Customer Reviews

D-Day Paratroopers: The Americans

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Much of the material in this book comes from an older double issue of Militaria Magazine (which without question is the best publication in world for military collectors). That large article has been expanded and updated into a pretty good book.

One of the reasons that having people involved in this project that have an AB interest that pre-dates the recent movies is that they have been looking into this area for a while. Coupled with the fact that the primary authors live in France and spent a lot of time finding original stuff from the farms in Normandy-
So its one of the few books where you can see, in color- some original items, not the more recently made fakes which are flooding the market.

Is it perfect? no book is,and I am sure nitpickers everywhere will claim the glove leather color is wrong (etc.) but on the whole they've done a good job. Of major importance is the stunning graphical layouts with lots of period photos, modern color reconstructions, and kit layouts. Not to forget state of the art graphics to show things like organization.

Thereis also awarning about the rariety of orignal WW2 paratrooper items. I am sure some big dealers will say negative things about the book as it may cut into their mass prooduction lines of fake jump helmets and reinforced jump suits

So for now, this is probably the best book available which illustrates the US Paratrooper in WW2. If you want true stories of Airborne derring do- the best stuff and most historically accurate stuff written today is from Mark Bando.

Anyone familiar with the French language magazine "Armes Militaria" knows that the quality of both the original equipment and the photography is outstanding. This book was published by or in concert with those publishers, and the quality is exceptional. Page after page of clear photos of original equipment, weapons, personal items, insigina, etc. The book is well organized, and covers everthing from the smallest insignia details, to the aircraft that carried the troopers to Normandy. This book is a goldmine of information, don't pass it up.

Histoire et Collections has done it again.A fine work of the quality which the collector and researcher has come to expect from this publisher.
I have previous works on the British Tommy in NW Europe and Canadian soldiers. All are elaborately illustrated with charts, individual item photos, and reconstructions worn by models of combinations of equipment and clothing as qoen in northern Europe. In addition there are many lists, charts, and tables gathering together informatioon gleaned from many scarce and obscure publications.
Muxh of rhia work has appeared in the excellent French language periodical Militaria published also by Histoire et Collections. This method of proceeding has the great virtue of first publishing in a more temporary format and inviting the readers to submit corrections and additional data which can be used to improve the final work published in book form.

This book is a delightful source of information on American airborne troops deployed over Normandy. A good refurence on uniforms, weapons and equipment.

A fun read.

Now if only Histoire & Collections could do the same for German paratroopers.

I was somewhat disappointed in this book. There were many errors in translation, few mentions about gliderborne troops and not enough information on equipment and uniforms. It doues have some good information about specifc men, units and operations, but overall just a basic book, nothing special. There are better airborne books out there, especially for D-Day.

I brought this book as a reference for painting figure models and to assist me as a part-time collector. For this it is brilliant. I don't see how other reviewers have said 'limited uniforms and equipment' and the like. I don't know where they were looking but the equipment used by the paratrooper on D Day is clearly demonstrated and shown in both colour recreations of actual uniforms and period photos showing how it was worn. An extremely helpful reference and well worth the outlay. I'm now saving for the British/French paratrooper edition to complete the series as it goes for a 'pretty penny'. Overall I find it a brilliant reference book and feel it achieves what, I believe, the authors intended for the book. Good work!

Book is out of print so you'll be hard pressed to find this one for a good price but i
got this book for 25.00 bucks, got a sweet deal, while some will complain about the generalized, but adequate text, those guys at historie & collections know how to put a quality reference ww2 book together.
I'm a 1/6th military action figure customizer and this book was invaluable for me.
If you can find it, definately buy it....you won't be disappointed...and YES the text is adequate!

Very basic, many better reference books on airborne available. I have returned my copy to Amazon.