World War II

Rating:
Summary: Great book with some glitches
Review: Overall this book is full of very nice pictures and data. However, I have noticed some glitches in this book as following:

- The publisher could has used better photos for some tanks especially Tiger I and Tiger II tank. Tiger II photo in the book is the limited production version utilized by the German in the war. The photo in this book is the "Porsche Turret" which was one of the two proposed designs. The Porsche design was not selected for mass production (only 50 produced). It would be more appropiate to use photo of Tiger II with "Production Turret" designed by Henschel in this book.

- The book did not mention about the world first assault rifle Sturmgewehr (STG) 44 while the much respected machine pistol MP40 has only limited descriptions. The STG 44 and MP 40 should have enjoyed the same context as the Thompson sub-machine gun.

However stunning layouts and pictures compensate these glitches. For those who are interested in WWII, this book is absolutely highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Where Is the Pacific War?
Review: This is a well-illustrated overview of World War II if your main interest is in the European and African campaigns. Unfortunately, like so many other books about the war, the Pacific campaign is treated as an afterthought. In this book the Pacific rates about 20% of the text. For the Europe-Africa campaigns this book is a four. For the Pacific campaign it is about one-and-a-half.

Rating:
Summary: New Pictures Covering the Beginning to the End.
Review: When I was a kid used to produce these beutifully illustrated books about World War II. I haven't seen one of them in years. Now this book has come out. I at first thought that it was a reprint of one of the old books, but it isn't. I've seen hundreds, if not thousands of WW II photographs from all fronts. But in reading this book, I didn't recognize any of the pictures as having been used before.

The book isn't heavy on strategy. For instance there is a discussion on the lack of food in Japan by the fall of 1944 due to heavy merchant shipping losses. This was not discussed in terms of the lack of emphasis on anti-submarine forces and failure to adapt the convoy system as was done in the Atlantic. This in turn was related to the Japanese concepts of supporting the fighting forces but ignoring the mere commercial side. This is a minor point, there are other books that go into strategy. The pictures that are on that page more than make up for this lack.

All in all, an excellent book of a type not seen so often any more.