Casemate Illustrated Series

Casemate's Illustrated Series is a welcome addition to the available literature targeted at the general World War II enthusiast. These volumes, originally published in French by Histoire & Collections during predominately the 1990s, do exactly what one would expect in an illustrated series - that being, offering up plenty of photos and high quality illustrations.

Each volume averages 128 pages in length and is packed with around 150 Second World War era photographs as well as numerous and excellent illlustrations (with credit here going to Jean Restayn). Background detail and history is provided by French military historian Yves Buffetaut (also the editor of Histoire & Collections flagship magazine Militaria). The author does a solid job covering the basic details describing the background information surrounding the units, equipment, or campaigns provided in each edition. Though the professional historian may quibble with some of the author's analysis regarding various battles, generals, or the like the information presented is largely uncontroversial and hews closely to the facts.

Of course, given that this is an "illustrated series" the photos and drawings are the key. To that end, Casemate and Histoire & Collections have assembled quite a nice series. As mentioned before, these books are packed with illustrations and photographs. Moreover, as someone who has seen thousands of pictures from the Second World War, I was pleasantly surprised to find many photos that were new to me. I really enjoyed the pictures chosen for these volumes - they do a great job of giving the reader a better idea of the campaigns or units presented. Furthermore, the text complements the pictures (and does so quite nicely, these volumes are not "mere" picture books).

Though at first blush, one may think this new illustrated series is targeted at the long-running various Osprey publications - that is not the case. The focus here is on the photography and illustrations. Though the text is clearly targeted at the reader who is not an advanced specialist in the topics presented; the quality, diversity, and curation that went into the selection of the photographs would be of interest to even the professional historian. It's one thing to go on Flickr, Pinterest, or the like and scroll through the immense numbers of often randomly presented photos. To find a book where time and effort went into selecting the illustrations with an eye toward bringing the chosen campaign, weapons, or units to life is something else entirely and well worth your time. Bsed upon what I have seen so far I have no problem recommending the new Casemate Illustrated Series.