Introduction

This book covering the Battle for Arnhem 1944 - 1945 is part of a series of titles from Pen and Sword as part of their ‘Images at War’ series. These books cover the subject matter mostly in photographs and so offer a great visual reference for anyone interested in the subject matter regardless of the reason for that interest. For the modeller these books represent a horn of plenty when it comes to visual information.

Review

This offering from Pen and Sword is part of the ‘Images at War’ series. This series of books are soft backed offerings having a good card cover with a very good spine to the book that keeps the contents in good order. This book covering the Battle for Arnhem 1944 - 1945 has been authored by Anthony Tucker-Jones. The contents of this title are provided over 126 pages of good quality semi gloss paper.

The contents are presented in the following sections:
Chapter 1 – Monty’s Garden
Chapter 2 – An Airborne Market
Chapter 3 – What Panzers
Chapter 4 – Securing Eindhoven
Chapter 5 – Fight for Nijmegen
Chapter 6 – Trapped in Arnhem
Chapter 7 – Stalled in the Betuwe
Chapter 8 – The Oosterbeek Pocket
Chapter 9 – Arnhem Liberated.

The dedicated text in this offering is another of the examples that has a good quantity of text to guide the viewer through what they can expect to see in each chapter of the book and covers the operation that ultimately led to the liberation of Arnhem. The intention of the book as a whole is to guide the viewer through the purpose and build up to Operation Market Garden and the ultimate failure of that operation, it closes with a brief. The text at the start of each chapter is well written and I highly recommend that the individual takes the time to read the content rather than getting carried away with all of the glorious photographs present. Of special interest are the written sections looking at the recriminations as to who was responsible for the failure of the operations and another covering the film made on the subject.

The photographs in this offering are all period black and white offerings with very good captions that clearly explain who or what and where and when where possible. This book is heavily concentrated on the Allies actions during the conflict where the photographs are concerned and this is an aspect I actually approve of. My reasoning for this is that the German military is very well covered as regards World War 2 and I enjoyed seeing the Allies getting some much needed coverage. A note on the photographs to be aware of is that I cannot remember having seen a great number of them previously and so this further increases the appeal of the book as a whole. I should also point out that all of the photographs are from the personal collection of the author Anthony Tucker-Jones. It is my understanding that while some images are staged during lulls in the fighting a good number cover the actual fighting as the Airborne did take a photographic unit into Arnhem.

Conclusion

This offering from Pen and Sword as part of their ‘Images of War’ series is another great addition to that series. This book I feel can be best described as a visual history of the events that took place from Operation Market Garden and covering the events prior, during and after its failure. It makes clear in my mind that the failure of the operation cannot be placed at the feet of the men who fought the battle, but rather a number of misconceptions on the part of the Allies as to how the Germans would react to it. The text is well written and I found it a very enjoyable aspect of this title that is intended to be a photographic history of events.