It might seem odd to find at this website a book review focused on a publication exploring the Native American defeat of U.S. Army Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment on June 25, 1876 at the Battle of The Little Big Horn. Yet, over the years I have developed a strong interest in both the Battle of The Little Big Horn and the equally compelling 1879 Battle at Isandlwana. As such, anytime a book about those topics comes along that I feel is more than worth my dear reader's...
Book and Film Reviews
Unveiling The Mysteries of Custer's Last Stand, Gordon Harper, Casemate, 2017, $24.95 (paperback), 408 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Jan 24 2026 - 6:44pm
Review Type: Book
The Men, Their Guns, Their Stories, Gary Yee, Casemate, 2022, $49.95, 352 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Jan 8 2026 - 7:22pm
The Casemate Illustrated Series is rapidly proving to be one of the better book series currently available. Gary Yee's look at World War II sniping is no exception to that observation, and is well worth your time. I particularly enjoyed how much this book delved into into the details of sniper weaponry, tactics, techniques and procedures, and training. This is not only a well-researched book (referencing a combination of memoirs, primary sources that include military training publications from...
Review Type: Book
Simon Forty and Richard Charlton Taylor, Casemate Publishers, 2025, $39.95, 192 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Nov 17 2025 - 9:57pm
German Logistics is the latest entry in Casemate's Illustrated Special series. Most readers of my work know that I tend to recommend meaty operational histories. However, I also believe a book weighted toward illustrations, tables, and charts can also be entertaining and useful for aiding reader comprehension regarding a particular historial aspect - as long as it also contains insightful and well researched content. German Logistics checks all of those boxes.
Most importantly, authors Forty...
Review Type: Book
Volume 3, Coral Sea & Aftermath May-June 1942, Michael Claringbould and Peter Ingman, Avonmore Books, 2019, $34.95, 248 pages,
Steve Mercatante
on Oct 20 2025 - 4:29pm
South Pacific Air War Volume 3 is one of a series of books providing perhaps the best coverage of such topics I have seen to date. Though this review covers the third volume of a larger series, do note that these books can be read alone. The focus of this volume is on the May 1942 Operation MO launched by the Japanese with its goals featuring taking Tulagi and Port Moresby. Notably, the combat covered in this book includes that of the first carrier-on-carrier battle in history (duirng the...
Review Type: Book
Valeriy Zamulin, Helion & Company, 2021, Softcover, $65.79, 566 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 29 2025 - 6:00pm
The historiography of the July 1943 Battle for Kursk and the name Valeriy Zamulin are fast becoming synonymous. I have repeatedly reviewed his numerous publications on this topic, and done so for good reason. His research is thorough and his conclusions always add to our understanding as to why and how the Red Army defeated this final truly large scale German offensive (codenamed Operation Citadel) in the war it fought against the Soviet Union.
The Planning and Preparations for the Battle of...
Review Type: Book
Volume I: The Normandy Bridgehead Battles 7-11 June 1944, Arthur W. Gullachsen, Casemate Publishers, 2024, $37.95, 288 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 3 2025 - 1:50pm
Readers of this website may recognize the name Gullachsen. I previously recommended his two-volume set on the I. SS PanzerKorps Defense of the Verrieres and Bourguebus ridges during the Normandy Campaign that kicked off with the Allied D-Day invasion of 6 June, 1944. The Defeat and Attrition Of The 12. SS-PanzerDivision HitlerJugend is meant to be the first of two new books further exploring the armor-heavy battles on the eastern end of the Allied lodgement in Normany. The focus here is...
Review Type: Book
An Incomplete Truth, Boris Sokolov, Pen and Sword Books, 2024, $42.95, 224 pages
Steve Mercatante
on May 9 2025 - 4:52pm
Operation Bagration, An Incomplete Truth offers an in-depth and fresh take regarding how the Red Army finally defeated Germany's Army Group Center after almost a year of failed prior attempts. Boris Sokolov (through this English language translation by Richard W. Harrison) performs a valuable service with this publication, and does so for several reasons.
Since the Second World War ended a plethora of former German officers have published countless works that, taken together, have helped shape...
Review Type: Book
Volume 1: Guadalcanal August-September 1942, Michael Claringbould and Peter Ingman, Avonmore Books, 2023, $48.95, 248 pages, and Volume 2: Guadalcanal & Santa Cruz October 1942, Michael Claringbould and Peter Ingman, Avonmore Books, 2024, $48.95, 192 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Dec 17 2024 - 9:52pm
This review covers volumes 1 and 2 of the Solomons Air War series by Michael Claringbould and Peter Ingman. Combined, both volumes offer a superbly detailed and richly illustrated look at the pivotal campaign in the air that defined the turning of the tide in the epic 1941-1945 war in the Pacific. This review will take each volume in turn.
Volume 1 of Solomons Air War focuses upon the aerial warfare in the August-September 1942 period of the war in the Solomons Islands theater, as well as...
Review Type: Book
Operation 'Perch': The Complete Account, Daniel Taylor, After the Battle (Pen & Sword Books Ltd.), 2023, $62.95, 160 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Aug 9 2024 - 4:12pm
Few clashes of armor occuring in history have built up a mythology such as that surrounding what happened at Villers-Bocage following the June 1944 Allied invasion of France (Operation Overlord). If one were looking to understand this battle, what really happened, and how it all unfolded in the most accurate detail the general reader has access to today - then this is the book for you. Packed with illustrations, maps, pictures, orders of battle, and more - this is today's essential look at how...
Review Type: Book
The City That Defeated The Third Reich, Jochen Hellbeck, Public Affairs, 2016, $25.99 (softcover), 512 pages
Steve Mercatante
on Jul 22 2024 - 5:00pm
The July 1942 to February 1943 events in and around Stalingrad may have decided the outcome of the Second World War. Accounts from the perspective of German combatants are many and varied (as shown by my April book review). Not so much so from the Soviet side. If this book were merely after-the-battle memoirs it would be valuable. However, the nature of the accounts discovered by author Jochen Hellbeck are extroardinary, and this book is more than worth your time if you have any interest in at...
Review Type: Book
