come about the various ships. The book then goes into the individual types of ships and classes such as Cruisers, Torpedo Boats, Submarines, Monitors and Gunboats. Each ship gets a little history, pictures, plans, diagrams, specifications and any outstanding details that make that ships stand out. This is a fascinating and detailed book that kept me hooked and there is a big realisation as to how big the Russian Navy was and how the Navy was greatly built in reaction to what was going on in WW2. I would highly recommend this book and a brilliant encyclopedic read. In fact, I want to give it 5 Stars.

RAF in Camera - 100 Years on Display

RAF in Camera: 100 Years on Display written by Keith Wilson and published

by Pen & Sword Books - £50.00 - Hardback - Pages 472

In July 2018, the nation looked skyward over Buckingham Palace in awe as the Royal Air Force celebrated its first 100 years with a spectacular parade and flypast over London. This event demonstrated a very different perspective of the RAF; well away from its operational commitments.

The expertise and precision of those RAF pilots flying in some of the most famous aircraft in the world has been displayed since the very first days of military aviation. The Inter-War period was dominated by the Hendon Air Pageants; where many aircraft made their public appearance. Post-war, it was the turn of the jet display teams, with the Black Arrows and Firebirds’ laying the foundations for the aerial mastery that is today’s Red Arrows.

The various anniversaries have seen a growth in special artwork being applied to aircraft flown by squadrons celebrating key anniversaries. This is covered in considerable detail within this volume.

On the ground, the RAF is represented at major celebrations and key public events by the Queen’s Colour Squadron, which demonstrates its world-famous continuity drill routine while providing a guard of honour for visiting Heads of States. They are frequently accompanied with the Service’s own bands; which have grown from those created by its squadrons over a century ago.

From the Berlin Airlift in 1948; to flood relief in Kenya; and the international relief effort in the Caribbean following Hurricane Irma in 2017; the RAF has been deployed overseas in response to numerous international crises. But aid operations have also been mounted at home. Under the banner of ‘Military Aid to the Civil Powers’, helicopters and aircraft have airlifted food and supplies to areas cut off by severe weather; Sea King helicopters have rescued villagers stranded by flash flooding in Boscastle; while Chinook helicopters have assisted with the rebuilding of flood defences breached by severe floods across the country.

Keith Wilson takes us on a journey through the Royal Air Force’s public persona during their 100 year history. All landmark events are referenced in this thorough, well-researched and image-packed publication.

This book is a huge book, packed with many great photographs and lovely text, one of those big coffee tabled size books. Celebrating 100 years of the RAF, but this book concentrates on the PR or displays side of the RAF, celebrating such things as the Red Arrows, Air Pageants, Air Displays, the Berlin Airlift, International relief and Rescue Operations. All through the 100 years of progression, growth, design and technical advancement. Having started the book I must admit I was expecting it to just be full of Red Arrow pictures, but the book is a whole lot more. With some great photos of Air Pageants, the involvement of the jet-engined planes in the emergence and I quite enjoyed the latter part of the book that looked at how the RAF would be in the near future with the new modern planes such as the new Tornados. I found the book very well written, very informative and that’s from someone whose family was in the RAF. This book is a fantastic look at the RAF and the way in which it celebrates and promotes itself to the world.

The Waffen-SS Armour on the Eastern Front 1941-1945

The Waffen-SS Armour on the Eastern Front 1941-1945 written by Ian Baxter

and published by Pen & Sword Books - £14.99 - Softcover - Pages 144

Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, codename Operation Barbarossa, was arguably the pivotal moment of the Second World War. Initially, the onslaught was staggeringly successful with, as the superb contemporary images in this book show, Waffen- SS armoured divisions leading the charge. But the Nazis had underestimated the Russians’ determination to defend their homeland and the logistical problems compounded by the extreme winter weather conditions.

After early victories such as the recapture of Kharkov in early 1943 and the Kursk offensive, commanders and crews of armoured vehicles such as Pz.Kpfw.I, II, III, IV, Panther, Tiger, King Tiger, assault and self-propelled guns had to adapt their tactics and equipment to what became a desperate defensive withdrawal eventually back across a scarred and devastated Eastern Front. Even during the last months of the war as the Panzers withdrew through Poland and into the Reich, these exhausted elite units, broken down into small battle groups or Kampfgruppen, fought to the bitter end.

With authoritative text supported by a plethora of rare fully captioned photographs, this classic Images of War book informs and inspires the reader revealing the key role played by Waffen-SS Panzer units in this most bitter campaign.

The Eastern Front, one of the more important parts of World War Two in which sent many troops and vehicles into Russia during Operation Barbarosa, it also looks at how hard the Germans found the war, enemy and weather conditions. Much like Russia today, even today people (Putin) still haven’t learnt from history in that if you start a war in the winter, your going to get bogged down/stuck and if your far from supplies you're going to run out of fuel. Once again this is another fascinating book as we see a good number of tanks and crew going to war and then being forced to retreat. It’s finally twigged with me especially the ‘land’ books of the images of war series’, that the vast majority of the photos are taken by the soldiers/crews in the situations. This makes the photos all the more better because you have soldiers in the situation knowing what to photograph and what is important. This is why so many of the photos consist of soldiers in their everyday working life, going through the good times and the bad.

Another fantastic book and as you know already I would happily recommend all these

Images of War books. I should also add there are always great appendices in the back

of these books, which probably often get overlooked.

Tiger I & Tiger II Tanks

Tiger I and Tiger II Tanks written by Dennis Oliver and published by Pen & Sword Books - £16.99 - Softcover - Pages 64

By the first weeks of 1945, the Eastern Front had been pushed back to the Carpathian mountain passes in the south and Warsaw on the Vistula River in the centre while in the north the German army was fighting in East Prussia. The Wehrmacht's armoured and mobile formations were now employed exclusively as fire brigades, rushed from one crisis to the next as the Red Army pushed inexorably westward. Critical to the German defence were the army's heavy Panzer battalions whose Tiger tanks, with their 8.8cm guns, were almost invincible on the open plains of central Europe. In his latest book in the TankCraft series Dennis Oliver uses archive photos and extensively researched colour illustrations to examine the Tiger tanks and units of the German Army and Waffen-SS heavy Panzer battalions that struggled to resist the onslaught of Soviet armour during the last days of the conflict which culminated in the battle for Berlin. A key section of his book displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details, as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field, are also examined providing everything the modeller needs to recreate an accurate representation of these historic tanks.

I do love a nice Tiger tank, personally, I think one of the more beautiful tanks, if a tank can be called that. So you can see that if I love a Tiger tank, then I must have enjoyed this book, and I did indeed. As usual with these books, they are very well written and informed, the research that goes into these books, although small is no less than a standard-sized book. You have all the tank dimensions, specifications and theatre of war camouflage, the history and the operations they are specifically well known for. Now obviously, these books are twinned with being aimed at model makers/collectors, now I’m not one of these but this particular section of the books always seems very well done. So in all, this book hits the mark in all ways, another good addition to the range.