If you are looking to learn about the battle for Crete in WWII, Crete, The Battle for Heraklion, 1941 may not be the book for you to start with. This book deals almost exclusively with the battle for the town and airfield of Heraklion, only one of three landing areas for the German paratroopers on Crete. However, if you are interested in the stories of those on the “sharp end of the stick” in a battle, this book is great as it depends heavily on first person accounts of those who were actually there. While some British, Commonwealth and Germans are included, most of the stories are of the Greeks/Cretans involved, which is good because they are usually overlooked or de-emphasized in most histories which tend to concentrate on the German paratroopers or the British and/or Commonwealth forces involved.

John Miller, IPMS member and owner of Model Paint Solutions (modelpaintsol.com) has an electric pencil sander called the David 400 (D400) on his web site. The sander has a wall cord that plugs in the back of the sander, fits nicely in the hand, and is very comfortable to use.

When I first saw the tool, I thought why do I need an electric sander? I have an abundance of sanding tools already. It just so happened that I was working on the Airfix 1/72 scale Tiger Moth and had a very small area to sand under the horizontal stabilizer. With that small an area to be sanded and the delicate nature of the sanding that had to be done, I thought the D400 would have made the job a lot easier and faster.

The siege of Malta – a small island in the Mediterranean Sea – held by the British from 1940 to 1942 against the combined might of the German and Italian air and sea forces is one of the more memorable stories from World War 2. Directly on the route from Europe to North Africa, it was a thorn in the side of the Axis supply line to their forces duking it out for control of Libya and Algeria. They decided to reduce the island and its garrison as a threat, and Malta became the most bombed area of land in the entire war. Only a few fighters were on the island during the early months of the siege, and they were the already-obsolete Sea Gladiators of the Royal Navy. Totaling six in all, three of them became famous in military lore as “Faith, Hope and Charity”, fighting off incessant bombing by the Italian and German air forces and earning themselves a place in history.

This book is part of a series providing detailed information on a particular aircraft intended for scale modelers. It is not a historical account of the service life of the aircraft and does not provide a variety of color schemes for the type as by used by different units. It provides detailed six-view line drawings of the specific aircraft in three scales, plus black and white color photos of several complete aircraft (museum display survivors) and detailed photos of specific parts of the aircraft. Several drawings are included, including an excellent one of the instrument panel, and some drawings from maintenance manuals are includes.

This book covers a little-known major operation within the campaign at Monte Cassino which was a success in its own right.

The operation was to build a road and assault German positions north of Monte Cassino with tanks of the New Zealanders, Indians and Americans forces. The plan was audacious and daring by building a road able to carry the tanks on a narrow mountain track. The operation would help in breaking through the infamous Gustav Line. I have long been interested in the Monte Cassino operation as my Father was involved in this campaign, but I had never read anything on this operation and found the book fascination and illuminating. The work and effort put into this action was enormous. The pictures and maps help the read to outstand the events and actions. The picture of the area as it is now also adds another dimension to the readers knowledge.

I recommend this book to everyone with an interest in WWII.