sabine72 Posted 22 July , 2006 Share Posted 22 July , 2006 Hello, I was wondering if anyone read this book and what they think about. I'm planning to buy it, if I can find it in belgium. sabine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muerrisch Posted 22 July , 2006 Share Posted 22 July , 2006 Its not a 'read' except the intro. A reference book, not, in my opinion, notably user-friendly. Get the library to buy a copy is best. By the way, Rats is not punctuated in the title, so its just the plural big mouse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph Posted 22 July , 2006 Share Posted 22 July , 2006 Sabine, I find it a useful reference when used with Topography of Armageddon and trench maps. But not much of a read by itself. Regards Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabine72 Posted 22 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 22 July , 2006 grumpy and charles , Thank you, I will buy it, because I want to know more about the trenches in the arrea I grew up. (potijze ieper) sabine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krithia Posted 22 July , 2006 Share Posted 22 July , 2006 Hello, I was wondering if anyone read this book and what they think about. I'm planning to buy it, if I can find it in belgium. sabine I think the military book shop by the Menin Gate (Meensestraat) in Ieper has a copy, or they did last week. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 22 July , 2006 Share Posted 22 July , 2006 Hello, I was wondering if anyone read this book and what they think about. I'm planning to buy it, if I can find it in belgium. sabine I'll post my thoughts on this book from an earlier thread on this book. As you can see, I'm slightly less than impressed with it to be honest , as I am with many of Chasseaud's books (excepting "Artillery's Astrologers" which is basically unit history, and "Trench maps - a collector's guide" which is a very useful reference to 1:10,000 scale map editions). This is a problem I find when there only seems to be one "recognised" expert on a subject - the expert can write whatever he/she wants (to be fair - usually based on a singular study) and people believe it as gospel (a problem I find in the earlier part of Rats Alley). Anyway - what I wrote earlier... "Afraid I've got to admit to feeling a little disappointed in this book to be honest, especially after such a long wait! The first half of the book is interesting enough (basically an evolution of trenchnames and possible reasons for their naming etc) and should appeal to anyone with an interest in this type of thing. It's "interesting", but that's about as far as I'll go with it! The second half is a gazetteer of tranch and trench feature names with a reference to their location on a regular series trenchmap which is ok, but not much use if you don't have access to any trenchmaps. Peter Chasseaud admits that it's by no means a complete listing (and I have to certainly agree with him there!) and I have a feeling that one or two trenchnames for certain places may come from more "shaky" references than the official trenchmap series'. I also don't feel that trenchname changes have really been taken into consideration either. A date, or at least the edition of the map referenced could have been entered on this list which, I feel , could have increased it's usefulness. Some knowledge of trenchmap sheet numbering is essential for this gazetteer to have any meaning whatsoever to the reader (although, to be fair, the "usual" Dec 1917 index of 1:10,000 maps is included - though this isn't much use if you're looking for an area such as those involved in the spring/summer 1918 battles that aren't covered on this index!) Anyway, they are minor criticisms that I don't feel I really have the right to express as it is a work of far greater stature than I could have had the patience to complete myself. It's a good book with an interesting first half and very useful second half (can't exactly call a list "interesting"!!! ) - so long as the particular place you are looking for is there and you have a map to look it up on! It's definately not the "definitive" listing that I think many people were hoping for (but I doubt that that would ever be possible?), but it takes us a lot closer to it." dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Saunders Posted 22 July , 2006 Share Posted 22 July , 2006 Its is a useful reference book - especially if you like reading War Diaries. Agree with Dave that it is not definitive and has its limitations but it is a bloody good effort, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGWR Posted 22 July , 2006 Share Posted 22 July , 2006 Does anyone know if the author is planning to expand this work at some stage? Regards, AGWR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 22 July , 2006 Share Posted 22 July , 2006 Does anyone know if the author is planning to expand this work at some stage? Regards, AGWR I very much doubt it. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabine72 Posted 23 July , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 July , 2006 thanks to all who replied, does anyone know some other books of trenchmaps in the ieper salient sabine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGWR Posted 23 July , 2006 Share Posted 23 July , 2006 I very much doubt it. Dave I had better get a copy then, as it does sounds useful. I see that the blurb on Amazon refers to the book 'providing over 10,000 FRENCH names'! Regards, AGWR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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