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Arnhem - Best Book By Far!


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William (our Bill) Buckingham has knocked it way out of the park with his Arnhem opus. It puts all previous books on the subject to shame, including his own previous work on the subject. Simply marvelous, but I won't tell you how it ends, read it for yourself.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Arnhem-Complete-William-F-Buckingham/dp/1848681097

 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/arnhem-william-f-buckingham/1131280203

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Just got it for my iPad.

Enlarge the font then... :D

 

Seriously, this is a big book and very dense in its detail. I will also warn you that there are occasional typos and syntax errors, which should be expected in such a massive undertaking. About the only thing I decry in it is the limited number of maps and their quality, which I also understand, and the limited number of photos. However, my other Arnhem books have good maps and lots of photos...but badly misunderstand what happened.

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William (our Bill) Buckingham has knocked it way out of the park with his Arnhem opus. It puts all previous books on the subject to shame, including his own previous work on the subject. Simply marvelous, but I won't tell you how it ends, read it for yourself.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Arnhem-Complete-William-F-Buckingham/dp/1848681097

 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/arnhem-william-f-buckingham/1131280203

Thank you muchly for that, very glad you enjoyed it. :blush:

 

BillB

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Not surprising, as his D-Day: The First 72 Hours makes me wish that it had lasted longer.....

And thank you too, Ken. It could've been longer but I was law abiding and stuck to word limits (and deadlines!) when I did that one. :)

 

BillB

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Simply marvelous, but I won't tell you how it ends, read it for yourself.

So there is a last-minute plot twist? :D

 

Not so much a plot twist, but a different conclusion from most. :)

 

BillB

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Just got it for my iPad.

Enlarge the font then... :D

 

Seriously, this is a big book and very dense in its detail. I will also warn you that there are occasional typos and syntax errors, which should be expected in such a massive undertaking. About the only thing I decry in it is the limited number of maps and their quality, which I also understand, and the limited number of photos. However, my other Arnhem books have good maps and lots of photos...but badly misunderstand what happened.

 

Ref the typos & syntax errors,there's a tale in that. There were very, very few of those in the book when I handed it over to the publisher. When they asked me to go through it for the paperback version I found seven A4 pages of typos, syntax errors, needlessly replaced words and simply butchered and nonsensical sentence alterations; to add insult to injury they also screwed up some of the picture captions. I was not happy and had a frank exchange of views with the publishing editor; turns out they did all that in the editing process for some reason, altho he did apologise and say they wouldn't do it again.

 

With ref to the maps & photos, my apologies for that but I had to draw sketch maps to be tidied up by freelancers in India (which made for some interesting spelling misunderstandings!) because the publisher wouldn't pay for proper ones (and they were much better than the ones in my first Arnhem book!). Similarly they would only stump up for a handful of pics and I have neither the means or inclination to shell out around £50 per picture. As this one has been such a good seller they might change that in the future, but I'll not be holding my breath... :glare:

 

BillB

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the book is huge, The print is small. I got my first pair of glasses ever for this book. (many people I know seem to think I had it coming)

Epic is a good description but to be honest it is a depressing read because you can really feel the disaster coming.

I'm sorry about that Tim, personally I think the font size and paper quality is crap for a book of that price but that was above my paygrade. To be fair though I expect you needed the glasses anyway... :P ;)

 

BillB

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Just got it for my iPad.

Enlarge the font then... :D

 

Seriously, this is a big book and very dense in its detail. I will also warn you that there are occasional typos and syntax errors, which should be expected in such a massive undertaking. About the only thing I decry in it is the limited number of maps and their quality, which I also understand, and the limited number of photos. However, my other Arnhem books have good maps and lots of photos...but badly misunderstand what happened.

 

Ref the typos & syntax errors,there's a tale in that. There were very, very few of those in the book when I handed it over to the publisher. When they asked me to go through it for the paperback version I found seven A4 pages of typos, syntax errors, needlessly replaced words and simply butchered and nonsensical sentence alterations; to add insult to injury they also screwed up some of the picture captions. I was not happy and had a frank exchange of views with the publishing editor; turns out they did all that in the editing process for some reason, altho he did apologise and say they wouldn't do it again.

 

With ref to the maps & photos, my apologies for that but I had to draw sketch maps to be tidied up by freelancers in India (which made for some interesting spelling misunderstandings!) because the publisher wouldn't pay for proper ones (and they were much better than the ones in my first Arnhem book!). Similarly they would only stump up for a handful of pics and I have neither the means or inclination to shell out around £50 per picture. As this one has been such a good seller they might change that in the future, but I'll not be holding my breath... :glare:

 

 

I had a feeling there was a story behind that Bill...it was the neologisms (AKA sillygisms) I enjoyed. I need to write some of them down. :D Captioning American glider troopers as British was also nifty...but none of that took away from the depth of research and analysis evident in your work.

 

You answered a lot of questions I've had for years...like where the "armed jeeps" went since no other author ever seemed to bother to track them down and just why the heck anyone planned on a broad front advance on a vital target without any reserves or any means of meaningful coordination between the columns. The answer, as I suspected, was because of f@cked-up planning assumptions and poor leadership.

 

Thanks for a fantastic and thoughtful read.

 

 

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Just got it for my iPad.

Enlarge the font then... :D

 

Seriously, this is a big book and very dense in its detail. I will also warn you that there are occasional typos and syntax errors, which should be expected in such a massive undertaking. About the only thing I decry in it is the limited number of maps and their quality, which I also understand, and the limited number of photos. However, my other Arnhem books have good maps and lots of photos...but badly misunderstand what happened.

 

 

" And General Urquhart sed: "hey sport, stay off them conre drugs for thier most part if you want to know ur breach from ur mussel!"

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the book is huge, The print is small. I got my first pair of glasses ever for this book. (many people I know seem to think I had it coming)

Epic is a good description but to be honest it is a depressing read because you can really feel the disaster coming.

 

Very true. I've recently finished reading Antony Beevor's book covering Arnhem and since you know the gist of how things ended up and the high casualty rate, it is quite a dark and murky topic. Still a great book in its own right, I've also been very impressed with the other titles of his that I've read so far as well.

 

Regarding Bill's book on Arnhem, I'll add that to my list of "to get" titles now. Although my interest is primarily with Russian/Soviet vehicles and operations/history, certain operations such as Market Garden, Dieppe and also glider assault landings also intrigue me.

 

Thanks.

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Just got it for my iPad.

Enlarge the font then... :D

 

Seriously, this is a big book and very dense in its detail. I will also warn you that there are occasional typos and syntax errors, which should be expected in such a massive undertaking. About the only thing I decry in it is the limited number of maps and their quality, which I also understand, and the limited number of photos. However, my other Arnhem books have good maps and lots of photos...but badly misunderstand what happened.

 

 

" And General Urquhart sed: "hey sport, stay off them conre drugs for thier most part if you want to know ur breach from ur mussel!"

 

It would have been good if he'd said that while remaining in his HQ at LZ Z instead of haring off all over the place and getting trapped in the attic of No. 14 Zwarteweg... :)

 

BillB

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Did the publishers put in anything about General Gavin being delayed at Nijmegen because his M113's kept breaking down? :)

No, but I wouldn't have been surprised if they had. I did say that Gavin was delayed by Browning sticking his nose into things he didn't understand though... :)

 

BillB

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Bought the hardcover, hopefully I'll be able to get it signed in '21.

How so Harold, are you planning another jaunt over here? :)

 

BillB

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