Seelöwe – Book Review by Mark Barnes
There is a scene at the end of the classic movie Battle of Britain where German troops are seen dumping lifejackets after defeat in the…
Four Excellent Manuals from Haynes – Review by Mark Barnes
I once collected a multi-volume aviation history part work we do not see the like of today thanks to the glories of the worldwide web…
Cameras, Combat and Courage – Review by Mark Barnes
It seems like a long time since I told you about the compelling Shooting Vietnam by Dan Brookes and the late Bob Hillerby. These two…
Stug III – Reviewed by Mark Barnes
Author Mark Healy produced one of the finest books in the Haynes catalogue with his T-34 manual which appeared a few years back. His latest…
Two Excellent Titles from Casemate Publishers – Reviewed by Mark Barnes
The WHO Reviews department has moved to a new location. The exercise has taken many months to complete and dealing with lawyers and organising utilities…
Lone Wolf – Reviewed by Mark Barnes
Hands up anyone who has heard of Richard Playne Stevens. I hadn’t before I read this intriguing book by aviation historian Andy Saunders and I’m…
The Crew – Review by Mark Barnes
There have been many great books devoted to the life of RAF Bomber Command in World War II and finding a device to cover what…
“Missing” – Review by Mark Barnes
It is to my constant regret that I didn’t begin my pilgrimage to the Great War battlefields until a few years into this century. That…
“The Defenders of Taffy 3” – Review by Mark Barnes
I’m not one for getting mired in statistics or arguments over the biggest this and the greatest that. The naval clashes of the 20th century…
“Frituur Zorro” Reviewed by Mark Barnes
About a million years ago I was an active member of the greatest military vehicle club that ever there was, because, because. We built ourselves…
Alex Kershaw’s Latest Book, ‘The First Wave’ Available Today
What was it like to land on D-Day in the deadliest place? Over many years, I’ve read a fair few accounts of the hell that…
Book Review: Wellington’s Foot Guards at Waterloo
Book Review by Mark Barnes It is close to a year since my first ever visit to the Waterloo battlefield. The trip brought an end…
Images of the National Archive Armistice -Diverse Offerings From Pen & Sword
The victory summer of 1919 saw important visitors drop anchor off my home town. The Atlantic Fleet sailed into the Thames Estuary with a great…
Book Review: CAPTURED ARMS
Heaps of captured arms have been a symbol of victory since time immemorial. The Second World War was no different, especially for a Nazi regime…
Book Review: Images of War Quartet From Pen & Sword
The Images of War series from Pen & Sword are no strangers to my dusty corner of the WHO monolith, and this latest batch continues to…
Book Review: SPY PILOT-By Francis Gary Powers Jr. and Keith Dunnavant
From the moment this book dropped through my letterbox, it had me thinking back several decades to a TV drama featuring Lee Majors in the…
Book Review: How Can Man Die Better- by Mark Barnes
Company volleys fired from these rifles created the loudest noise any living Zulu had ever heard in 1879. Their stopping power was brutal. If you…
Book Review- CITY BOYS AT WAR
The Fairey Battles of the AASF were thrown at the enemy but suffered terrible losses It is quite understandable that books about the chaos of…
Book Review-Forgotten Tanks and Guns of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s
The period between the wars offered up all manner of oddities as governments and companies attempted to develop fighting vehicles that would be numerous, effective…
Kangaroo Squadron American Courage in the Darkest Days of WW2
I am pleased to get my reviewing year off to a blistering start with this superb book from the historian Bruce Gamble. In it, he…
Vietnam An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975
There has been far too much ink expended on the Vietnam War to waste time trying to pick out merits of much of the decision-making…
United States Army Armored Divisions Of The Second World War
Michael Green has had a busy year by the look of things because he is back with another instalment of his illustrated histories produced under…
Wolseley Was Critical of The Award of The VC to British officers at Rorke’s Drift
I recently reviewed a biographical history of the men who flew on the famous Doolittle Raid of 1942 where I professed strong approval of that…
The World Of The Battleship
I come from a family with a seafaring tradition and although it skipped my direct branch because my father preferred khaki to blue in 1939…
Engineering Hitler’s Downfall
You may have noticed that Christmas is coming and you might be wondering what to get for that difficult so-and-so who usually responds with “nothing”…
Battlefield Histories From Casemate are The Best of Their kind Around Today
Simon Forty is a prolific writer, to say the least. He has built a solid reputation for accuracy and passion for his subject matter and…
The Doolittle Raiders – Sets Out to Tell Us Something of The Lives of The Men
I’ve been sent this really useful book by George Nolta which gives us biographies of the aircrew who took part in the legendary Doolittle Raid…
SHAKY GROUND – Traces of the Great War at the Ypres Salient
This intriguing book begins with a tragedy, in 1979, when the author’s cousin dies from injuries caused from playing with an unexploded shell. Losing the…
British Warship Recognition: The Perkins Identification Albums Volumes 5, 6 & 7
Richard Perkins is something of a mystery. He built a vast collection of warship photographs he either took himself or acquired through a network of…
The Great War Illustrated 1918
Four long years of the centenary of the Great War, or First World War, or World War I – you choose! – have come to an end.…
Want to Operate an Flak 88? Three Excellent Operator’s Manuals From Haynes
I’m a fan of these Haynes operator’s manuals and there seems to be no end to subjects the publisher is willing to approach. I had…
The SAS Italian Job: Many of those murky events in the spring of 1945 remain governed by secrecy to this day
If you glance through the list of other works by Damien Lewis at the start of the book on offer here, you will see a…
2 Wars, 3 Continents Before Earning American Citizenship – Fight, Flight, & Flourish
There are many things to be learned from personal stories – stories that bring history to life. That is certainly the case when I think…
Genius Weapons – Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Weaponry, and the Future of Warfare
Artificial intelligence is playing an ever-increasing role in military weapon systems. Going beyond the bomb-carrying drones used in the Afghan war, the Pentagon is now…
Three Books To Look Out For – Review by Mark Barnes
Here we go, again, with a look at some books that have created positive interest in the WHO reviews department. First up we have this…
The Defeat of the Zeppelins
I make regular visits to annoy my relatives who live nearby and one journey takes me past the memorial close to the site where the…
WAR STUFF – The Struggle for Human and Environmental Resources in the American Civil War
We all know war is a cruel thing and there is no guarantee that anyone will avoid the misery of it once the juggernaut starts…
Road to Disaster Book Review
I have a friend in Ohio who can be pretty vocal about politics through social media. He always cuts to the chase and uses direct…
Fallen Eagles & Sunken Beasts – Wreck Recovery In Britain Then And Now
There have been a number of news stories in recent months about the plundering of World War II warship wrecks in Asian waters where British…
Two Important New Books From The Pen & Sword Stable
First up we have a new book from Chris Goss that is a most welcome addition to the canon of Battle of Britain literature. In…
Two New Operations Manuals From Haynes Publishing
If you find yourself in Green Park when on a visit to London you will should see the imposing Bomber Command memorial that was unveiled…
Book Reviews Roundup Features 4 Great Titles
Time for another books round up and we start with a solid piece of infotainment from Fred Pushies, a special forces specialist, in the shape…
EPITAPHS OF THE GREAT WAR – Book Review
I have to start this review by digressing away from the Great War to a story of sorts about World War II. Back when the…
THE FIRST BRIDGE TOO FAR – Book Review
The importance and the drama of the Sicilian campaign of 1943 has been largely overshadowed by events from the years that followed, but it is…
THE ARDENNES BATTLEFIELDS – Book Review
I think this is the fifth book I have seen from a team that has moved from Normandy to covering the key locations from the…
BATTLES THAT CHANGED HISTORY – Book Review
This brave book attempts to condense a few thousand years of organized unpleasantness into a single volume. The contributors have been tasked with selecting the…
SILENT LANDSCAPE AT GALLIPOLI – Book Review
I’ve made the majority of my visits to European battlefields in either the fall or winter when the weather is often not the best. Rain…
Semper Fi – US Marine Corps in World War II – Book Review
Here we go again with another excellent book in the Images of War series from Pen & Sword. This time round the prolific Michael Green…
The Great War – 3 Great Books for History Lovers – Book Review
This is the first of a sequence of round-ups where the WHO Reviews Dept holds a summer clearance of the books I have amassed in…
Escape and Evade and Afrika Corps – Book Review
Reviewed by Phil Hodges for War History Online. We’re pleased to welcome back Phil Hodges and his famous knees to the WHO reviews department. EVASION…
Masters of Mayhem: The Operations of Lawrence of Arabia and His Men – Book Review
I can’t say for certain how long I’ve been doing this job but I know for sure I’ve seen a good few books that contrive…
Romans & Vikings: 3 Fantastic Books from Haynes – Review by M. Barnes
Printed books are making a comeback as people get bored with tablets and their lack of the substance only achieved with ink and paper. I’m…
Over and Above – Book review by Mark Barnes
A good many people went into print to tell their story immediately after the Great War and quite a lot of the output has become…
Luftwaffe Eagle: A WWII German Airman’s Story – Review by Mark Barnes
This intriguing book is the autobiography of the Luftwaffe airman Erich Sommer who flew as a navigator on bombing missions and photo-reconnaissance flights before becoming…
American Tanks and AFVs of World War II
I keep occasional tabs on a number of Facebook pages dedicated to military vehicles and in particular the US built armor that have become icons…
From Journey’s End to the Dam Busters – Review by Mark Barnes
I am late to the party with this one but there is no harm done. I reviewed the marvellous film adaptation of Journey’s End towards…
From Moscow to Stalingrad – Review by Mark Barnes
I’ve got books coming out of my ears but one that caught my eye is this tidy release from Casemate in their illustrated Militaria range.…
Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges, 1944 – Review by Mark Barnes
A mate of mine happened to call in and noted I had a copy of this superb book by Antony Beevor. “Oh, I went to…
Images of War: WWI French Air Force & WWII German Half-Tracks – Review by Mark Barnes
The Images of War Series It is often the case that when preparing a book the author will collate enough material to fill several. It…
The Centenary Collection from Penguin Books – Review by Mark Barnes
Our friends at Penguin have released a set of six books celebrating the centenary of the Royal Air Force. I hadn’t taken note of what…
A Century of Innovation Explained – Review by Paul Theobald
This is the centenary year of Royal Air Force. It became the RAF on the 1st of April 1918 when the Royal Flying Corps and…
80 Years, A Tribute To The PBY Catalina – Review by Mark Barnes
Hans Wiesman first came to my attention a few years ago on the publication of his book The Dakota Hunter, a book detailing much of…
The Axis Occupation Of Europe Then And Now – Review by Mark Barnes
We live in troubled times where fear and loathing of immigrants, school yard shootings, youth violence, distant wars and poisonings in sleepy cathedral cities vie…
The Most Decorated Panzer Companies Of The Wehrmacht PART 1 – 2nd Company, 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion
War History Online presents this guest blog by Evan Pinter In this three-part series, we will take a look at the three most decorated panzer…
The Great War Illustrated 1917 – Review by Mark Barnes
I remember a warmish spring evening four years ago when I attended an event at the Houses of Parliament in London where a number of…
The Roman Barbarian Wars; The Era of Roman Conquest – Review by William McLaughlin
Roman wars against “barbarians” can often be very difficult to cover. In victory, they can be deemed inconsequential or unworthy of special mention by ancient…
Operations Manual From ancient times to the beginning of the gunpowder age – Review by Mark Barnes
We start with a disclaimer: I live in a country that has a lot of castles and I have visited some of them. It’s a…
The Maginot Line – Book Review by Mark Barnes
It is ever so easy to ridicule the Maginot Line given its strategic failure, but it would be wrong to denigrate the wonder of it’s…
Fantastic New Titles From Haynes Publishing – Review by Mark Barnes
If you’re looking for a couple of books that are both informative and entertaining, look no further than this first class duo from Haynes Publishing. …
The Man Who Saved Paris: Roger West’s Ride 1914 – Review by Mark Barnes
The first months of the Great War are hardly ignored by historians, but the period is wholly overshadowed by the years of trench warfare that…
A Selection Of Armor Related Books To Consider – Review by Mark Barnes
Every so often I am presented with books I can enthuse about but not to any great length and my masters in the WHO version…
Four World War II Books to consider – Review by Mark Barnes
Two new books in the soft backed Illustrated series from Casemate have an unmistakable French presentation style to them and this is no accident. They…
The Half-shilling curate – Review by Mark Barnes
Great War books keep coming as the final months of the centenary period burns itself out. I’ve said, before, that the output has been just…
V Bomber Quartet from Grub Street – Review by Paul Theobald
Grub Street and author and former test pilot Tony Blackman have brought together four great Cold War era titles which come from the publisher’s on-going…
Led By Lions – Book review by Mark Barnes
Politicians aren’t exactly the flavour of the month in these parts and I doubt it’s much different wherever you are reading this. I won’t get…
The Boat That Won The War – Review by Mark Barnes
I have a good number of books from the publisher of this little gem that tell the story of the great battleships of the Dreadnought…
The Last Battle: Endgame on the Western Front, 1918 – Review by Mark Barnes
Commemorations marking the centenary of the Great War are only just getting going in the United States, but for the UK and other countries involved…
“The Royal Navy at Dunkirk” – Review by Mark Barnes
Good histories rely on reliable source material and you cannot get much better than the contents of this compelling read assembled by Martin Mace. He…
Vietnam War Army Helicopter Nose Art – Review by Paul Theobald
I do like a good aviation picture reference book, especially when it comes to nose art and this latest offering from Fonthill by John Brennan…
Haynes Manual: Douglas A-1 Skyraider – Review by Paul Theobald
This latest offering from Haynes is written by Tony Hoskins and features the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. Haynes manuals have proved to be a big success,…
JOURNEY’S END – Reviewed By Mark Barnes
I was born at the tail end of the period of classic British war films that occasionally do the rounds on TV. Some of them…
Photographing The Fallen – Book Review by Mark Barnes
Perhaps you’ve had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Andy Robertshaw on either side of the pond where he reminds us that the Great…
“Double Ace: Robert Lee Scott Jr., Pilot, Hero, and Teller of Tall Tales” – Review by David D. Kindy
By Guest Blogger David D. Kindy Robert Lee Scott Jr.,World War II flying ace and author of “God is My Co-Pilot” is best remembered as the…
Four Past & Present Battlefield Histories And Pictorial Guides from Casemate – Review by Mark Barnes
I’ve had a few books awaiting my attention while I dealt with one someone else will have to review when it eventually appears. We’ve never…
Images Of War – Two New Books From Michael Green – Review By Mark Barnes
We have in front of us two books by the American historian Michael Green in the Images of War series from Pen & Sword. If…
Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri – Review By Stuart McClung
The historiography of the guerrilla phase of the Civil War has been on the increase in recent years with notable works by Michael Fellman and…
Disputed Earth – Book Review by Mark Barnes
Ok, so we’re out exploring the World War One battlefields in France. It’s cold and wet and the sky is like cold porridge. We’ve come…
Passchendaele: The Lost Victory of World War I – Review By Stuart McClung
World War I on the Western Front can mostly be described as an exercise in futility. Once the initial 1914 German offensive through Belgium and…
Passchendaele: The Lost Victory of World War I – Review By Stuart McClung
World War I on the Western Front can mostly be described as an exercise in futility. Once the initial 1914 German offensive through Belgium and…
All Along The Control Tower – Review by Mark Barnes
I have to admit I was a bit dubious when I received this, the third volume of World War II era control tower photos from…
Four Superb Owners’ Workshop Manuals From Haynes Publishing – Review by Mark Barnes
Haynes’ quest for world domination has picked up pace in recent months and I’m struggling to keep up with the number of books arriving in…
“Tank Hunter – World War One” – Review by Mark Barnes
The proliferation of tank-themed pages on social media doesn’t show any sign of slowing down. It has reached the point where some of the newer…
“Invasion Airfields – Then And Now” – Review by Mark Barnes
I have had a quiet year on the reviews front because I have been otherwise engaged. But I am pleased to have a window of…
An Illustrated History of the 1st Aero Squadron at Camp Furlong: Columbus, New Mexico 1916-1917 – Review by Stuart McClung
At the request and encouragement of some military historians, Western historians and other interested parties, author John L. Deuble, Jr., has turned an apparent labor…
Three-Part Series On The Most Decorated Panzer Companies Of The Wehrmacht – 2nd Company, 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion
War History Online presents this guest blog by Evan Pinter In this three-part series, we will take a look at the three most decorated panzer…
Three-Part Series On The Most Decorated Panzer Companies Of The Wehrmacht – 2nd Company, 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion
War History Online presents this guest blog by Evan Pinter In this three-part series, we will take a look at the three most decorated panzer…
Caesar’s Greatest Victory: The Battle of Alesia, 52 BC – Reviewed by Stuart McClung
Long before his rendezvous with the Ides of March, 44BC, Julius Caesar was one of the ancient world’s most accomplished military leaders. Between his campaigns…
The Roman Barbarian Wars; The Era of Roman Conquest – Review by William McLaughlin
Roman wars against “barbarians” can often be very difficult to cover. In victory, they can be deemed inconsequential or unworthy of special mention by ancient…
Historical Review: Master and Commander; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
It is rare for Hollywood movies to be historically accurate and many people know that making a movie out of a book is usually disappointing,…
Two new titles from the History Press reviewed by Mark Barnes
You would need to have been something of a hermit to avoid the new movie Dunkirk. I’ve seen it twice and enjoyed it much more…