Customer Reviews

British Battle Insignia (2): 1939-45 (Men-at-Arms) (Bk.2)

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A very good book that explains all you need to know about the insignia used by the British Army during the Second World War. The plates in the centre of the book are pretty good although I felt they did little to really illustrate the main point of the work.

There is an entire section devoted to the Armoured and Infantry divisions of the British Army illustrating what their division flash was, if they had one, and also giving a quick description of where the division served. The book however omits commandos, airborne and Indian divisions stating there was simply not enough room to cover them all, however this is a small book one feels they could have adequately been covered in the same book.

RSM Chappell has done an excellent job on a subject that is not well known or covered over here in the States.Altogether considering the complex subject of the rampant Tribalism of the British Army especially during WWII. This book is an excellent effort and deserves a place in any good library covering the Fight against the Axis or one that is interested in the British Army.

The only thing this book lacks is a battalion by battalion survey of insignia, but since no one else - not even Bouchery - has yet provided that, perhaps it is up to some webmaster somewhere to synthesize the information from many sources for that.

What this book does do is firstly give a comprehensive history of battle insignia up to and including World War Two, and then very elegantly go division by division and describe their service in general, their insignia, how likely it was to be worn (in the jungle, generally speaking, not often) and general notes on history, design, etc.

Supported by very nice photos, and of course excellent plates by Chappell himself.

Sidebar illustrations not as good as they could have been, and would have benefitted from a more organized chart showing all the divisions in black and white sketches. "Colour value shadings" on black and white drawings not an effective use of space either, a seperate colour plate or simple list would have sufficed.

Best book on the subject out there, however, and very well done. Finding info on any one particular battalion will be hit or miss unfortunately, so if researching a favourite or pet unit, best to physically look at a copy of this book in advance of purchasing it.