Books by the website author
When I first set up this website, a little under six years ago at time of writing, I had access to an almost literal handful of contemporary documents. Since then more in depth research, aided by generous donations of time and advice by fellow enthusiasts, and on occasion copies from their own collections, has seen my archive grow beyond my wildest imaginings.
In recent years, several authors have published organisational studies of two of the major armies of the Second World War. Yves Bellanger in France and JJ Hays in America have both published extraordinarily detailed works on the Infantry, Armored and Airborne Divisions of the US Army, while Dr Leo Niehorster continues to add volumes on the German Army. For me, the absence of an equivalent work for the British Army has always been something of a sore point. I had all the information I could want regarding the organisation of US and German combat divisions, but to put it bluntly sod all for the British.
This imbalance in my knowledge persuaded me to delve much deeper in my research than was originally intended. This site, after all, is dedicated to Battalion level organisation, and I have always restricted myself to this area when obtaining copies of contemporary documents for US and German units. But it seemed that if I wanted Divisional level detail for the British, I was going to have to find it myself. So I did. It took probably around five years, on and off, but eventually I was able to find all the War Establishment tables issued for the British Infantry, Armoured and Airborne Divisions, plus the Tank and specialised armoured Brigades, that served in Europe between July 1943 and May 1945.
This task was born out of my own curiosity and having completed it the question came to mind, would anyone else be interested? A speculative email to www.militarypress.co.uk suggested they may, leading to my first, and quite probably only, foray into the publishing world. The current plan is for a seven Volume series on the British Army in Northwest Europe from June 1944 to May 1945, covering the Infantry Division, the Armoured Division and both the Tank Brigade and Independent Armoured Brigade in the first six Volumes, with the specialised Brigades of 79th Armoured Division in the last. All elements of the Divisions and Brigades will be covered, with approximately 150 War Establishment tables reproduced across the seven Volumes, along with summary tables of personnel, weapons and vehicles, and additional notes on certain units and tank allocations. Once complete, the series will provide a complete guide to the authorised organisation of the various British Divisions and Brigades which served in Northwest Europe between June 1944 and May 1945, as well as offering comments on the inevitable variations from the official norm found in all armies.
Volume I centres on the Infantry Division, Volume II the Armoured Division and Volume III the Tank and Independent Armoured Brigades. Volume IV covers Divisional Field Artillery and Engineers, Volume V Anti-tank and Light Anti-aircraft Regiments, with Volume VI detailing the various Supply and Transport, Medical, Ordnance and Workshop units. Volume VII is devoted to the specialised 79th Armoured Division. These are all now in print, details being available from the publisher as linked below.
http://www.militarypress.co.uk/british2.htm
After some gentle persuasion, two more Volumes on the British Airborne Divisions in Northwest Europe have been added to the series, but are not yet in print.
This is obviously a niche publication, of interest to a relatively small readership. Hopefully however, it will meet the standards of anyone from that select group willing to devote part of their book buying budget to one or more Volumes.
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Infantry Weapons of World War Two