Book Review of
The Second World War
The Third Year
Archive & Colour Photos of WW2
Author: Jack Holroyd
Pen & Sword Books
ICBN: 9781627762366
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2022
MSRP: $34.95
ICBN: 9781627762366
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2022
MSRP: $34.95
THE BOOK:
Pen & Sword Books is located in the UK.
This book is soft-bound of 280 pages in 6 ½” x 9 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a colorized wartime photo of the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, with a lot of explosions and flames shown.
Above this photo there are 4 more small black and white photos.
Reading left to right, the 1st one shows a Soviet soldier leading a group of German POWs.
The 2nd photos of Japanese soldiers with a group of British POWs.
The 3rd photo is of a U.S. Army Air Corps “Devastator’” dropping a bomb.
The 4th photo is of a German Pz.Kpfw. IV tank.
All these small photos are repeated on the back cover of the book too.
The book contains a whopping 726 black and white wartime-photos, that show photos of the Allied and Axis participants in all the theatres of WWII. It is a real virtual album of pictures.
There are also 84 color wartime photos, 11 color illustrations and 31 maps shown.
There are 30 photos of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Axis and Allied leaders shown (some several times) are:
Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Japanese Emperor Hirohito, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (including one of him signing the declaration of war with Japan), Bonito Mussolini, Hideki Tojo and Isoroku Yamamoto.
Generals and Admirals shown are:
Irwin Rommel (6 times), Field Marshal Montgomery and various other Allied and Axis individuals, a painting of Japanese generals accepting surrender of British at Singapore.
British, German, Soviet and Japanese POWs.
Allied and Axis aircraft shown (including pilots) are:
A B-26 with 7-man crew in front of it, a photo of a Japanese Ki. 46 “Dinah” (with a second photo of Japanese student flyers in front of one), an SBD Dauntless dropping a bomb, a Soviet IL-2 “Sturmovik”, a German Junkers Ju-53, a German Heinkel He-111, a German Ju-87, a P-40 “Kittyhawk”, Zero’s on a IJN carrier, IJN Nakajima B5N “Kate”, IJN Aichi D3A, A5M2 Zero Model 21, IJN floatplane “Dave”, IJN Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bomber, a burned-out Vought SB2U-3 “Vindicator”, Aichi D3A1s going down in flames, a shot-down A5M2 Zero, a burning U.S. B-17 and SBD Dauntless, Mitsubishi G4M Hamaki bombers, Zero’s attacking Pearl Harbor, Jap G4M “Betty”, a Japanese H6K flying boat, a Brewster Buffalo, a Grumman F-47 Wildcat, a Douglas TBD-1 Devastator, Handley-Page Hampton Mk. 1s.
Color side-views of Japanese aircraft: an A6M2A Zero, an Aichi D3A “Val” and a B5N “Kate”
Many photos of Axis and Allied infantrymen. Some German infantrymen on horseback. Also sailors. Soviet civilians digging defenses. Japanese infantrymen on bicycles, a photo of a young Chinese boy in uniform, Soviet female medic, captured U.S. pilot. German soldiers pulling a Horch/Opel staff car out of mud in Russia.
Many photos of the attack on Pearl Harbor showing a lot of explosions and damage.
Weapons shown are:
A Soviet gun-crew manning a quad mounted Maxim machine gun on a rooftop in Moscow, a German Stug III, a German siege mortar Karl Great, a German Gustav 80cm gun, a 5-view of a Soviet T-34/76A tank, s British 25 pdr gun being towed by a Morris tractor, a British Crusader tank, a British Valentine tank, a German Pz.Kpfw. IV, a German Pz.Kpfw. III, a British M3 Grant tank, U.S. Navy gun crew on a 5in anti-aircraft gun, British soldiers with a captured Italian 75mm cannon, an Italian Carro Armato M13/40 medium tank, Japanese soldiers with Singapore’s coastal 15in guns, German soldier beside a knocked-out British Churchill tank at Dieppe, a landing-craft unloading Churchill tanks, S. African armored-cars, jeeps, Chevrolet WA-30 cwt truck, Japanese Chi-ha tank, Japanese 75mm gun, a German crew firing a captured Soviet 52mm gun on the cliffs of Dieppe.
Ships shown are:
A T-class British submarine HMS Tobago, Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku, USS California, USS Maryland, USS Oklahoma, USS Tennessee, USS Nevada, USS Arizona, USS Pennsylvania, minelayer USS Oglala, USS Destroyer Shaw, USS Utah, USS Raleigh, USS Honolulu, HMS Prince of Wales, 3 photos of blown up ships at Pearl Harbor, USS Hornet, USS Northampton, USS Salt Lake City heavy cruiser, USS Vincennes, USS Enterprise, IJN patrol boat No. 23 Nitto Maru, USS Lexington, USS Yorktown, IJN carriers Shokaku “Soaring Crane”. Zuikaku “Auspicious Crane” and Shoho “Happy Phoenix "and light-cruiser Shoho.
The color section in the book repeats a lot of the photos already done in black and white.
There is a Soviet propaganda poster, a shot of the shore at Sevastopol and a newspaper headline.
This book really covers WWII. It will be of much interest to modelers and military historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the N. American distributor of Pen & Sword Books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Pen & Sword Books is located in the UK.
This book is soft-bound of 280 pages in 6 ½” x 9 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a colorized wartime photo of the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, with a lot of explosions and flames shown.
Above this photo there are 4 more small black and white photos.
Reading left to right, the 1st one shows a Soviet soldier leading a group of German POWs.
The 2nd photos of Japanese soldiers with a group of British POWs.
The 3rd photo is of a U.S. Army Air Corps “Devastator’” dropping a bomb.
The 4th photo is of a German Pz.Kpfw. IV tank.
All these small photos are repeated on the back cover of the book too.
The book contains a whopping 726 black and white wartime-photos, that show photos of the Allied and Axis participants in all the theatres of WWII. It is a real virtual album of pictures.
There are also 84 color wartime photos, 11 color illustrations and 31 maps shown.
There are 30 photos of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Axis and Allied leaders shown (some several times) are:
Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Japanese Emperor Hirohito, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (including one of him signing the declaration of war with Japan), Bonito Mussolini, Hideki Tojo and Isoroku Yamamoto.
Generals and Admirals shown are:
Irwin Rommel (6 times), Field Marshal Montgomery and various other Allied and Axis individuals, a painting of Japanese generals accepting surrender of British at Singapore.
British, German, Soviet and Japanese POWs.
Allied and Axis aircraft shown (including pilots) are:
A B-26 with 7-man crew in front of it, a photo of a Japanese Ki. 46 “Dinah” (with a second photo of Japanese student flyers in front of one), an SBD Dauntless dropping a bomb, a Soviet IL-2 “Sturmovik”, a German Junkers Ju-53, a German Heinkel He-111, a German Ju-87, a P-40 “Kittyhawk”, Zero’s on a IJN carrier, IJN Nakajima B5N “Kate”, IJN Aichi D3A, A5M2 Zero Model 21, IJN floatplane “Dave”, IJN Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bomber, a burned-out Vought SB2U-3 “Vindicator”, Aichi D3A1s going down in flames, a shot-down A5M2 Zero, a burning U.S. B-17 and SBD Dauntless, Mitsubishi G4M Hamaki bombers, Zero’s attacking Pearl Harbor, Jap G4M “Betty”, a Japanese H6K flying boat, a Brewster Buffalo, a Grumman F-47 Wildcat, a Douglas TBD-1 Devastator, Handley-Page Hampton Mk. 1s.
Color side-views of Japanese aircraft: an A6M2A Zero, an Aichi D3A “Val” and a B5N “Kate”
Many photos of Axis and Allied infantrymen. Some German infantrymen on horseback. Also sailors. Soviet civilians digging defenses. Japanese infantrymen on bicycles, a photo of a young Chinese boy in uniform, Soviet female medic, captured U.S. pilot. German soldiers pulling a Horch/Opel staff car out of mud in Russia.
Many photos of the attack on Pearl Harbor showing a lot of explosions and damage.
Weapons shown are:
A Soviet gun-crew manning a quad mounted Maxim machine gun on a rooftop in Moscow, a German Stug III, a German siege mortar Karl Great, a German Gustav 80cm gun, a 5-view of a Soviet T-34/76A tank, s British 25 pdr gun being towed by a Morris tractor, a British Crusader tank, a British Valentine tank, a German Pz.Kpfw. IV, a German Pz.Kpfw. III, a British M3 Grant tank, U.S. Navy gun crew on a 5in anti-aircraft gun, British soldiers with a captured Italian 75mm cannon, an Italian Carro Armato M13/40 medium tank, Japanese soldiers with Singapore’s coastal 15in guns, German soldier beside a knocked-out British Churchill tank at Dieppe, a landing-craft unloading Churchill tanks, S. African armored-cars, jeeps, Chevrolet WA-30 cwt truck, Japanese Chi-ha tank, Japanese 75mm gun, a German crew firing a captured Soviet 52mm gun on the cliffs of Dieppe.
Ships shown are:
A T-class British submarine HMS Tobago, Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku, USS California, USS Maryland, USS Oklahoma, USS Tennessee, USS Nevada, USS Arizona, USS Pennsylvania, minelayer USS Oglala, USS Destroyer Shaw, USS Utah, USS Raleigh, USS Honolulu, HMS Prince of Wales, 3 photos of blown up ships at Pearl Harbor, USS Hornet, USS Northampton, USS Salt Lake City heavy cruiser, USS Vincennes, USS Enterprise, IJN patrol boat No. 23 Nitto Maru, USS Lexington, USS Yorktown, IJN carriers Shokaku “Soaring Crane”. Zuikaku “Auspicious Crane” and Shoho “Happy Phoenix "and light-cruiser Shoho.
The color section in the book repeats a lot of the photos already done in black and white.
There is a Soviet propaganda poster, a shot of the shore at Sevastopol and a newspaper headline.
This book really covers WWII. It will be of much interest to modelers and military historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the N. American distributor of Pen & Sword Books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Very highly recommended.