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Pen & Sword
Recollections of the great war in the air
By: James McConnell
Paperback : 96 pages
Price : UK 9.99 / US $14.95
Contents:
Dedication, Introduction, Dedication by F.C.P. Four chapters with large text and black and white images throughout. A short bio on James McConnell covers the beginning of the book and leads to his service during WWI. This book is more about his service in the French Escadrille up until his death in March 1917. James McConnell was just one of many Americans who joined the French Army and Flying corps.
Review:
I chose to read a bit and review this book first as I found it very intersting that Americans joined the French Army during WWI long before the US entered the war a few years after the outbreak.
I actually only got the read through half the book before I realized I still had several other interesting books from Pen & Sword that I still had to read and review. One of the things I learned from this book is that most Americans that joined early in the war to fight in the French Army, were actually in the medical corps and didn't start out as pilots.
The recounts in the book shows one just how brave those pilots were during the first world war. One could actually invision the pilot in his biplane flying over the trenches of Verdun and other battle fields.
The book covers just one of many men who risked their lives flying those rickety biplanes in the early years of aviation, and the war to end all wars. Sadly, as is in the case of James McConnell, many plots did not survive the war.
Click on the images to enlarge
Conclusion:
Although the book only contains 96 pages it is a very interesting read, even if you are not into WWI and or aircraft. I give the book two thumbs up and really enjoyed reading just half the book. I will read the remaining half over the holidays and am quite sure I will enjoy it.
Pen & Sword reviews page
Here you will find MSC reviews of books from our sponsor Pen & Sword
To see more books from Pen & Sword, click here
List of book reviews found here
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Aircraft Wrecks - The Walkers Guide
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German Machine Guns of the Second world War
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Recollection of the great war in the air
Pen & Sword
Images of War
German Machine Guns of the Second world War
By: Hans Seidler
Rare photographs from wartime archives
Paperback : 160 pages
Price : UK 12.99 / US $24.95
Contents:
A pictoral account of the German machine guns, MG34 & 42, during the second world war. The book contains five chapters with hundreds of rare images, starting from pre/early war leading the the end of the war. All images have captions with info on the subject etc.
Appendix I - VI in the back of the book covers technical info on units, weapons and the heavy MG's.
Review:
Each chapter begins with several pages of historical information for the period covered in the chapter, followed by related info on the machine guns used and deployed. As mentioned, the images all have detailed captions describing the image, uniforms, emplacements and types of weapons. The book starts out with the early MG's and leads into the MG 34 and 42.
From my knowledge the info given in the chapters text and captions seem accurate. The images are a treasure for those who need references on weapons uniforms, or just some motivation for a future dio or vignette. Beside the hobby aspect, the book is also historical and will nost definiately appeal to those who like to read up on the second world war.
Of particular interest are the many images showing vehicles, uniformms,emplacements, buildings and terrain. Besides the early war uniforms, there are lots of images showing camo and winter uniforms which will come in handy for painting figures. Close up images of the soldiers and weapons, especially the MG 34 are crisp and clear showing wear and tear on the MG's. Also seen in the images are the bipod, anti aircraft mounts and the heavy tripod.
Conclusion:
My favorite images are those of guns emplacements in trenches, holes and fortifications. Whether your just into WWII history or a model builder needing good reference images, this book is just the ticket.
We'd like to thanks Pen & Sword Publishing for kindly donating tthis review sample.
If you'd like to see more books of similar topic please visit their website.
Pen & Sword
AIRCRAFT WRECKS
The Walker's Guide
By:
Nick Wotherspoon, Aan Clark and Mark Sheldon
Paperback : 352 pages
Price : UK 14.99 US $29.95
Historic crash sites on the Moors and mountains of the British Isles
Aircraft wrecks !! We all know about wrecked and destroyed tanks, especially military armor modelers, and often seen them being built and in dioramas, but what about Aircraft wrecks ?
Before receiving this book to review from pen & Sword, I hardly ever thought about aircraft wrecks, mainly from the WWII era. Like everyone else, I have read and know about all the hundreds of aircraft that took part in the European Theatre during WWII, and that many were shot down in combat. What I didn’t know until now is that hundreds of aircraft of all types crashed in the UK, and mostly not during combat fighting.
Contents:
There are ten chapters to this book, with historical information, maps and hundreds of photos. The rear of the book features appendix A-E which has passenger lists, Manufacturers stamps, parts numbers prefixes. Appendix D and E cover aircraft type designations and air crew position and finally abbreviations.
Covering nearly 500 wrecks found throughout the Moors and Mountains of the British Isles, each entry gives information of the fate of the aircraft and its crew, the crash site how it is today and the landscape.
Review:
The book starts with the usual introduction, followed by notes on visiting the sites. This part of the book is very important for those intending on visiting any of the crash sites, or any other aircraft crash site for that matter. The codes and rights to roam are all covered, by area and by countries.
Excert from the beginning of the book covering codes and rules to visiting the crash site.
This area covers the different countries where the sites are located.
Also covered in the book’s chapters are maps of crash site locations, and bits of history of the area. These are mainly WWII historical information that helps explain the circumstances in which many aircraft crashed. It seems to me the leading cause of most of the crashes were due to weather, mainly low clouds and fog that is often the norm for those areas.
Chapter one, This chapter covers crash sites on South-west Moore.
This is one example of the many site maps on the pages of this book.
There are hundreds of black and white photos covering most of the crash sites and landscape. The photos will help the walker find the sites and aircraft remnants. Some of the sites are not easily to get to and are quite dangerous, and others in or under water.
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 2 |
 3 |
 4 |
 5 |
 6 |
 7 |
 appendix B & C |
 appendix E & F |
Samples of some of the many B/W images fund in this book.
Also a sample of the appendix found in the rear of the book.
Conclusion
I would first like to thank Pen & Sword for this review sample, mainly because this type of book, about wrecks, is something that has interested me for many years. I could have done a quick review and been done with it, but I wanted to read as much of this book as possible before doing the review.
After reading and looking at all the images I gained a great respect for those brave men who flew those aircraft many years ago. With that, I recommend this book highly to those who love history and aircraft, you will love it.
As with any crash site, respect should be given t those who lost their lives.
You can find this and many other great books from Pen & Sword at the link below.
