This book has taken some time to actually start reading it as I believe it was a christmas gift a number of years ago (or maybe a birthday gift, not sure) can’t remember, but either way…

The book is 20th Century Battlefields by Dan & Peter Snow. Two authors who have a background in Military history and put out by BBC Books. Gotta be half good right? Well it was pretty damn good. The book looks into a handful of the major conflicts of the 20th Century. Predominantly with a british focus (as you would expect, but not all that skewed really) it flows from WW1 all the way through to the Gulf War (the first one). But not the way your thinking.

This book is good in the way that it looks into just one battle of each of the conflicts. Such as Stalingrad, Battle of Midway, Amiens or even the Tet Offensive this is a general view of that specific battle. If it looked into each of the conflicts in depth it would be an encyclopedia. This little glimpse of the more unwritten about battles like Stalingrad, Amiens or one of the ones I had never even heard of being Imjin River in Korea just made me want to read up more on these individual conflicts.

I really enjoyed this book & for once I really and truly mean it. It gave me a brief glimpse into a few smaller different topics and ones that I now want to look into further. I really want to read more on the Falklands for instance on a battle that was fought on the opposite side of the world for the British at the end of their supply chain. Or Stalingrad which is a battle where millions of russians fought to push back the Wermacht in a battle that would essentially mean the death knoll for the Germans.

If you ever see this book or have any desire to read up about 20th century battles in general.. give it a go. You won’t be dissapointed.