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 27 June 2017
 
   


Second World War Including regimental and divisional histories, personal accounts, general histories and works of reference   168 Books
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The Bombardment of Bath, April 25, 26, 27, 1942. 1st Ed., orig. pictorial card wraps., oblong 4to, 28pp., photos. throughout. Designed, printed & published for The Bath & Wilts. Chronicle & Herald by The mendip Press, Bath. 1942.  #54864
[HLMainPic] Fully illustrated record of the Luftwaffe's raids on Bath with descriptive text & photos. of damage &c. Orig. illus. wraps., VG. See illustration on our website.   £15
Geographical Handbook Series, For Official Use Only. Yugoslavia. Vol. I, Physical Geography; Vol. II, History, Peoples & Administration; Vol. III, Economic Geography, Ports & Communications. October 1944/June 1945. B.R. 493, 493A & 493B (Restricted). 1st Eds., xiii+337pp., 88 illus., 99 maps & diagrams (+ fldg. map in endpocket); xi+403pp., 36 plates, 72 maps & diagrams & xiv+566pp., 148 plates, 87 maps & diagrams (+ fldg. map in endpocket). Naval Intelligence Division. 1944-45.  #46110
Detailed & extensively illustrated work compiled by the NID. Little rubbed/worn, VG ex-lib..   £45
Phrase Book for Air Borne Troops. English-Roman Urdu-Russian-Turkish-Arabic-Persian-Soendanese-Dutch-Malay-Thai-Chinese-Japanese. Orig. blue printed card wraps., 30pp., most leaves fldg. Compiled by the General Staff, India, & Printed by the Feroz Printing Works, Lahore. 1941.  #56060
[HLMainPic] Unusual & early Indian Airborne manual containing phrases in the vatious languages noted in the title, e.g., 'hand over your arms,' 'No one may leave this place' &c. VG. See illustration on our website.   £35
Japanese War Crime Trials, Jesselton, British North Borneo, 1947. Carbon typescript records of the proceedings of several cases/investigations, approx. 55pp. in all, some top copy but mostly carbon ts. One or two items with ink signatures of Counsel and/or OC War Crimes Unit, Jesselton. Contemp.  #55863
[HLMainPic] Partial records of four cases, e.g. the Masaki-Honda case, when Col. Masaki, Governor of North Sumatra in 1942, ordered Major Honda to execute 5 or 6 Allied PoW in a small vessel at sea between there & Simului, Honda protested (as confirmed in evidence by 2nd Lt. Nobusawa) but Masaki said "No, you must execute them & I will take full responsibility." Honda passed the buck to Nobusawa who did not carry out the order, giving as his reason "the cruelty & inhumanity involved in slaughtering men, necessarily one at a time, each before the others' eyes on such a small vessel & because the men had had no trial." Ultimately, however, the PoWs were lined up, blind-folded & bayonetted from behind by soldiers under Honda's orders. The bodies were left unburied due to the location of the atrocity being a coral island. Post-war, they were found by a war crimes investigator, Lt.-Col. Reid Collins, & the accused identified with the help of a local boatman who had been employed by the Japanese. Papers for this case include opening & closing addresses, defence case, &c. Other papers relate to ill-treatment resulting in the death of civilians in North Borneo, executions of Allied Personnel at Seletar, Singapore, in 1945, when W.O. Hikiji Susumu was accused of beheading 14 or 15 PoW for his amusement: "It was known among the men that Hikiji was an expert swordsman & that he boasted to the other officers about how it was done. It was said that he had used the 14 or 15 Ps.O.W. to demonstrate his swordsmanship." Also a nominal roll of Burmese witnesses residing in Toungoo (on the Sittang River, east of the Pegu Yomas),.with their age, family name & address. Scarce collection.   £225
Secret. GHQ ME Survey Discussion, Cairo, 18-19 May 1943. Directors: MGRA, DMT, DD Survey. Rare original report, 26pp., foolscap, dup. typescript stapled into card wraps. with title to front. MT1, GHQ, MEF. Contemp.  #53505
[HLMainPic] Report of a conference on Survey held at Cairo including: The Organisation & Working of a Recce Wing, Western Desert Air Force Alamein to Tunis (Notes from a lecture by Maj. R.E. Ferens, GII [Air] Eighth Army); The Deployment of RA & RE Survey Units (Notes from a lecture given by Lt.-Col. J.T. Whetton, OC 4 Survey Regt. RA); Information from Air Photographs (Notes from a lecture by Capt. R.R. Dalton, OC, AAPIU [Western Desert Det.] - "It has been conclusively proved that air photos. can supply so much information not avilable from other sources that the establishment of the AAPIU Eight Army has been increased from 3 officer interpreters to 11 offrs & a number of draughtsmen & clerks. In the near future the establishment will be doubled. Air photos are required at all stages of a campaign - from planning to assault, & the subsequent exploitation. The best results have been obtained from decentralisation" &c.). Further sections detail the use & dissemination of information from air photos., preparation of defence overprint maps, map distribution in 8th Army. No indication of number of copies printed/distributed, but stated SECRET & evidently for the use of the small number of officers engaged in this work so doubtless a rare survival. See illustration on our website.   £225
The Story of the 79th Armoured Division Oct. 1942-June 1945. 1st Ed., 314pp., 126 plates & one fldg., num. fldg. maps. VG in torn dw. Hamburg: BAOR. 1945.  #50596
[HLMainPic] Restricted. Hobart's "funnies" (DD tanks, Crabs, Crocodiles, Kangeroos, Arks, Buffaloes &c.), Normandy to Germany. VG in worn dw. See illustration on our website.   £50
Philip Scott. Born 13 August 1915; Died 31 May 1942. 1st Ed., [v]+50pp., portrait frontis. Printed for Private Circulation at the Cambridge Univ. Press. 1943.  #53271
[HLMainPic] Scott was Ed. at Gresham's School & Oriel College, Oxford then read for the Bar in London. In 1938 he obtained a commission in the Queen's Westminster Rifles & was posted to the 1st Bn. KRRC in Libya in the summer of 1939. Became Bn. IO & later ADC to Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, then GSO 3 (Intelligence) before returning to his bn. in early 1942 until mortally wounded handling anti-tank guns in action when the Coy. he was commanding was attacked. He was captured, taken to a German dressing station which was in turn overrun by the British & he died in a British ambulance. Includes biographical notes followed by extracts from letters & diaries in Middle East (inc. escape from Greece to Crete in a caique in May 1941), siege of Tobruk, &c. Orig. dec. rifle green cloth, minor wear, about VG, with tipped-in Times obit., letter from his mother & printed memorial service programme, later ownership inscrip. & numerous marginal annotations by another member of his battalion. See illustration on our website.   £65
British Army of the Rhine Battlefield Tour. Third Day: 8 Corps Operations South of Caumont 30-31 July 1944 (Operation Bluecoat). 1st Ed., [vii]+49pp., foolscap, 7 maps (6 bound-in, 1 in endpocket). Prepared under the Direction of G (Trg) HQ BAOR. 1947.  #50638
[HLMainPic] RESTRICTED. Detailed account of the planning & execution of this phase of the Normandy Breakout, with various original Operation Orders &c. reproduced. Excellent coloured fldg. maps. Preface states that this tour is "especially concerned with the part played by 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division in those operations. It forms the necessary background to a detailed study of the battle carried out on the ground." Orig. blue cloth, gilt to front. VG & rare (just 150 copies printed of this edition), with ownership inscrip. of the writer Alan Sillitoe & several ts. foolscap sheets loosely inserted re contemp. training exercise, outlining a situation where, as GOC 15th Div., you have to decide how to alter your plan during the battle to benefit from air support. With list of officers in syndicates during this exercise. See illustration on our website.   £220
The Canadian Army at War. No 1: The Canadians in Britain 1939-1944; No. 2: From Pachino to Ortona: The Canadian Campaign in Italy, 1943; No. 3: Canada's Battle in Normandy. 3 Vols., orig. dec. wraps., Nos. 1 & 2 are 2nd Revised Eds., No. 3 is 1st Ed., 172, 160 & 159pp., several col. plates & num. b/w photos. & sketches in each vol., several maps & diagrams (some fldg.). Ottawa: King's Printer. 1946.  #55396
[HLMainPic] A very useful & informative contemp. account based on official records, with many good photos. & sketches of Canadian troops in training in the UK, the Dieppe Raid & during operation in Italy & Normandy during 1944. Appealing set of 3 Vols., VG ex-reference lib., little chipped & worn but generally VG. See illustration on our website.   £45
Geographical Handbook Series, For Official Use Only. Palestine & Transjordan. December 1943. B.R. 514. 1st Ed., xvi+621pp., frontis., 154 illus., 61 maps & diagrams (+ fldg. map in endpocket). Naval Intelligence Division. 1943.  #51542
[HLMainPic] Detailed & extensively illustrated work compiled by the Naval Intelligence Division. Orig. cloth, minor wear, VG with small ink stamps of Arwyn Grammar School & ownership inscrip. of the writer Alan Sillitoe. See illustration on our website.   £35

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