Not much wrong with the old Profile series. (There are hardback compilations of them out there if memory serves.). 'Battle Tanks' is/are worth having, but they're compilations of Ospreys, so if you've several on the covered subject & aren't just looking for handiness, maybe have a look before buying. Shouldn't really be in the 'buying' thread as it just arrived for review, but this is the main book chat now. Up my street so far:
'Red Machines' looks an interesting series. Good? Hopefully further evidence of 'specialist' armour books diversifying from the same old same old panzer stuff. And I now wish to know what the Philippine Scout Car mystery might be. Back to Google I go...
Right - what I just got is a hardcover compilation of AFV Profiles, of British vehicles from the 1920s and 30s! It has a lot of coverage but is noticeably lacking in anything about the A9, A10, or A13. I can see now that the "slow motion suspension" was actually pretty good in that prior to it a lot of tank suspensions were not very good at providing the smooth ride desired for firing on the move.
Good indeed. One of the authors is James Kinnear who wrote this book: Their T-60 book was also worth it too. And decent reviews here: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Machines...=T-60&qid=1602967874&rnid=1000&s=books&sr=1-2 They're more technical and development books than operational histories but the operational side isn't completely left out.
You say that like it's a bad thing... Oh dear. And they look like the sort of thing that's only going to get more expensive eventually. Hmmm.
Latest but not last: The last one is interesting and was hard to source. Website here: Armour Publishing Ltd No sign of volume 2 5 years later so I think the project may be defunct. However at 800 plus pages this book will take some digesting.
Couldn't resist .. two volumes about "Le Corps Expeditionnaire Francais in Italie" ... I will have to dust off by French Dictionnaries.
Orwell, looks like some great books there. Not familiar with the specifics of the Greeks' reversal of the Italians so I can only imagine that will be good reading. I'm very interested in the close support book. And Shales' plan was mad as a hatter but at least he turned out the one book. I should probably have bought it at the time but I seem to recall it being... not cheap.
The close support books looks very promising. Volume two looks at Italy, Southern France and the AOP squadrons. It has a nice mix of texts, pictures and diagrams. The Shales book is dense. I bought my copy from Abebooks for more than I'd usually spend but less than I'd seen copies listed for. A lucky find really. Shipping was the major issue. It will keep me busy during our cold Canadian winter nights I guess.
Opshop had a pop up store in the local shops today- always dangerous. Came away with three RAF/RAAF books to add to my growing collection. $3 each. Having had a bit of a google it seems that Terence Kelly wrote quite a few books about his WW2 experiences?
"Not buying any more tank books until Mr Knight's nex.. ooh, that's a lot cheaper than usual!" Click. Bugger. Not a proper bugger as it's an excellent well-illustrated & lucid book I already know reasonably well, but, y'know. Weak.
Talking of temptation, I bought this one early on Sunday morning: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Distant-Battlefields-Indian-Second-World-ebook/dp/B07VTQR53Y/ At the time, Amazon's three copies were priced just under £26. The price then jumped back to 'normal' before I could spread the word - sorry.
Now you're making me feel bad... Will be interesting to read the Kota Bharu chapter as I like to think I've seen nearly everything there is to be seen outside the regimental centre. I think I'm right in saying the author runs the KaisersCross website so some of the material is on there.