The Military History Of World War II

by Barrie Pitt

New York, 1986, 4to legatura edit. tutta tela con sovr. ill. col. pp. 316 complet. ill. in nero e col.

Genres: History, World War II

316 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Barrie William Edward Pitt was educated at Portsmouth Southern Grammar School before becoming a bank clerk. After service in the Second World War Pitt worked as a surveyor, joined 21 SAS (TA), with whom he rose to the rank of sergeant, and started to write for the magazine Adventure. Pitt also worked for a time as an information officer at the Atomic Energy Authority establishment at Aldermaston, where he demonstrated a talent for turning scientific information into readable prose

In 1958, Pitt wrote a novel, The Edge of Battle, and Zeebrugge, an admired account of the First World War raid on the Belgian U-boat base. This led to a long and prolific career as an author and editor of popular histories. Under the overall editorship of Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, he was responsible for the first major part-work, Purnell's History of the Second World War, a 96-instalment mass circulation series which was launched in 1966 at the Imperial War Museum. He also worked as a researcher for the 1960s BBC television series The Great War.

Reviews

[Robert Hepple · Rating 2 out of 5]

First published in 1986, The Military History of World War II is a well written summary of the major battles of that war with extensive illustrations in the way of photos, colour profile artwork of aircraft, ships and military vehicles, and maps. The photos are let down regularly on two counts; they are often reproduced in very poor quality, as I have seen many of them reproduced to a much sharper standard, and there are numerous caption errors. The colour profile artwork is often let down by serious errors in camouflage colours. The text is mostly well written, but sometimes abandons the detached objectivity of the proper historian in favour of pro-American flag-waving.