Featured battle : First Battle of Newbury

Part of The Civil Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Date : 20 September 1643

A mostly inconclusive engagement as the King tried to cut Essex off from falling back on London. Fighting became deadlocked as both sides came to push of pike in the medows and enclosures, harried by artillery. Both sides tried turning each others' flank by attempting to gain control of a plateau south of the main battle. As dusk fell the King withdrew, critically short of powder for the artillery, thus Essex could claim marginal victory.

The Eighth Army in North Africa

Simon Forty
This series of Images of War is intended to be all about the pictures and this book is a very good example of that genre. There are photographs taken on both sides of the conflict showing the men and their equipment. Almost every type of armoured vehicle used in the desert campaign is shown some in pristine others in a well battered state. There is sufficient text to give the photographs a context but most usefully the bulk of the writing is as captions to the photographs. A few maps and schematic drawings fill out the story. Particularly informative in an easily understood way are the comparisons between Axis and Allied guns in both range and penetration on pgs. 36 & 37. The further reading list guides the interested reader to fuller explanations of the to and fro of the North African campaign. One tiny criticism is that on page 87 the captions for the two men have switched left to right.
We thoroughly enjoyed looking at this book and recommend it to you.


Pen & Sword Military, 2019