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Remembered Today:

The Tanks at Flers ( Trevor Pidgeon)


Mick D

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Hello all,

Couldn't find a specific review of this book, so here goes.

Obtained mine today and I am literally bowled over by it. It has to be the single most specific book on WW1 I have ever seen. It is monumental in detail, maps, photographs, It deserves massive praise and gets it from me !

Mick D

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Certainly my touch-stone for the first tank action

Stephen

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There cannot be anything else like it , can there?

Mick D

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Here is a review from Col (Retd) T A Cave CBE

A superb production sub-titled An Account of the First Use of Tanks in War at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, The Somme, 15th September 1916, in which the author sets out to make good what he perceives to be a gap in the recorded history of the Great War, a detailed account of the part played by the tanks on the day when they first went into action thus bringing a new dimension to the land battle.It is the result of years of meticulous research in the British and German archives and of walking and studying the battlefields, together with contemporary photos and personal recollections and original documents. The narrative begins with the genesis of the tank, its trials, selection and training of the crew before their arrival in France at the end of August 1916. Individual chapters are then devoted to the work of the tanks in each of the ten divisions with which they fought, and for each division there is a trench map, annotated in colour, showing the tank movements and the position of the British troops down to company level. At the end of each chapter is a Field Guide which takes the reader in the track of the tanks with directions of the utmost precision and clarity. There are superb aerial colour photos of the battlefields as they are today, taken by the author, and these, too, are annotated to pinpoint movements and positions. There are also colour photos of the inside and outside of the Mark 1 tank, supplied by the Tank Museum at Bovington. Everything about this book has the feel of quality and it is certainly one of the best that I have seen over years of preparing this book list. Highly recommended!

Hello all,

Couldn't find a specific review of this book, so here goes.

Obtained mine today and I am literally bowled over by it. It has to be the single most specific book on WW1 I have ever seen. It is monumental in detail, maps, photographs, It deserves massive praise and gets it from me !

Mick D

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This is a monumental piece of research. If I had written a book I wish it could have been this one. I love it so much I feel I ought to do a "home visit" before I sell one, to make sure that it's going to a home that'll appreciate the work that's gone into it! Trevor Pidgeon himself is a most generous and helpful man.

Tom

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This is a monumental piece of research. If I had written a book I wish it could have been this one. I love it so much I feel I ought to do a "home visit" before I sell one, to make sure that it's going to a home that'll appreciate the work that's gone into it! Trevor Pidgeon himself is a most generous and helpful man.

Tom

:D i got mine a few years ago from your predecessor ray westlake,i agree with you tom,it deserves to go to a good home,bernard
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I have a signed copy received from the hand of the master himself and endorse all the previous comments. A truly great book. last September Trevor showed some of us round High Wood - a bit like visiting the Garden of Eden with God ! He is a real gentleman who wears his great knowledge very lightly and with a becoming old fashioned modesty.

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What other books has he written?

How did you get such an expert guide?

Mick D

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Mick - we went out for the 90th anniv of the first tank attack last September and chanced upon Trevor's walk in the normally closed High Wood - of course we took up the offer to join him in High Wood like a shot!

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A brief addition - excellent privately published Trevor's book was also unique (as a private publication) in as much as it recieved a fulsome review in the Telegraph by Keegan (Face of Battle et al). It is a splendid piece of work - invaluable to anyone interested in tanks in the Great War.

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  • 10 years later...

I understand the planned reprint of The Tanks at Flers has not come to fruition and the book, therefore, is selling at something of a premium.

 

For anyone trying to find a copy, Richard Winterton Auctioneers are holding an auction of various military related items on 30 April.  I noticed Lot 133 is listed as "a selection of books of a military ww1 interest for the battle of the Somme".  A copy of Trevor Pidgeon's book appears to be included.

 

I have no connection with this auction house.  I am merely wanting to draw the attention of anyone looking for this book that they may wish to look at the auction.

 

Regards.

 

Reg

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