Upon seeing this book, American and Canadian readers, among others around the world, may well cant their heads sideways, the way a dog or cat does when it's confused.

But the populaces of the USA and Canada did not expect, even during the darkest days of World War II, to have poison gas bombs dropped on their children's schools...

...or have their country invaded and overrun by Hitler's seemingly invincible Panzer divisions.

Those living in Britain in 1940, however, lived with these horrific fears, daily. Worse even than the fears, was the reality of German bombers in the air, month after month, targeting British cities with high explosive and incendiary bombs. Even after the invasion threat diminished and ultimately dissolved, ever-more sporadic air raids and vengeance-weapon attacks continued against Britain, to almost the war's last days.

Children were evacuated to less-threatened areas, away from their families for...months? SIXTY THOUSAND British civilians died from German attacks on their island. Another 86,000 were severely wounded.

This book's subject may well strike one as odd, unfamiliar, seemingly surreal, even to serious students of the time. It certainly is not the usual Osprey fare, which deals with uniformed and organized military combat units. Most folks illustrated and spoken of in this tome were just living their usual family and work lives...until the air raid sirens went off, again.

Yes, the USA and Canada had their "Home Front" during World War II, but 'twas nothing even remotely like what faced Britain, on the other side of the Atlantic...

...separated from one of the finest armies in history...the one which occupied or cowed the entire European continent...by only twenty-one miles of the English Channel.

Ex-Royal Navy man-turned author, Martin J. Brayley attacks his subject with, as Sir Winston Churchill termed it, "Vigga." Literally hundreds of major and minor facts and anecdotes about life in wartime Britain await inside this volume.

Paintbrushes in the capable hands of artist Malcolm McGregor really bring to life, in the usual 8 pages of colour, twenty-four images of British citizens, living and serving on the Home Front. The people illustrated are delightfully common, not hardened, exercised soldiery, making the subject that much more real. Air raid wardens, volunteer firefighters, Home Guard, Local Defense Volunteers, ARP Women's Volunteer Services, Land Girls, Lumber Jills, even child evacuees and infants in gas masks.

For the modeler who might wish to explore the British Home Front, 1939-45...figures of Britain's civilians of the era are rare. Still, should one get their imagination and modeling skills into gear, converting and adapting existing subjects may be easier than one thinks, as there are some period civilians in miniature. The range of possible British Home Front subjects is certainly plentiful...and a giant leap away from the ubiquitous, omnipresent, overwhelming array of Waffen SS Truppen figures.

Unexpectedly, surprisingly highly recommended, as a "step sideways" from the usual sort of WW II history books. Author Brayley and Illustrator McGregor put human faces on wartime Britons, Englander, the people who lived on the island during that traumatic time.

Luftwaffe fans, this book will show you what the Englander "enemy" looked like, real faces, real human beings. Royal Air Force fans, these are the people the Hurricanes and Spitfires climbed into the heavens to protect. U-Boat and Kriegsmarine fans, fans, these are the people the sea offensive was intended to isolate and starve. Royal Navy fans, these are the people for whom the valiant ships flying the Union Jack fought those convoys through.

May 2005

 
Review copy courtesy of the reviewer's chequeboook, purchased at Venture Hobbies, Wheeling, Illinois, USA

Reviewed by James Hood

(see Scott Van Aken's m2 and other reviews of James Hood's novel Adventure--Into The Neverland, of exploring a parallel, Alternate world (concept based on the Superstring theory of physics) using WW II surplus ships, aircraft and vehicles at:)    <http://users3.ev1.net/~bjmonkeyandcj/James_Hood.htm>

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that has 300,000 visitors a month, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.