Author: Romain Cansière

Publisher: Osprey, Oxford

ISBN: 9781472860392

Price: £12.99

The US Marines’ campaign to capture the island of Iwo Jima is well-known for the intensity of the fighting and the tenacious resistance of the Japanese. The author concentrates on the role of the tank in that fighting, outlining how the Japanese used Type 95 and 97 tanks to engage the far more numerous American tanks and armoured vehicles. He also looks at Japanese anti-tank weapons, including mines, anti-tank guns, and even aircraft bombs adapted to destroy tanks. The Japanese plan to form defensive lines took its toll and the campaign would be a hard, costly affair in men and equipment. Looking at the author’s charts, it is easy to see how the American tanks, with heavier guns, flame-throwers, and specialist flails to breach minefields, outclassed the Japanese. This work, with its first-hand accounts of events, will satisfy students of armoured warfare, and wargamers and modellers will find a lot of ideas in this highly detailed work.

Author: Brian R. Johnson

Publisher: Casemate, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

ISBN: 9781636244051

Price: £29.95

This book came about after the author’s chance discovery of a German soldier’s war diaries for sale on a specialist website. They included almost 80 photographs of the diarist, Gottfried Webber, who served with the Jager Regiment 750, but the text was in a dialect known as ‘sutterlin’, requiring specialist translation. The result is this absorbing, very personal title. Webber was an enthusiastic young man called up to the Reichsarbeitsdienst in February 1942, after which he progressed to an infantry regiment and received basic training. He charts weapon training, chores, and other duties, before going on to Regiment 750 in 1943 and deploying to Yugoslavia, where he served as a signaller and encountered partisans. Interlaced with extracts from the diaries, this is a very personal account of his service during WWII. That makes it a unique rarity, telling it how it was and not a history, and that makes it all the more worth reading.

Author: Massimiliano Afiero

Publisher: Osprey, Oxford

ISBN: 9781472862983

Price: £11.95

After the German army occupied France in 1940, the southern region became self-governing under the Vichy Regime, which was pro-Nazi. As this work explains, the creation of the Milice paramilitary helped the Germans by releasing troops to fight on the Russian Front from 1941. By the end of that year, the Germans needed volunteers, and French men went voluntarily to fight against Russia. This book lists the units created by this move, including the raising of the Waffen SS Charlemagne, which fought across the Russian Front, and the campaigns in which they served, including Typhoon. The French volunteers' insignia and uniforms, as well as how the units were reformed after heavy losses, are discussed. French volunteers served in North Africa against the Allies in April 1945, and they were among some of the last resistance fighting the Russians in Berlin. This is a fascinating history well told, with incredible photos that show the level of integration.

Author: Gregg Adams Publisher: Osprey, Oxford ISBN: 9781472861139 Price: £13.99 By narrowing down the subject of this work to 1944 and concentrating on the capture of the islands in the Eniwetok Atoll, which lasted from June to September, the author has been able to focus attention on the quality of the opposing forces engaged in the strategy known as ‘Island Hopping’. How each side reacted to the tactics of the other is explained, along with weapons, equipment and support from vehicles to supplies. The training the Marines received, and being volunteers, is something the author considers resulted in tougher soldiers of higher quality, with more ‘esprit de corps’, than army infantrymen. They could rely on better support in every aspect, from logistics to specialist engineers and air power. By contrast, the Japanese had to make do with what they had on the islands. The author presents a well-balanced view but concludes that ultimately it was the Japanese refusal to adapt which contributed to their defeat.