Now all roads lead to France and heavy is the tread
Of the living; but the dead returning lightly dance.
Edward Thomas, Roads

Monday, September 1, 2014

Tommy's Kit




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Above is a sample of what I consider to be one of the finest illustrated reference works on the war. I found this on a website for homeschooling families. It is marketed as a work for young people in the 8–12-year range, but it is an excellent work for hard-core enthusiasts of any age. It was produced drawing on the Imperial War Museum resources so it is heavily British and Western Front-centric, but its main problem is that at 72 pages, it's too damn short. Back to the young audience for a moment. I think this would be a fine gift for a student whose interest has been recently stirred by the recent Centennial events in the news.

6 comments:

  1. It would be very helpful for this and all other book reviews to have included information on price, publisher or vendor's address, ISBN, format and availability.

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    1. Yes, of course. There is a link here, just above the comments, to the right of the text.

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    2. The books referenced all seem to be shown with clickable icons to get that information. Look at the book shown to right of the text.

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  2. All the DK series are excellent. Inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, my 5-year old grandson triumphantly tracked down the tank featured in that movie, using his DK World War I book. By the way, in the posted illustration, the "button stick" is NOT used to fasten buttons, it's a shield to protect the uniform from brass polish, while clustering all the buttons in one continuous string for ease of polishing.

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    1. A "button stick", what genius thought this one up for a combat kit; I love the ammonia smell of brass polish in the morning? I suspect Jerry did too; and the shinny glint going over the top provided extra target registration. Poor Tommy Atkins gets creamed so the brass hats in the rear can be proud of a proper military spit and polish bearing?

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