Customer Reviews

The World War II Tommy: British Army Uniforms of the European Theatre 1939-45

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AUTHOR MARTIN J. BRAYLEY writes:-

This is the second book co produced with Richard Ingram, as with WW11 British Womens Uniforms all of the uniforms and equipment are original to the period portrayed. A huge range of subjects are covered, including walking out dress, medical, air landing, tank, mountain and assault troops, motorcyclists, hospital patients, in fact everything from underwear to the demob suits issued in 1945. The material is presented chronologically in three sections, 1. The Phoney war to the Fall of France, 2. The Long Road back, 3.Assault on Fortress Europe. Every effort has gone in to ensuring that the images are as correct as possible, right down to the minutiae of props, you can judge the result for yourselves. The second volume in this series "Khaki Drill and Jungle Green" is being worked on at this moment, and there are more volumes planned for future release. I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as myself and Richard enjoyed writing it. MARTIN J. BRAYLEY.

The work consists mostly of large format photographs of reenactors wearing original clothing and kit of the period. (Overall size of about 8 by 10 inches.) It goes much beyond anything else I have seen except the two volume set by Jean Bouchery (c.f.) and includes not just the ordinary battle dress worn by Tommy Atkins and his officers but the specialized kit of parachutists, mountain troops (cold weather gear), motorcyclists, and other unusual garb.
Many of the plates are done in the fashion of the French magazine Militaria which is a highly useful source as well.
Not only is ithis work an identification source; it also has some developmental history and organigrammes of front line tactical units.

A great book for uniform buffs, lots of colour pictures. Plenty of equipment shown, although text is generally (as per the books title)related to uniforms. Captions are concise but to have expanded on them would have undoubtedly reduced the number of photographs in the book and as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. THE WW11 Brit uniform book.

I have literally memorized this book as I have poured over the pictures contained within attempting to gain a grasp of what items were used doing the period. The extent of detail in the pictures is astounding. My only negative critiques are that some rare items are only given a single photo (officer's valise and wire cutters/web pouch) and that the captions do not go into enough detail and background of many items. (I.E., the officer's valise, info on binoculars, and different manufacturers of clothing and web gear.) While I will DEFINATELY purchase their future volume on North Africa and SE Asia, I hope they go into more detail of non-uniform items. This book is a great gift idea and should be on the shelf of any WWII British militaria collector/historian's library.

Tremendous photographs and informative text, undoubtedly the best reference yet knocks spots of anything else on the market. Unfortunatly it is limited to Europe although this does not detract from an otherwise very good book for collectors and re-enactors. What next lads?

A great tool for any collector of British Army WW II military uniforms and equipment. I would be lost without it.