Introduction

Casemate Publishers have a formidable release of book titles both their own publications and those of others. This offering is one of their own titles looking at Allied armour in Normandy and is part of the Casemate Illustrated series of titles.

Review

The book has been written by Yves Buffetaut. The book is presented and printed in portrait style. This is a soft backed book of 128 pages of good quality glossy paper. The cover consists of a stiff card that has been folded over making the cover more substantial. The gloss finish to the pages means that the photographs are very well presented to the viewer.

The contents of this release are as follows:
Timeline of Events
Allied Armoured Divisions in Normandy
American Armoured Divisions
British Armoured Units
Allied Tanks in June 1944
Initial British Offensives
Caen from Stalmate to Breakthrough
Afterword
Further Reading
Index

The first four sections of this title ignoring the timeline can be considered as pure reference material for the most part. I am not faulting the segments of the book as I feel these are the heart of the title. The information is presented in a concise manner and will answer question on what tank was operated by which units. The photographs that accompany these sections show a great number of vehicles with well written captions.

A nice addition to this title are the In Profile sections added through out the title. There are a number covering vehicles which due to the limited information I find of little value; however there are also segments on the officers that commanded and made a difference in many cases. The sections only consisting of a single page are limited in their scope, but they do provide a good if brief biography of these individuals. The people covered are:
Lieutenant General George S Patton
Major General Percy Hobart
General Dwight D Eisenhower
General Bernard Montgomery
Lieutenant General Omar Bradley
Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey
Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges
Lieutenant General Henry Crerar
Major General Philippe Leclerc

The last two sections of this title covering 'Initial British Offensives and Caen from Stalemate to Breakthrough' looks at series of battles, but again due to the limitations of space' Yves Buffetaut feels to me to have been restricted in the quantity of information he could present to the reader. The information provided has been presented in a pleasing manner that is easily taken in by the reader.

The photographs that accompany this title are very good and I particularly like the effort that has been put into the captions. The Sherman tank Mk's are of course the most prevalent piece of armour photographed, but there is plenty of other vehicles in the mix. One picture that caught my eye and made me think of MiniArt is of a number of American troops looking over a damaged Panther and halftrack while in the background there are two motorcyclists napping on their bikes.

Conclusion

This is a really nice offering from Casemate Publishers that has been well written by Yves Buffetaut, but I kept getting the feeling that the author had so much more to say. It is because of this feeling that I expect to see a follow up release covering the Allied armour in Normandy and not the lead up to the landings and breakdown of units. The photographs have been really well chosen with very high quality captions making these even better.