Introduction

This book covering Montgomery’s Rhine River Crossing Operation Plunder 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 offers 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 Montgomery’s Rhine River Crossing Operation Plunder has been authored by Jon Diamond. The contents of this title are provided over 238 pages of good quality semi gloss paper.

The contents are presented in the following sections:
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1 – Strategic Prelude to the Campaign
Chapter 2 – Terrain, Fortifications and Weapons
Chapter 3 – Commanders and Combatants
Chapter 4 – Clearing the Rhineland
Chapter 5 – The Rhine River Crossing and Airborne Assault
Epilogue
References
The dedicated text in this offering is far more than the usual introduction that I have become accustomed to and towards the end of this title there is a considerable amount of written content. Having read all of the dedicated text in this title I again urge anyone buying the book to take the time to read the dedicated text rather than just skipping to the glorious photographs. The text is well written and informative, and this lays out the contents of this title to a high degree. I fully accept and I am not trying to say that this title will answer all of your questions, but the text in it provides a good insight into the pictorial content and far more than is usual.

Once you move on from the introduction you reach the chapters; these all have a written introduction by the author and do a pretty good job of setting the scene as regards where the images are going to guide the reader. I do find that the text provided at the start of each chapter is very curtailed due to the main purpose of this book series, but Jon Diamond has tackled this aspect in a different style to the one I am familiar with as he provides fair more dedicated text and manages not to detract from the style these books have created as a series.

This series of books excel’s in its main purpose and that is to provide the reader with visual information and I have to say that the title worried me a little as I envisaged it being a title of how Britain won the War and I have never been a fan of that statement and would prefer to think of how the Allies won the War. To that extent I was pleased to see many nations represented in this book. The presentation style I see in this title is one of which I approve as it covers Operation Plunder to a better depth in my opinion and so provides the reader with a better and clearer understanding.

Now of course many modellers who purchase this book and others in the series are looking for images usually and this title and series for that matter do it better than most I have seen. The photographs cover the men and machines that took part in this operation and the steps that built up to it. Another aspect I approve of is how the cost of war is also shown; I don’t mean the machines that can be replaced but the young who gave their all for a goal. Looking through the photographs they are not all new to me, but that does not detract from their inclusion here and they take on new meaning thanks to the excellent captions supplied.

They say that a photograph is worth a thousand words and that is true to some extent, but for me it is the captions that come with the images that make them so valuable as reference. The captions can tell you things such as where, when, what and why but these give extra angles in many cases and providing information that the image cannot tell you and it is in addition to the previous attributes.

Conclusion

This title as part of the Images at War series is another great title in the line up as the images have been well chosen and presented to the viewer. This offering has far more text than is usual and so in that sense is a more rounded title as regards what it offers everyone rather than just the modeller; as such you can pick this book up and appreciate it as a book rather than just offering visual reference. I have to accept that the modeller will most likely find this title for its visual reference which it offers in spades, but I urge you to take the time to read the text as it is worth the effort.