Reply To: In the library, col mustard with the……

Around last Christmas, I began to read second world war memoirs, so I read “The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby“, a firsthand account of fighting in Italy, by Alex Bowlby. The title is playing off of “The Recollections of Rifleman Harris“, a firsthand account of the Napoleonic Wars from the perspective of a british rifleman. I’d recommend that book too. I found “Rifleman Bowlby” interesting as the author focuses much more on how he felt or what he was thinking relative to events or actions, rather than simply describing the things around him as they happened.

Second is “Troop Leader,” by Bill Bellamy. It’s another second world war memoir, this time from a tanker’s perspective. After a dull yet somehow exciting journey trying to make it to his unit, the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars (of the 7th Armoured Division), before the fighting there ended, Bellamy landed on D+3 commanding a Cromwell tank, ready to fight for his country. Spoiler alert! The allies (Bellamy included) broke out of Normandy, and Bellamy continued to fight in Operation Goodwin, the fighting for the low countries, and ultimately landing in Berlin for the victory parade, and staying post-war. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and it deals with a wide range of tragedy, heroism, bravery, and also it has some pretty funny moments (I’m not sadistic, I mean the pranks that men tend to play on each other, as well as things like brewing tea over the engines or various odd occurrences).

These books were both recommended by Nikolas Lloyd from the Lindybeige YouTube channel. Regrettably he does not apparently play Warlord games, or use Warlord’s models, but his channel is still excellent for conveying a wide variety of content. He also recommended “The Bloody Battle for Tilly“, “The Mailed Fist“, and “Tank!“