Book Review of
The Best of After The Battle, Then & Now
Editor Winston Ramsey
Pen & Sword Books Ltd.
ISBN: 9781870067980
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $79.95
Copyright: 2022
ISBN: 9781870067980
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $79.95
Copyright: 2022
THE BOOK:
Pen & Sword Books Ltd. is based in the UK.
This book is hard-bound with a paper jacket that has fold-over tabs that hold it to the cover.
The cover art is also on the jacket and the book itself.
It shows a color photo of a damaged Sherman tank being pulled out of the mud after the war.
The back cover shows a black and white photo of Winston Churchill, wearing a top hat and overcoat and in front of a building. He is holding his right arm up making the famous V for Victory sign with two fingers.
The book holds 269 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format. Two pages are blank.
There are 152 color photos and 491 black and white ones included in the book.
It was nearly half a century ago that After the Battle first began visiting the battlefields of WWII, matching up photos of the period with their present day comparisons. Our then and now theme caught on with the like-minded readers around the world, all interested to know what the places looked like today - as we say "keeping history alive".
Searching for the locations where the wartime captions were inprocise, took much time, and there were occasions when a whole day might be spent in pinpointing where a particular photo had been taken. No stone was left unturned if a particular comparison was important to illustrate the story, even if it meant a special visit to take one photo.
Most of the battlefields have changed over the years, so it has been our intention, where possible, to illustrate many of the places with new color comparisons, rather than use those in the original story, many of which were taken in the old black and white days.
Since the book was launched in the first edition, in August 1973, After the Battle has travelled around the globe and has covered hundreds of battles - over 750 at the last count - and taken thousands of photos, covering major operations down to individual exploits. Selecting a cross-section of just a few from the stories that we have covered has not been easy, but we hope that you will find some of your favorites within the pages of this volume, covering the Best of After the Battle.
Pen & Sword Books Ltd. is based in the UK.
This book is hard-bound with a paper jacket that has fold-over tabs that hold it to the cover.
The cover art is also on the jacket and the book itself.
It shows a color photo of a damaged Sherman tank being pulled out of the mud after the war.
The back cover shows a black and white photo of Winston Churchill, wearing a top hat and overcoat and in front of a building. He is holding his right arm up making the famous V for Victory sign with two fingers.
The book holds 269 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format. Two pages are blank.
There are 152 color photos and 491 black and white ones included in the book.
It was nearly half a century ago that After the Battle first began visiting the battlefields of WWII, matching up photos of the period with their present day comparisons. Our then and now theme caught on with the like-minded readers around the world, all interested to know what the places looked like today - as we say "keeping history alive".
Searching for the locations where the wartime captions were inprocise, took much time, and there were occasions when a whole day might be spent in pinpointing where a particular photo had been taken. No stone was left unturned if a particular comparison was important to illustrate the story, even if it meant a special visit to take one photo.
Most of the battlefields have changed over the years, so it has been our intention, where possible, to illustrate many of the places with new color comparisons, rather than use those in the original story, many of which were taken in the old black and white days.
Since the book was launched in the first edition, in August 1973, After the Battle has travelled around the globe and has covered hundreds of battles - over 750 at the last count - and taken thousands of photos, covering major operations down to individual exploits. Selecting a cross-section of just a few from the stories that we have covered has not been easy, but we hope that you will find some of your favorites within the pages of this volume, covering the Best of After the Battle.
There are 33 chapters:
Some early D-Day memories:
The Capture of Pegasus Bridge, Searching for General Eisenhower’s D-Day Command Post, Battlefields of Normandy, Salvaging the D-Day beaches, D-Day Sequel of Graye-sur-mer.
Introducing Jean Paul Pallud:
Michael Wittmann’s Last Battle.
Surmounting the Difficulties:
The Island of Iwo Jima, Exploring the Eastern Front.
One of the War’s Greatest Mysteries:
The last Flight of the B-24 Liberator “Lady Be Good”.
Most Daring Exploits:
Operation “Gunnerside”, February 27/28 1943, The Rescue of Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini, September 12, 1943.
Our Greatest Revelations:
Discovering the Name of the Man Who Never was, Who Downed Douglas Bader?, The suicide of Heinrich Himmler.
Filming the Second World War:
The making of “Theirs is the Glory”.
The War Crimes:
The Massacre of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, at Le Paradis, Stalag Luft 3 & the Great Escape.
Editor’s Choice:
The Hammelburg Raid, March 27, 1945.
How It All Started - & How It Finally Ended:
The Third Reich Martyrs, The First Shots of WWII, The Surrenders.
Index
Photos show posters, forts, buildings, Allied, Axis and Japanese leaders, officers and infantrymen, tanks, vehicles, weapons, buildings, aerial photos, graveyards and monuments, bridges, radar, the hotel that Mussolini was being held in when arrested shown inside and out with rescue men and aircrafts, Iwo Jima island, recovery of B-24 “Lady Be Good”, the Man Who Never Was body, British and Luftwaffe aircrafts and pilots, Heinrich Himmler, Hitler and 39 maps.
This is a neat picture album about the battles before and afterwards. It will be of great interest to modelers and military historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. All Pen & Sword Book titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Some early D-Day memories:
The Capture of Pegasus Bridge, Searching for General Eisenhower’s D-Day Command Post, Battlefields of Normandy, Salvaging the D-Day beaches, D-Day Sequel of Graye-sur-mer.
Introducing Jean Paul Pallud:
Michael Wittmann’s Last Battle.
Surmounting the Difficulties:
The Island of Iwo Jima, Exploring the Eastern Front.
One of the War’s Greatest Mysteries:
The last Flight of the B-24 Liberator “Lady Be Good”.
Most Daring Exploits:
Operation “Gunnerside”, February 27/28 1943, The Rescue of Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini, September 12, 1943.
Our Greatest Revelations:
Discovering the Name of the Man Who Never was, Who Downed Douglas Bader?, The suicide of Heinrich Himmler.
Filming the Second World War:
The making of “Theirs is the Glory”.
The War Crimes:
The Massacre of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, at Le Paradis, Stalag Luft 3 & the Great Escape.
Editor’s Choice:
The Hammelburg Raid, March 27, 1945.
How It All Started - & How It Finally Ended:
The Third Reich Martyrs, The First Shots of WWII, The Surrenders.
Index
Photos show posters, forts, buildings, Allied, Axis and Japanese leaders, officers and infantrymen, tanks, vehicles, weapons, buildings, aerial photos, graveyards and monuments, bridges, radar, the hotel that Mussolini was being held in when arrested shown inside and out with rescue men and aircrafts, Iwo Jima island, recovery of B-24 “Lady Be Good”, the Man Who Never Was body, British and Luftwaffe aircrafts and pilots, Heinrich Himmler, Hitler and 39 maps.
This is a neat picture album about the battles before and afterwards. It will be of great interest to modelers and military historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. All Pen & Sword Book titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Highly recommended.