This is the first of a two-book series on the American counterinsurgency against the Viet Cong. Hunting the Viet Cong - The Counterinsurgency Campaign in South Vietnam, 1961-1963, Vol 1-The Strategic Hamlet Programme covers the early American involvement in Vietnam before Americans were officially committed as combat troops, serving as advisors to South Vietnam.

Dr Darren Poole teaches military history at the University of Chester and University Centre, Shrewsbury, United Kingdom. Dr Poole has degrees in Geography, Education, History and Military History with over 20 years of experience. Dr Poole’s dissertation focused on the Vietnamese Strategic Hamlet Programme, and his research is evident with over nine pages of bibliography and nine pages of footnotes. The main point that sticks out is his focus on researching the “’unheard voices’ of conflict. These include, for example, the peasants caught in a cross-fire in South Vietnam and the view of the Viet Cong themselves.”

Casemate Publishers is the distributor of MMP Books and they have started a new line on their series “Single”. This new line is focused on vehicles and the first installment of the series cover the self-propelled artillery SU-76M, a mainstay of the Soviet Army during World War 2.

As all the books in the “Single” series, it is devoted to a unique subject. The book has some period pictures of the SU-76M in service during World War 2 and it has an extensive walk-around style section, including detail images of the running gear, gun, hull, fighting compartment, etc.

The book also includes a 3-view line drawing in 1/35 scale and some color profiles as well.

Recommended.

I would like to thank Casemate Publishers and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

The Douglas built A-20 havoc first flew on October 26, 1938.  Designed by Jack Northrop and Ed. Heinemann, Douglas produced over 7000 of them, making it the most produced light bomber.

Originally ordered by the French, the American Army Air Corps quickly caught on and placed an order three months later.  Nearly half of the production run went to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease Act.  Many feel it was one of the most versatile combat aircraft of the war, being in service from before the war, all the way through to the end, serving in nearly every theater and utilized by most Allied nations.  Its roles included bombing, ground attack, strafing, torpedo attack, photo recon, night intruder, and interceptor.

Phoenix Scale Publications is a partnership of four people that have many years in the modeling world. They produce magazines (Scale Modeling and Aviation Modeling), Books (Red, Blue, White and Airmark series). The books are dedicated to specific planes and for this review, we look at the Airmark in Profile and in Scale series No.4, the North American A-5/RA-5 Vigilante.

The contents of the book show the layout:

Cliff Lord served in Britain’s Royal Signals during the 1960s as a cipher operator in England, Germany and on active service in Aden and the East Aden Protectorate. After the Army, Cliff worked in Paris for the Washington Post and later moved to New Zealand working as a computer operator, a communications network controller for Air New Zealand, and Team Leader International Operations for the Southern Cross fiber optics trans-pacific cable before retiring. He is Honorary Historian for Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals. Cliff has written nine books on military history and insignia.