A total of eleven British armoured divisions were formed during the 1939-1945 war but as this highly informative book reveals just eight saw action. In 1940 only 1st Armoured Division faced the overwhelming German blitzkrieg & it was in the North African desert that the armoured division concept came of age. The terrain was ideal for armoured warfare & six divisions of 8th Army fought Rommel's panzers to a standstill. Three were disbanded prior to the invasion of Sicily & Italy. D-Day saw the Guards Armoured the Desert Rats 11th & the unique 79th Armoured Divisions in action. Of particular interest is the influence of the men who led these formations & the way their characters contributed to the success or failure of operations. While some went on the greater heights others were dismissed either fairly or unfairly. The stakes were high. The author describes many fascinating aspects of armoured warfare from the reluctance to replace the horse the development of tactics or the different & improving tanks be they infantry support (I-Tank) or the faster cruiser tanks. Due to British design failure great reliance was placed on the US Grant & Sherman with the Comet coming late & the Centurion too late. The combination of historical narrative & well researched analysis & fact make this an invaluable book for the student of WW2 & armoured warfare. ...

This invaluable information resource which deals with all aspects of British Army organisation recruitment & training has been extremely popular with service personnel the defence industry military libraries & other groups who are interested in the British Army worldwide. Copies can be seen on desks throughout the UK Ministry of Defence & it would be fair to say that almost every foreign defence attache in London has a copy in his briefcase. Chapters include a Defence Overview; Army Organisation; International Commitments; Armour Infantry Artillery Army Aviation Engineers Communications & Combat Service Support; Units of the Army; Recruiting & Training; Reserve Forces plus a final Miscellaneous Chapter which deals with a number of items essential to understanding How the British Army functions on a daily basis. rnrn Lavishly illustrated throughout there is no comparable publication available on the market. ...

The inportance of the British Army's contribution to World War II
- & of WWII in the history of the British Army
- is impossible

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The fascination with the British involvement in the First World War extends to all aspects of the conflict. The battles & their outcomes; the armies & their leaders; the conditions of trench warfare; & the controversies form part of the growing literature examining every aspect of a war that was to cast a shadow over the rest of the twentieth century the effects of which are still being felt today. For the British army the cap badge is the most easily identifiable form of insignia. It represents a distillation of the pride of the regiment its various battle honors & symbols borne proudly on the metallic emblem that was worn on all headdress even within the trenches. Identification of the cap badge on old photographs is a first important step in unraveling the military service of an individual. Cap badges have been collected avidly since they were first thought of in the nineteenth century. Cap-badge collecting is as popular now as it has ever been; yet with a growing number of fakes & forgeries there is a need for a book that illustrates clearly the main types & allows the collector & family historian alike to understand their meaning. Surprisingly there are no real comprehensive web-based resources; & the available books (many of which are out of print) are often dull arcane & poorly illustrated with grey muddy images of otherwise spectacular badges. This book illustrates for the first time in full color & high quality images of the main types of badges used by the British Army in World War I. In addition contemporary illustrations of the soldiers themselves wearing the badges & the wider importance of their symbolism is also included. Employing the skills of an established writer (and collector) & artist it provides a unique reference guide for all people interested in the World War I. ...

Items connected with the British military have always been extremely popular with collectors & the intricate & beautiful badges made to denote a soldiers regiment have always been keenly collected due to their small size high quality & the fascinating stories of military derring-do that lie behind each one. ...

To see the great art galleries stately homes & museums up & down Britain today is to witness the rich story of the British as art collectors a narrative that mirrors the history of the country. In this remarkable new book James Stourton & Charles Sebag-Montefiore present a comprehensive survey of British art collectors down the centuries. The major collecting landmarks covered include Henry VIII who harnessed the arts in the service of the crown Charles I & the Whitehall Circle the Grand Tour & the country house boom the bonanza created by the Napoleonic Wars & the Industrial Revolution French taste the collecting of Spanish art the passion for Florence the 19th-century heyday for the creation of museums the private collectors who sparked the belated British love affair with Impressionism the States role in patronage & collecting after World War II & the manner in which London has recently become a metropolis of contemporary art. Yet the authors strengths lie not only in these grand themes but also in their mastery of detail through the different eras. They write with equal authority about the royal patronage & collecting of the Tudor period with which they begin & the collectors of today.

Includes:: over 300 illustrations including many of the greatest works of art to have featured in British collections.

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In spite of a great passion in the game & significant involvement at amateur level British Asians are under-represented in professional football. This book asks how & why this situation has developed using extensive interviews with British Asian football players to offer an insiders assessment of the difficulties & conflicting demands faced every day. In addition the book also critically examines the work of the anti-racist football movement questioning the strategies & policies designed to eradicate racism & asking whether other approaches might be more effective or reflective of the views of the players themselves. Ideal for academics & students of the sociology of ethnicity sport youth studies or cultural studies this innovative book will also be of interest to professionals in the field of equal opportunities. ...

Every year scores of British drivers converge on Le Mans to compete in the world's most gruelling motor race; hundreds more support them in the pits & paddock & many thousands of devoted enthusiasts waving Union Jacks make their annual pilgrimage to cheer them on from the grandstands & spectator terraces. These are their stories of what many regard as the ' British race held in France'. The British At Le Mans" pays tribute not just to the people who sat behind the wheel but to all those who have shared in their successes & disappointments over the past 85 years. In this wide-ranging book the author takes the reader behind the scenes to reveal the stories behind the stories many of them as fascinating as the main ones played out on the track." ...

Great Britains role in shaping the history of the automobile cannot be overestimated. The British motor industry has been responsible for many of the worlds landmark car designs & its famous names
- including Jaguar Bentley AC Rolls-Royce Aston Martin MG & Lotus
- are inextricably linked with some of the most recognized & coveted models ever made. Now reissued in hardback format this beautifully presented book gathers together more than 50 of the most significant & seductive British cars designed between 1907 & the present day from the Roll-Royce Silver Ghost to the Jaguar XK180. With an introduction describing the often tortuous story of British motoring & its great marques a succinct description of each cars history design & performance & unparalleled images by one of the worlds foremost car photographers this book is an authoritative tribute to the nation that launched the sports car.

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From Futurism & Modernism to Art Deco & Surrealism aviation was from its earliest days inextricably linked with revolutionary new ways of seeing the world. Focusing on the golden age of British civil aviation British Aviation Posters shows how art & design were applied with great creativity & style to develop & promote aviation in the UK & beyond. The story begins with the air shows & exhibitions of the early pioneers through the start of regular passenger flights in the 1920s & the creation of Imperial Airways as the UK national carrier in 1924. By the 1930s passenger routes across the world were being developed & promoted with increasingly sophisticated visual publicity to persuade the British public to be more air minded in a turbulent period of political & social upheaval. The New Elizabethan Age took UK aviation in new directions in the 1950s with BOAC & BEA ushering in the development of jet airliners & a growing consumer market that needed to be serviced by new forms of marketing & promotion. Drawing on British Airways premier poster collection & featuring the work of such distinguished designers as Theyre Lee-Elliott Ben Nicholson Edward Mc Knight Kauffer F.H.K. Henrion Gabby Schreiber Robin Day Abram Games Hugh Casson & Frank Wootton British Aviation Posters offers a definitive account of this seminal period in modern UK design history as Oliver Green & Scott Anthony show how posters publicity & graphic design were used to express the speed progress & sheer excitement of flight. ...