Turner Donovan Military Books - The world’s finest selection of rare and out-of-print books on British military history from 1800 to 1945
  Stock last updated on 19 March 2019
 
   


Latest Books The most recently added books   30 Books
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SOMERSET (W.H.B.) et al. On the Western Front: 1/3rd Batt. Monmouthshire Regiment. 1st Ed., 127pp., 22 photos., 3 fldg. col. maps, plan. Abegavenny: Seargeant Bros. 1926  #58927
[HLMainPic] France 1915 & flung into 2nd Ypres, losing heavily in the battles along the Menin Road; mining ops. at Hill 60 then Pioneer Bn. 49th Div. Disbanded Aug. 1916. Roll of Hon., awards. Orig. green paper covd. boards, titled in black, with red cloth backstrip. VG throughout. See illustration on our website.   £60
TANK MAJOR [Pseud. of FOOT (Major Stephen, DSO)] & WOOD (Eric) Tank Tales. 1st Ed., viii+213pp., Cassell. 1919  #58926
Foot's first book, drawing on his experience with 2nd Tank Bde. at 3rd Ypres, Cambrai, & with the War Office Tank Directorate under J.F.C. Fuller in 1918, preparing papers on mechanical warfare &c. Orig. pictorial cloth,VG & scarce. See illustration on our website.   £65
PLATOON COMMANDER [Pseud. of MILLS (Lt. A.F.H., DCLI)] With My Regiment from The Aisne to Le Bass‚e. 1st Ed., viii+231pp. London: Heinemann & PA: Lippincott. 1916  #58916
Author was a regular officer on the reserve, left at the depot when 1st DCLI sailed with the 5th Div. in Aug. 1914, joined the BEF with a draft about a month later, and was wounded another month later on after several engagements. Orig. green cloth, titled in black to front & sp., VG. See illustration on our website.   £50
CASUALTY [Pseud. of GYDE (Capt. Arnold A.E.)] "Contemptible." 1st Ed., vi+226pp. Heinemann. 1916  #58915
Gyde was a regular officer, OC No. 5 Platoon, 2nd South Staffs. Personal account of mobilisation, Mons & the Retreat, the Marne & Aisne where he was shot in the head by a sniper & subsequent hospitalisation in France & UK. Orig. red cloth, blocked black, VG. See illustration on our website.   £60
BOMBARDIER "X" So This Was War! The Truth About the Western & Eastern Fronts Revealed. 1st Ed., 224pp., 16 photos. VG in dw. Hutchinson. nd.  #58914
[HLMainPic] Gunner's letters from the Western Front & Salonika: the anonymous author apparently enlisted aged 16 early in the war, & in a Preface Shaw Desmond (pseud. of Charles Nathaniel Lowe Shaw: writer, & Founder of the International Institute for Psychical Research) explains that "He tells not only of howling 'H.E,' or of whining bullet, of suffocating gas, but also of those other horrors, none the less grisly, that lie in wait to trip the flying feet of eager, high-spirited youth. Of pleasant vice that hides disease. Of the dysentry that tears at the bowels of a man... The trench songs, the flash of the cards & the flash of eyes, & of steel, in the estaminets... The monstrous, over-fed rats, lolloping from corpse to corpse..." - Falls would no doubt have had much to say about these themes & about some of the author's stories, such as a quarrel between a Scottish corporal & a coloured soldier that he witnessed in Amiens: "The Scotsman had, apparently, passed some nasty remark which the West Indian resented. High words were followed by a wicked tussle. Steel glistened in the murkey light of spluttering candles, &, as the big black man dropped, twisting to the floor, a nasty, curved knife fell from his twitching hand. The Corporal was arrested & led away, blood dripping from his naked bayonet." Orig. red cloth, titled in black, nice clean copy, VG in sl. chipped but neatly renovated dw & scarce thus. See illustration on our website.   £120
RENN (Ludwig) [Pseud. of GOISSENAU (Arnold F.V. von)] War. 4th Eng. Imp. (Cheaper Ed.), 364pp. VG in dw. Secker. 1930  #58912
[HLMainPic] Classic German autobiographical novel, Western Front 1915-18 inc. Battle of the Somme 1916, the Aise-Champagne batle 1917, March Offensive 1918 &c. "When one looks back on his book one realises how well worth reading it was" - Falls. Nice copy in dw of (cheaper) 4th Imp. See illustration on our website.   £30
HOGUE (Oliver) Trooper Bluegum at the Dardanelles: Descriptive Narratives of the More Desperate Engagements on the Gallipoli Peninsula. 2nd Imp., 287pp., 8 plates. Melrose. 1916  #58909
[HLMainPic] First-hand account by journalist serving with the 6th ALH & on staff of 2nd Light Horse Brigade. Written with a good deal more candour than some contemp. accounts. Includes group photo. of 6th ALH officers & var. other portraits & photos. Orig. blue cloth, titled in red, VG & rather scarce. See illustration on our website.   £50
SCOTT (Ralph) [Pseud. of ATKINSON (G.S.)] A Soldier's Diary. Intro. by Maj.-Gen. Sir Frederick Maurice. 1st Ed., 194pp., double page map of Ypres Salient. Collins. 1923  #58907
[HLMainPic] Sapper officer's pseudonymous day-to-day diary with 2nd Army in the Ypres Salient, April-Nov. 1918. Reprinted by the same publisher in 1929, but without the sketch map of Ypres & environs, & hte 1st Edition here presented is rare. A classic of which Falls stated: "expressive of 'disillusionment' - that hard worked word... it must be added that he gives a stirring & realistic account of the final phases of the war." Orig. red cloth, titled in black, VG. See illustration on our website.   £65
CUNNINGHAM (J.T.) Ed. From Ypres to Loos with the Northumberland Hussars: Diary & Letters of the Late Frank Leonard Cunningham, Grad. Inst. Mech. Eng. While on Active Service in Belgium and France 1914-1915. ix+87pp., 215x172mm, portrait frontis., 3 plates, sketch. Printed by W.H. Smith & Son (?for the editor). nd [c.1916].  #58905
[HLMainPic] Frank Cunningham, a graduate of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, landed at Zeebrugge as a Private in "A" Sqdrn. of his regiment, in the 7th Division, on 6th October 1914; among the first British troops to enter Ypres & engaged at the first & second battles, also at Loos where he was wounded on a patrol on the first day, got back to the Australian Hospital, Wimereux, suffering from gunshot wounds to abdomen, leg and arm, but Died of Wounds on 1st October. He was twenty-eight and is buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery. Short biographical introduction followed by letters and diary extracts describing his active service experience: an interesting account of the work of his regiment. Grey printed card wrappers with title to front board, edges chipped but neatly repaired & neat replacement card sp., VG thus & rare. See illustrations on our website.   £165
IRVING (John, Lt.-Cdr., R.N., Retd.) Coronel & The Falklands. 1st Ed., 247pp., 3 maps (2 fldg.). VG in dw. Philpot. 1927  #58904
[HLMainPic] The cruiser war against British trade 1914-15. "The first, & still useful, full account in English of the two actions" - Marder. "An able sketch of the period during which Admiral von Spee's squadron was dominating the Pacific. the writer brings out clearly the havoc that can be wrought by a naval force of comparativelty small strength against an enemy's communications & supply routes..." - Falls. Orig. blue cloth, titled in black, VG in neatly repaired & scarce dustwrapper. See illustration on our website.   £65

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