Library Additions,

More to read when I decide to get actively reading through my collection of books on WWI-II.
In all honesty I think like most of us here that have been amassing our collections over the decades it will be physically impossible to get through every title!

Western Australian 11th Battalion (2023 printing) fresh H/C 1st Ed signed by the author.

Second 28th ~ Western Australia's 2/28th Infantry Battalion was raised in 1940, with the nucleus of the battalion coming together at Melville Camp, near Fremantle, on 17 July. The battalion was initially raised as part of the 24th Brigade of the 8th Division and was transferred to the newly formed 9th Division in December. H/C 1st Ed. (Not a cheap book)

Tigers At The Front By Jentz ~ another welcomed addition to my reasonable collection of titles on the Tiger tanks this one is a pictorial study of Tiger tanks at the front (I have all of Jetz's books he has authored on Tiger tanks 1 & II.)
H/C 1st Ed.

I actually buy most of my books for reference material, rarely read them cover to cover although I have been doing more of that lately. Everytime I sort my collection it's an adventure as I find a lot of books I didn't realize I had.

I'm currently trying to slog through a book on the US Army in the Pacific theater but it's rather dry. I keep reading novels ahead of it.

Tigers at the Front I believe I have along with one or two others in the series.

I have the blessing or curse of having a re-uzit store nearby that has a constant flow of decent books through it. and most are $1.99-$4.99.

Jentz's book will join this lot of books I have on Tigers, Sledgehammers by Wilbeck is a real eye opener on the tactics and flaws of the Tiger tanks and is a worthy addition to any literature on the Tiger tank line.
It is a paper back and not a big book but is huge on information, Tiger 1 & II Combat Tactics is another one, Tigers In Combat III goes through the whole gambit of running a tiger tank and the training of all the crew members.
Training of the gunner they were really put through the ropes to qualify with very exacting tests to ensure they get early hits at varying ranges on static & moving targets.
Lets not forget they did not have ballistic computers back then they did have very good optics though "Bobby" Woll was Wittmanns gunner at Kursk along with Wittmann they devised engaging T-34 etc whilst on the move negating their doctrine of stopping to fire.
Bobby Woll collected the knights cross a rare presentation for a gunner he later on he commanded a Tiger tank of his own, then there was a chap called Kurt Knispel who was the best tanker of all time in the German army.

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

I actually buy most of my books for reference material, rarely read them cover to cover although I have been doing more of that lately. Everytime I sort my collection it's an adventure as I find a lot of books I didn't realize I had.

I'm currently trying to slog through a book on the US Army in the Pacific theater but it's rather dry. I keep reading novels ahead of it.

Tigers at the Front I believe I have along with one or two others in the series.

I have the blessing or curse of having a re-uzit store nearby that has a constant flow of decent books through it. and most are $1.99-$4.99.

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Aragorn, re: US Army in the Pacific, if you are referring to the first vol of John McManus's trilogy, it is a bit dry, and frankly, the events of much of the 41-43 time frame have been covered very well by others, with more detail. However, other than having, in my opinion, insufficient maps, the 2nd and 3rd volumes are pretty good.
I do recall you mentioning, I think, several years ago that doorstoppers aren't your favorite.

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Originally Posted by StratA

Aragorn, re: US Army in the Pacific, if you are referring to the first vol of John McManus's trilogy....doorstoppers aren't your favorite.

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That's it and they aren't. I don't have volumes 2-3 yet, not sure I'm going to hunt them down. I bought it at Ollies discount store thinking it would be a good read because It's one area I've neglected in my library.

My main areas of book collecting are reference books for anything Lee Enfield, Canadian military history, Israeli military history, and military engineering with a smattering of other topics. As mentioned not all are read cover to cover but searched for data relevant to threads on sites such as this.
Cinders, if you like riveting stories of tank action then I can't recommend DUEL FOR THE GOLAN - THE 100-HOUR BATTLE THAT SAVED ISRAEL enough. It details the awe inspiring heroism of the few Israeli tank crews that staved off 10 times the number of enemy tanks long enough for Israel to muster sufficient forces for a counter attack during the Yom Kippur war. Every tank Israel committed to the battle was hit by enemy fire at least once and some tank commanders had 5 or 6 tanks shot out from beneath only for the commander to run back to a laager, hastily assemble a crew, climb in another tank and rejoin the battle. Amazing stuff!

My book collecting is like my militaria collecting, pretty eclectic. I have a little bit of everything. It is very extensive as I've been collecting military books since I was 12 and my uncle started buying them for me. I prefer the oversized books with a lot of data and photos, maps, etc to the smaller "novel" style histories. Guns are fairly recent, past 10 years or so I've been buying gun books. My largest sections would be warships/navies and warplanes, with tanks being a very distant third. WWII is the largest time period, US Civil War 2nd, Napoleonic 3rd and WWI 4th. I have a fairly significant number on uniforms and a few on gear. Uniforms I've been after for most of my collecting life while gear is very recent.

I have way too many to keep track of and numerous duplicates. I have slowed down some but still average 10 new ones a week, mostly from the "curse" of a re-uzit store.

Couple of jewels of my collection;
Pic #1 my Bean series with 2 of the 3 medical Vol's (The Medical ones are exceedingly hard to get any of them) there is the full 3 Vol set in England but they want $6000/Aud for them, there is a set here with the 12 Volumes of the Bean series but they have $3000/Aud on that lot I've already got 2 Bean series.

Here is some info for you some have always pondered as to the colour of those 12 volumes in the Bean series well the crimson colour was chosen as it reminded Charles Bean of the colour of dried blood guess he saw plenty as being on Gallipoli & France as a war correspondent.

With the medical WWI volumes I lucked on to those 2 got them for $300/Aud/Pair the hunt for Volume 3 continues, I called into a shop I go to occasionally on a whim and there they were with a Bean series.
There is also the medical WWI Australians in Egypt red binding next to the Drk blue ones only worth @$70/Aud.

Pic #2 Is Neville Browning OBE books which are all signed most are unread and some of them are commanding big prices especially the very first printing runs there is also an abridged expanded version in there as well Fix Bayonets usually goes for $150-250/Aud if you can find a copy.

I'm up to @page 90 in the 11th Battalion boy oh boy it has got a lot of material in there on the landing that is blow by blow our chaps took very few prisoners in the initial fighting even if they threw down their arms & kit they were bayoneted them on the spot pretty brutal.

I bought a 1st Ed H/C book The Blue Haze By Leslie Hall they are getting up in value got it for $30 I have a S/C version.

Still looking tonight for books, the Minister For War & Finance is going to put the brakes onto me as I have been very naughty with model supplies and books plus servicing the bikes all chews up the $'s........:yikes:

Finished up my latest Clive Cussler novel and started another military history I think I'm going to like, "The Bedford Boys" by Alex Kershaw. This is about a group of men from a Virginia town, Bedford, who had a massively high casualty rate on Omaha Beach on D-Day. They were all from the same place because they were a National Guard unit.

Reads a lot like the "Band of Brothers". Early portion is telling their backgrounds, mostly childhoods and early adulthood as most are young.

Check out

WW2 Panzer Books, Tank Books and Modelling Books

Later 42rocker