If I could only buy one book about the British Army in Africa and northern Europe in WWII which one should I get?
I am concerned with Infantry weapons and equipment,uniforms,kit,etc. No vehicles but anti tank and mortars would be nice.
J

Hi Jerry,

It sort of depends on exactly how you intend to use the reference, but I'd recommend one of these:

Davis, Brian L. "British Army Uniforms & Insignia of World War Two." Arms & Armour Press, London, 1992. ISBN: 1-5409-159-X.

Bouchery, Jean. "From D-Day to VE-Day: The British Soldier" Vol. 1 and 2. Historie & Collections, Paris. 1998/99. ISBN: 2-35250-017-6 (vol. 1) and ISBN: 2-908182-74-2 (vol. 2).

The B.L. Davis book is an excellent technical reference on the uniform minutia, but it doesn't have any color photos of actual uniform items (plenty of B&W - just no color). If you have any of his other references on the LW or German Army, this book follows the same format in the same degree of detail.

The Davis book also doesn't cover small arms or other weapons.

The Bouchery books are excellent painting guides since they both have nice, large format color photos of all of the uniforms and equipment. They don't, unfortunately, cover the uniforms used in North Africa or the Mediterranean theaters. Also, they both have large sections devoted to vehicles and vehicle markings which are OK in the absence of other references, but rather limited in their scope to just NWE.

These are my main British uniform references. I use several of the Osprey books and a couple of others for painting references for NA and the Med. The B.L. Davis book covers the regulations, uniforms and items for those areas, but, again, just no color for painting.

HTH,

Excellent!! Thanks Mike,
J