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 Hughes, David, David A. Ryan and Steve Rothwell. The British Armies in World War Two: An Organisational History, vol 4: British Tank and Armoured Brigades, 79th Armoured Division, Armoured Car Regiments, and African, Malayan, and other Colonial Forces. West Chester, OH: Nafziger Collection, 2002
ISBN 1-58545-085-5  Ryan, David A., David Hughes and Steve Rothwell. The British Armies in World War Two: An Organisational History, vol 5: The Australian Army. West Chester, OH: Nafziger Collection, 2003
ISBN 1-58545-101-0  Ryan, David A., Steve Rothwell and David Hughes. The British Armies in World War Two: An Organisational History, supplement 3: Orders of Battle, 1942 - 1944. West Chester, OH: Nafziger Collection, 2003
ISBN 1-58545-102-9 It's not easy to produce top-quality books of this nature. Some authors rummage through readily available literature, do no original research whatsoever, and regurgitate just enough well-known facts to fit into a glossy, 64-page cookie-cutter package. Other authors stumble across a few wartime documents and produce a quickie OB/TOE volume without explaining anything, filling in the gaps, noting errors, or resolving internal inconsistencies. Both approaches have their audiences, but in most cases the result ends up being nothing more than a disposable by-product of somebody's perpetual motion publishing machine. Fortunately, this series does not fall into either of those categories. Since the first volume was published in 1999, the new titles appearing at irregular intervals have proved—and strengthened—our original high regard for these books. Although the international line-up of co-authors has shifted over the years (David Hughes remains in the game, but James Broshot and Alan Philson gave way to David Ryan and Steve Rothwell), every book continues to be a model of how to do "organisational histories" properly. It would have been far easier for these guys just to toss off a few pages of recycled material for each volume (especially given the proliferation of works about British units available for cribbing), but time and again they've done their homework and put together solid, complete information with a fresh twist. For all the value of Joslen and Bellis (and we wouldn't be caught without them on our shelf), The British Armies in World War Two series continues to make its presence felt in the field of British unit history/OB/TOE publications. So what have David Hughes and his compadres been up to since we last reviewed some of their books? George Nafziger recently forwarded to us three of their newest titles, so let's have a look at them. Volume four resumes the survey of major formations where volume three left off, beginning with British tank and armored brigades. These two sections cover more than twenty units in the span of about forty-five pages. Each entry devotes at least a page or two to a narrative history of the unit, at least one tabular TOE, and a timeline showing the types of AFVs with which the unit was equipped. Entries also feature a paragraph of "regimental trivia" highlighting interesting or amusing notes (such as the regulation concerning compulsory facial hair). While the first volume expended about five pages on the 79th Armoured Division, this one delves into considerable more detail for each of the division's components, amounting to about ten pages in all. Several more pages cover individual armored car regiments. In sum, the opening sixty-plus pages of volume four conclude the material on the UK army. The second part of this volume moves into the very interesting and mostly uncharted stories of the assorted "minor" colonial formations of the British Army. These include:
Mind you, these are not familiar units like the Aussies and New Zealanders. Instead, the authors delve into units such as the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, the Tongan Defence Force, and the Caribbean Regiment. The chapter on "Colonial Forces in the Caribbean," for example, takes up two and a half pages and covers the British and Canadian units that served in that region as well as, more importantly, all the local defense forces and the Caribbean battalion that served in Italy and the Near East. In addition to about forty pages of narrative and TOEs, this part of the book also distills the military contributions of fifty colonies into one very nice full-page table. Packed as it is with so much obscure and fascinating material, "Armed Forces of the Colonies" by itself is worth the price of admission.
The Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) was raised in July 1940 for local defence in each Military District. It was sponsored by the Returned Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen Imperial League of Australia and became a component of the Australian Military Forces in May 1941. As the war developed the role of the force changed from one of static defence and coast watching to the part-time manning of coast and anti-aircraft installations that were part of the fixed defences. This released the well-trained soldiers of these units for service in other branches of the field army. By 1943 almost the entire fixed and anti-aircraft defences of Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania were in the hands of the VDC. VDC soldiers manned eleven of the Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Batteries of the Royal Australian Artillery. The Volunteer Defence Corps also manned separate VDC battalions. For example, in Western Australia there were twelve VDC battalions, numbered 1st to 12th and subtitled by their general location. As an illustration, the 6th (Albany) Battalion was based in the Albany sector along the coast.
In conclusion, a series of appendices occupy about twenty pages. These are packed with loads and loads of extremely detailed data about all the Aussie formations in much the same manner as volume four and the previous books in the series.
These vary in length from a single page up to ten pages or more, and, as always, they are among the most thorough OBs available anywhere, including units such as the 698th Artizan Works Company, 162nd Bomb Disposal Section, 1506th Mauritius Pioneer Company, 1st Water Transport Group, and so on. Although American forces are only included in barest outline, the authors don't skimp on other Allied nationalities, such as Free French, Greeks, the 1st Belgian Colonial Motorised Brigade Group, and the porters of the 4th Sierra Leone Auxiliary Group. The OB for Ireland—replete with Garrison Maintenance engineer companies, Barracks Staff, Horse Transport companies, and cyclist squadrons—is by the far the most complete with which we're familiar. The OB for India Command in 1943 (including Indian Ocean bases, Ceylon Army Command, and camel-mounted units of the Northwest Frontier) is also especially strong. Here's a short example (probably the shortest OB in the entire volume) of the way the order of battle material is presented:
File 31: The Papuan Campaign: November 16th, 1942 to January 22nd, 1943
The British Armies in World War II is an excellent series of organizational histories and probably the best set of books published by the Nafziger Collection. All three of these volumes live up to the high standards set for the series, especially volume four with its extensive material on the most unusual British colonial units. Anyone with any interest whatsoever in unit histories, tables of organization and equipment, and orders of battle will appreciate all these books, and we're definitely looking forward to the next volumes. Highly recommended.
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Reviewed 3 August 2003
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