Official History of Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War reprints

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by Orwell1984, Apr 18, 2013.

  1. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    Copies of volumes of the Official History of Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War have been increasingly hard to find and expensive when they do show up. Recently a company in India has reprinted 8 volumes of the history.

    Volumes reprinted are:

    Expansion of the Armed Forces and Defence Organization, 1939-45
    Campaigns in South-East Asia, 1941-42
    East African Campaign, 1940-41
    Post-War Occupation Forces: Japan and South-East Asia
    Campaign in Western Asia
    The Arakan Operations, 1942-45
    The North African Campaign, 1940-1943
    India and the War

    http://www.pentagonpress.in/servlet/ppGetbiblio?bno=530

    Early reports from people who've got a copy are they are well done with the foldout maps included. I've sourced some on Abebooks and ordered some volumes so will give my report on the quality when they arrive.

    Cheers
    Mark
     
  2. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Can't be that good - There's no mention of them in France during 1940 with the BEF looking at the list above ;)
     
  3. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    :biggrin: Since they've republished 8 out of 24 volumes of the history, France obviously didn't make the cut. Time to write a strongly worded letter of complaint!
     
    Drew5233 likes this.
  4. idler

    idler GeneralList

    I've got mine! Well, only one so far.

    Amazon.com seems to do them for a annoyingly reasonable price - probably thought they're about their Indians.
     
  5. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Well, Expansion of the Armed Forces and Defence Organization, 1939-45 has an index entry for 'British Expeditionary Force'! No need to unlock your wallet as it's not 'the' BEF, or even the other one. It's a proposed BEF to aid India if the Russians tried anything.
     
  6. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Ha - I wondered when you'd be along. Whilst I have your attention when you at Kew next to hand over the book you got for me? I'm there from Tuesday until I've caught up and copied a copious amount of BEF diaries-Not sure I'll still be there on Saturday though.
     
  7. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    Thanks Orwell & Idler for the heads-up.

    I just went to Amazon and bought: 'Post-War Occupation Forces: Japan and South-East Asia' - as Idler said "Never seen an original for sale so can't wait forever."


    The Amazon price was nearly $81 (AU$ or US$ - not much difference) but there were a bunch of other sellers and I used one of them and got the book for only $32 with another $24 in postage to Australia.

    Sounds like a bargain to me
     
  8. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    Hopefully "The reconquest of Burma (Official history of the Indian armed forces in the second world war,1939;1945 (Volume I & II)" won't be far away.

    There is an original set on Amazon at the moment for $125 - tempting..........


    I actually attempted to buy the original books previously via ebay and each time the wrong title arrived.
     
  9. Andreas

    Andreas Working on two books

    Sorry, but Amazon doesn't carry these?

    Got it. Bit tricky to find though...

    All the best

    Andreas
     
  10. gmyles

    gmyles Senior Member

  11. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer Pearl Harbor Myth Buster

    Checked Hyperwar?
     
  12. Andreas

    Andreas Working on two books

    Very good, many thanks for the pointer!

    All the best

    Andreas
     
  13. sol

    sol Very Senior Member

    Interesting, none of the three books about Burma (not counting that about Arakan operations here) isn't on the list. But still it's good that they republished them. But with that price, about $80 for each book on Amazon, I doubt that I'll soon buy any of them.
     
  14. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer Pearl Harbor Myth Buster

    We provide free Pointer pointers. :biggrin:
     
  15. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    Sol - can I suggest you re-read my first post here. The Amazon price may be $80 but there are other sellers listing the same titles for half that.

    For example "Campaign in Western Asia" is $80.75 but there are 7 other sellers with it listed starting at less that $47 (see attached)
     

    Attached Files:

  16. sol

    sol Very Senior Member

    Dave you are right, but problem is that because I live in Bosnia I could only buy books directly from Amazon because majority of the other sellers currently don't make shipments to Bosnia. So unfortunately for me is $80 for these books or nothing, I mean if I want to buy them from Amazon.
     
  17. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Have a look at the publisher's website, frfrom memory they do the set for $230 internationally
     
  18. Maureene

    Maureene Well-Known Member

    This link was referred to recently in another thread, so I am mentioning that the following volumes may be viewed online on the Digital Library of India website.

    • Medical Services: Administration 1953 barcode 99999990062920 (One of seven titles in the series Medical Services). This volume is also available on the subscription website South Asia Archive. Contents of the book
    • Campaign In Western Asia published 1957 barcode 4990010060130 Iraq, Syria and Iran. (One of five titles in the series Campaigns in the Western Theatre)
    • The Reconquest of Burma Volume I 1958 barcode 4990010060131. (One of six titles in the series Campaigns in the Eastern Theatre)

    The above is copied from a FIBIS Fibiwiki page , so there are some underlying links to other pages.

    The Reconquest of Burma Volume I is for the period June !942- June 1944

    I would like to add that I have not been able to find a listing of all the volumes in the series, The closest seems to be the HyperWar link http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/India/, but there are in fact additional volumes in the Medical Services series which I will list in total. It is possible there may be additional volumes.

    *v. 1. Administration.
    *v. 2. Medicine, surgery and pathology.
    *v. 3. Campaigns in the Western Theatre.
    *v. 4. Preventive medicine (nutrition, malaria control and prevention of diseases).
    *v. 5. Statistics.
    *v. 6. Medical stores and equipment.
    *v. 7. Campaigns in the Eastern Theatre.

    To confuse matters, there are two categories Campaigns in the Western Theatre ( containing five volumes) and Campaigns in the Eastern Theatre (containing six volumes), according to the HyperWar link

    I haven't found any reference to a volume about the Indian Army in France (Drew5233, post 2)

    Cheers
    Maureen
     
  19. idler

    idler GeneralList

    'The Campaign in Italy 1943-1945' has also been reprinted by Pentagon. It's intermittently available from the usual sources, got mine today - £17.95 and free postage from India via ABE!
     
  20. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Also of interest, Pentagon's website is now listing the three Burma volumes: Retreat and Reconquests 1 & 2, so keep an eye out for them.
     
    Warlord likes this.

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