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Uniforms and Decorations of World Wars I & II
Uniforms and decorations of World Wars I & II
- GenresMilitary History
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
John Batchelor
84 books1 followerLibrarian Note:
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There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 4, 2019
My wife bought me this right after we got married in 1974, and I have paged through it countless times over the years. Like most if not all of the books from the Beekman House "History of the World Wars" Library, this book is a great piece of reference material, especially for beginners. While it is true that such a topic could take up volumes, there is enough of a variety to cover most of the spectrum and yet wet your appetite for further research.
Among some of the various things covered are uniforms through the ages, medals and badges, aircraft markings, naval flags, army composition, arm of service dress ties (yea, that surprised me!), and propaganda posters. Of special note is the selection of helmets from World War I (WWI), some of which resemble medieval helmets. Also, color photos show the advantages of different colored uniforms in WWI. In all honesty, most of the book is devoted to WWI, but by association one can see how the same applies to other periods. There is a small section towards the end of Nazis badges and insignia and Japanese propaganda sheets that are printed in both Japanese and English.
This is a great little book. Thanks, Ruth.
Among some of the various things covered are uniforms through the ages, medals and badges, aircraft markings, naval flags, army composition, arm of service dress ties (yea, that surprised me!), and propaganda posters. Of special note is the selection of helmets from World War I (WWI), some of which resemble medieval helmets. Also, color photos show the advantages of different colored uniforms in WWI. In all honesty, most of the book is devoted to WWI, but by association one can see how the same applies to other periods. There is a small section towards the end of Nazis badges and insignia and Japanese propaganda sheets that are printed in both Japanese and English.
This is a great little book. Thanks, Ruth.
January 16, 2025
This book would be a great selection for a grad school methodology course in order to answer the question "what was this book about?" because I'm sure there is no right answer but "Heraldry and Regalia of War" definitely seems like the wrong answer despite being the title and presumable the aim of the book.
Instead what we have here is a Mulligan the Cat's Hodgepodge Stew for Breakfast that has been Frankensteined together from various bits and pieces from the publishers History of the World Wars series. Sometimes this means that you have captions describing pictures that aren't there or references to page numbers that clearly are from the source material or the occasional references to what's being covered "this week" which indicates Beekman's history was originally published in periodical form.
Because this was a British publication the focus and POV is that of Great Britain in the two world wars of the 20th century. (With a brief introductory smattering of the development of uniforms/armor from ancient times through WWII.).
You get lots of insignia and uniforms and information about them. It is by no means comprehensive and this material is supplemented by a sampling of propaganda and recruiting material from the two wars and then some material about unit structures which was some of the more interesting information here. Unlike a lot of books that cover uniforms and insignia and medals and whatnot this one managed to not turn into a neofascist aesthetic lovefest and in fact the sampling it provides for Nazi materials is separated out with a chapter heading that I will paraphrase as "some evil tchotchkes produced by dirty lickspittles for other murderous lickspittles which I guess we have to include in here but don't get too excited about them you wannabe bootlickers". Most helpful is the line drawing graphic of the emblems of all 39 Waffen SS Divisions which is good for scanning or photocopying and keeping handy as a tattoo ID guide for your next European vacation.
The haphazardness (it is still chronologically presented so there's that) means that it's worth more for illustrations than much of anything else.
Instead what we have here is a Mulligan the Cat's Hodgepodge Stew for Breakfast that has been Frankensteined together from various bits and pieces from the publishers History of the World Wars series. Sometimes this means that you have captions describing pictures that aren't there or references to page numbers that clearly are from the source material or the occasional references to what's being covered "this week" which indicates Beekman's history was originally published in periodical form.
Because this was a British publication the focus and POV is that of Great Britain in the two world wars of the 20th century. (With a brief introductory smattering of the development of uniforms/armor from ancient times through WWII.).
You get lots of insignia and uniforms and information about them. It is by no means comprehensive and this material is supplemented by a sampling of propaganda and recruiting material from the two wars and then some material about unit structures which was some of the more interesting information here. Unlike a lot of books that cover uniforms and insignia and medals and whatnot this one managed to not turn into a neofascist aesthetic lovefest and in fact the sampling it provides for Nazi materials is separated out with a chapter heading that I will paraphrase as "some evil tchotchkes produced by dirty lickspittles for other murderous lickspittles which I guess we have to include in here but don't get too excited about them you wannabe bootlickers". Most helpful is the line drawing graphic of the emblems of all 39 Waffen SS Divisions which is good for scanning or photocopying and keeping handy as a tattoo ID guide for your next European vacation.
The haphazardness (it is still chronologically presented so there's that) means that it's worth more for illustrations than much of anything else.
December 24, 2022
2.5/5. Charity shop find. Nothing wrong with it but overall just not for me. Read it very quickly as it is mostly pictures and captions.
Rather old book, published in the 1970s. 170 pages, one of those big hardcover style books that don't seem to get made nowadays. Collection of artwork depicting the uniforms of soldiers from both the world wars. Surprisingly in-depth as it included many of the colonial troops and for WWI the various Balkan troops. For WWII it also had a section just for ties (which I skipped but it shows the level of detail). Additionally it has pictures of medals, decorations on aircraft, various insignia like all the SS division symbols plus some propaganda posters. There were some diagrams that displayed the unit organisation (division, batallion etc) in an easy to understand way and I did take photos of those so I could refer to them when reading other books. The artwork is decent but dated and the photos, while not that high in quality, are good enough to easily see.
While it is in-depth and I do like military history, I personally am not that into learning about every single uniform or medal so I didn't get that much out of the book I'll remember but that is on me. If you are into that level of detail this book might be worth a read if you can find a very cheap copy (although there are probably newer easier to find books on the topic with higher quality images considering this book is nearly 50 years old)
Rather old book, published in the 1970s. 170 pages, one of those big hardcover style books that don't seem to get made nowadays. Collection of artwork depicting the uniforms of soldiers from both the world wars. Surprisingly in-depth as it included many of the colonial troops and for WWI the various Balkan troops. For WWII it also had a section just for ties (which I skipped but it shows the level of detail). Additionally it has pictures of medals, decorations on aircraft, various insignia like all the SS division symbols plus some propaganda posters. There were some diagrams that displayed the unit organisation (division, batallion etc) in an easy to understand way and I did take photos of those so I could refer to them when reading other books. The artwork is decent but dated and the photos, while not that high in quality, are good enough to easily see.
While it is in-depth and I do like military history, I personally am not that into learning about every single uniform or medal so I didn't get that much out of the book I'll remember but that is on me. If you are into that level of detail this book might be worth a read if you can find a very cheap copy (although there are probably newer easier to find books on the topic with higher quality images considering this book is nearly 50 years old)
November 10, 2018
Richly illustrated with uniforms, medals, helmets and other related items from both World War I and World War II.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews