Page 92 - All About History - Issue 53-17
P. 92
Reviews
ROLLS-ROYCE
ARMOURED CAR
Owners’ Workshop Manual
Author David Fletcher Publisher Haynes Publishing
Price £22.99 Released Out now
he Haynes Manual’s foray into military Book for the Rolls-Royce, but access to the
vehicles continues with the Rolls-Royce Tank Museum’s vehicle means that there
Armoured Car. David Fletcher (MBE) are high-quality and detailed images. An
will be familiar to many as former extensive collection of images is included,
T historian at the Tank Museum, which comprising a large number of contemporary
should give an indication of the quality and pictures of the car on active service as well as
detail of the text. The book has been produced some taken during the restoration of the other
in partnership with the museum; unsurprising surviving example, ‘Sliabh na mBan’, which
considering that it is custodian of one of the was part of Michael Collins’ convoy when he
only two remaining examples of the vehicle. was ambushed and killed in August 1922.
Approximately half of the book is dedicated The combination of the vehicle’s history,
to the history of the car, examining its genesis, detailed technical specification, and high-
deployment to the various theatres of WWI, quality images mean that there is enough
its post-war service and service with the 11th detail in this book to satisfy petrol-head,
Hussars in North Africa during WWII. historian and scale modeller alike. Here’s
The section on the anatomy of the vehicle hoping that the Tank Museum and Haynes
is largely based on the Army’s 1933 Instruction collaborate on future projects.
ROYAL AIRCRAFT
FACTORY S.E.5
Owners’ Workshop Manual
RECOMMENDS…
Author Nick Garton Publisher Haynes
Praetorian: The Rise Publishing Price £25 Released Out now
and Fall of Rome’s
Imperial Bodyguard he reinvention of the aeroplane’s construction and
Author: Guy de la Bédoyère Price: £25
Publisher: Yale University Press classic Haynes Manual maintenance, the S.E.5a in
has seen it diversify from action and its post-war career.
De la Bédoyère’s
book on the car owners’ manuals As you would expect, images
Praetorians will T to cover everything are plentiful, from contemporary
likely become the from the Flying Scotsman to pictures to detailed close-ups
definitive account
of the rise and fall the Imperial Death Star. The of the Shuttleworth Collection’s
of the emperor’s burgeoning list of military example, and the classic Haynes
bodyguards, but aviation titles now includes this cutaway diagram is a delight.
whether it is the
best book on the offering on the S.E.5, one of the The level of detail extends to
subject depends iconic aeroplanes of WWI flown appendices covering the S.E.5’s
on what the by the likes of Albert Ball, James appearances in books and on
reader is looking for. If you are looking McCudden and Mick Mannock. screen, a list of all known scale
for a sober and scholarly history of the
Praetorians, then you will be in heaven. Alongside a detailed history model kits and the squadrons
However, if you would prefer a gossipy of its development, the book that were equipped with the
trip through the underbelly of Roman focuses on the only original aeroplane in WWI.
imperial politics and the temptations
attendant upon being the bodyguard S.E.5a to return to flight, F-904 Overall this is an excellent,
to the most powerful man in the world, of the Shuttleworth Collection, in-depth look at the S.E.5 that
then Praetorian might disappoint as well as other replicas in packs a huge amount of detail
existence. It also covers the into its 164 pages.
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