Featured battle : The sinking of Force Z

Part of Second World War

Date : 10 December 1941

Admiral Phillips on the British battleship Prince of Wales, with the battlecruiser Repulse and destroyers set out for northern Malaya to attempt to intercept Japanese transports and disrupt their landings. However it was without air cover as the carrier Indomitable was unavailable and once spotted by the Japanese 22nd Air Flotilla was heavily attacked. Both big ships went down.

Armoured Warfare in the British Army 1914-1939

Dick Taylor
The fly leaf note calls this book a tour de force and so it is. It very thoroughly covers the very beginning of British armoured vehicles through to 1939. The first fumbling attempts towards mechanized warfare gave Britain world leader status by the end of the First World war. The internal politics of the army plus the financial constraints of the depression lost us that leadership by the start of the Second World war. Naturally there is a lot about the use and misuse of the first tanks and some dramatic description of conditions inside them. This book ranges from battlefield heroism to Whitehall shenanigans and tells both stories well.
There are a lot of photographs scattered through the book, the appendices are a mini reference book in themselves and the bibliography is extensive.
This is the first of a three volume work and the next volume cannot come too soon. We very highly recommend it

Pen & Sword Military, 2022