Landships II

Just finished reading my copy!

To resolve any confusion: the image Helen cites from the TM website is plainly an earlier, and now obsolete, draft.

The book as issued and as sitting next my laptop is specifically about the Mark IV, as advertised on the cover, and in terms of what you get inside, with only brief mentions of other Marks.

I think it has come out very nicely, allowing for the publisher's format which has to cover everything from 1984 Ford Capris* to Apollo spacecraft to Wallace and Gromit's wheels (in other volumes) - it will now be my first choice for recommendation for the general reader and the nonspecialist if/when I need a WW1 tank books for local Great War commemorative exhibitions and websites etc.

It does not replace the more technical and rivet-counting treatises or tactical histories, but it would never be expected to do so; for instance, there are no modelmaking plans. But there is, for instance, a fascinating set of photos showing a rather doleful driver going through the gear change procedure. It is also up to date in things like recent finds on the battlefields.

* Well, perhaps not quite literally like the original Haynes Manuals (which, to people living furth of Britain and Ireland, were/are a very well known series of books on the do it yourself maintenance of various makes and models of motor car). If the old Capri manual were like this, it'd have detailed discussions on why the drivers wore backless gloves and put go-faster stripes and rubber widgets trailing from the chassis on their motors. So much more interesting than a book on nothing but how to change the gasket.