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.Spitfire Women of World War II
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: Giles Whittell

July 01, 2008
By coincidence I'd just read Diana Barnato Walker's autobiography when I came across this book. Very much enjoyed the additional insights from other pilots and also it helped that the author was also able to put things in historical context. I found the book a real "page-turner" and full of amusing stories and gossip.

I enjoyed reading it even more than I did DBW's own account and also Jeffrey Quill's and Alex Henshaw's biographies which I also read in the past few months.
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.Spitfire Pilot
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: David Crook, Richard Overy

June 30, 2008
Although not quite as good or anywhere near as long as First Light by Geoffrey Wellum, I couldn't put this book down and, as with Geoffrey Wellum's excellent book, was sorry to finish it. They both paint a very vivid picture of what it was to be a fighter pilot in run up to the summer of 1940. The wonderful freedom and exhilaration they felt during training, the edge of the seat descriptions of aerial combat and their extremely moving thoughts when one of them fails to return - in Spitfire Pilot there seems so many.

Spitfire Pilot ended far too quickly unfortunately, as did the life of it's author, which is what makes this such a poignant read.
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.Lancaster Target
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: Jack Currie

2004-02
I must admit I didn't buy this book from Amazon, in fact I have had it more than 25 years and I still enjoy reading it.

Gripping descriptions of bombing missions are interspersed with other anecdotes, often very funny and irreverant. You get a real feeling of what it was like and how Currie and his crew coped when others didn't.

Highly recommended.
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.Malta Spitfire Aces: 0 (Aircraft of the Aces)
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: Steve Nichols

September 10, 2008
I must admit I didn't buy this book from Amazon, in fact I have had it more than 25 years and I still enjoy reading it.

Gripping descriptions of bombing missions are interspersed with other anecdotes, often very funny and irreverant. You get a real feeling of what it was like and how Currie and his crew coped when others didn't.

Highly recommended.
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.Beating the Devil: The Making of 'Night of the Demon'
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: Tony Earnshaw

May 01, 2005
A great book about the making of the 1956 movie "Night Of The Demon" is an absorbing read. With a introduction by Sir Professor Christopher Frayling, this book by Tony Earnshaw contains a collection of memoirs of all the people involved in the making of this wonderfully scary classic film. A lot of research has gone into it and it tells tales of drunken actors, (well maybe only one) and the disputes between the producer and director. I think it was very clever how the special FX were done and what they achieved in those days. The main dispute in the film being wether the "Demon" should make an appearance or not. I'm glad he did, it scared me to death when I saw it as a child, and I still think it was a masterpiece of cinematic art.
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.Tigers in the Mud: The Combat Career of German Panzer Commander Otto Carius (Stackpole Military History Series): The Combat Career of German Panzer Commander ... Carius (Stackpole Military History Series)
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: Otto Carius

January 15, 2004
Carius served in several tanks throughout the war, from the small Panzer 38(t) to the Tiger I and briefly, the huge Jagdtiger. He fought against the Russians and the Americans, although the majority of the book is mainly concerned with his 'Tiger' actions against the Russians. It is an interesting book for anyone who likes personal accounts of armoured warfare during the Second World War.
Personally, whilst I enjoyed the book, I thought it was a bit too sanitized for my tastes, as regards his re-telling of the various actions. He does not go into great detail about them, perhaps in an effort not to seem to be gloryifying his many successes, but I felt that in reading it, I was never really 'there' with him, if you know what I mean.
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.Avro Lancaster: Britain's Greatest Wartime Bomber: 0
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: Peter C. Smith

July 03, 2008
One of the most comprehensive accounts of the Lancaster to date.
Some excellent photographs, where they all are now and how they got there
I have read many books on the Lancaster and this is one of the best
Thoroughly Recommended
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.Luck and a Lancaster: Chance and Survival in World War II (Airlife's Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: Harry Yates

March 15, 2001
The details of Luck and a Lancaster are adequately reviewed elsewhere, but I have to say how much I enjoyed it. This book is extremely well written and can be both funny and tragic. It sticks in my mind that the young Yates has a penchant for straying off course and 'buzzing' his parent's house during operational training. The reader then gets to know his aircrew, and accompanies them on some harrowing missions, courtesy of the flowing and detailed narrative. There's the Squadron reunion, where the crew are older but unchanged in character and Harry's emotional return to what was RAF Mepal. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and spending some time with these gallant young men.
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.Panther vs Sherman: Battle of the Bulge 1944: 0 (Duel)
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: Steven J Zaloga

September 10, 2008
I'm in two minds about this book: in one respect its one of the best Osprey books I've bought with coherent arguments, good balance between US and German forces and an expert analysis of the respective merits of both tanks. In addition it torpedoes the often repeated story that it needed 5 Shermans to take out 1 Panther. There is simply no proof that this is the case. Clearly the author has done his research well.

Where it falls down is simply size. If you discount the many two page illustrations and the tech spec that can be found online you have an essay, not a book. I bought this book significantly below RRP. Frankly I would not pay full price for an Osprey. In addition there are several bizarre features in this book: its meant to allow a direct comparision ... Read More:
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.Hammer Films: The Elstree Studios Years
City Travel Guides > Books > Weapons
by: Wayne Kinsey

January 22, 2007
A nice book to dip into, with some photos I hadn't seen before and more detail than anyone could hope for on the making of these films. Sadly, Mr Kinsey's authority is undermined by an apparent lack of proofreading. Almost every page seems to contain one or more grammatical, spelling or even factual errors. Just a few random examples:

On page 95 we have references to both "pteradactyls" and "pterodactyls". Even my spell checker in Microsoft Word spotted this. On page 179 a work named Jonocek's Gregolithic Mass is mentioned: this is presumably Janácek's Glagolitic Mass. (I do know how to spell this composer's name, by the way, and even with Amazon removing accented characters from my text, I've got closer than Mr Kinsey!) On page 310 we have Yvonne Fearneux (instead ... Read More:
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