This is a complete 8 volume set of one of the best series ever produced on the Second World War.
Bound in blue leatherette with gilt titles on the spine. Includes an index of each chapeter at the back.
Set is in very good condition. A couple of the leather covers have minor scuff marks and a bit of browning but overall in great condition. Contents complete. 3584 pages in total.
This is a heavy set so will cost R299 to sent Postnet to Postnet. Or it can be posted for R249 with tracking numbers. Or you can pick it up.
There is lots of information on this outstanding set on Wikipedia. Here is the link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purnell%27s_History_of_the_Second_World_War
Purnell's History of the Second World War was a hugely successful weekly anthology or 'partwork' publication covering all aspects of World War II that was distributed throughout the English-speaking world. Produced shortly after the similarly accomplished 8-volume series on WW1, it was first published in 1966, being reprinted several times during the 1970s.[1]
The magazine was notable for its use of multiple writers – many of them well-known military figures – from all relevant nationalities in order to present a rounded view of the subject material. This was combined with high-quality original artwork of the military hardware used, maps and numerous previously unseen photographs, some of them quite gruesome.
Former combatants who wrote for the magazine
General Walter Warlimont (survivor of the 20 July plot who received a long prison sentence at Nuremberg, but was later released) was commissioned to produce a piece on life in Hitler's inner circle, while Marshal G.K. Zhukov contributed an article on how he planned the Moscow counterattack.
Other senior figures who contributed to the publication include;
Major General Eric Dorman O'Gowan, former Chief of Staff of General Auchinleck; Freiherr von der Heydte commander of Rommel's rearguard during the 2nd Battle of El Alemein; General Major Alfred Philippi who commanded an infantry division on the western front after D-Day; Lord Chalfont, former Minister for Disarmament writing on the morality of the atom bomb attacks on Japan; General Leutnant Walther Chales De Beaulieu, commander of a Panzer army at Leningrad; Major General JL Moulton; Brigadier Rt Hon Sir John Smith VC, MC former MP and minister under the Churchill and Eden governments; and Lieutenant-General Nikolay Kirillovick-Popel, who participated in the Stalingrad offensive.
Other contributors
Prominent historians such as John Keegan, Jerrard Tickell, W.H. Koch, Alvin D. Coox, Phyllis Auty, Martin Blumenson, Antony Brett-James, John Vader, Rudolf Bohmer, Raleigh Trevelyan produced articles, as well as AJP Taylor, who acted as editor in chief for later editions after the death of Sir Basil Liddel Hart.
Other well-known contributors to the publication included Alan Clark MP and the best-selling author Dudley Pope. Eyewitness accounts from otherwise anonymous individuals, such as a Japanese housewife telling of the horrors of life after the surrender and the testimony of a former Zero pilot, were also included.
