Search Results: Military History from Christison Rare Books, IOBA SABDA

(no place: publisher not stated, 1990). 210 x 148 mm; saddle-stitched pale blue card wrappers; pp. 22. Trace of fishmothing to wrappers. Good condition. Programme for the fiftieth anniversary luncheon of the South African Defence Force's Second Anti-Aircraft Regiment (earlier named the Second Anti-Aircraft Brigade), established in 1940. "There was a wonderful response to the request for anecdotes. ... A selection has been made to cover four periods: Early Days, East Africa, North Africa and PoW Camps." Despite the bilingual title, the booklet is entirely in English, with the exception of a song relating to the campaign in Abyssinia ("Daar vlieg 'n bommer oor Selassie se land ..."). .

---. Sepiatone photograph of a distinguished gentleman in coat, with cane in right hand and top-hat inverted on table beside him. Photographed by W.C. Barker, Dublin. This portrait is evidently that of Sir William Howard Russell, 1820 - 1907, a British war correspondent who exposed the mismanagement of the Crimean War. Printed caption below, identifies the sitter. Margin of the paper mount slightly soiled and a little eroded. .

(Durban: Bok Books in collaboration with Blandford Press, 1987) 0947027564. 4to; original red boards, lettered in gilt on spine; laminated pictorial wrappers, housed in removable protector; endpaper map; pp. 176, incl. index; profusely illustrated. Dustwrapper a little sunned on spine panel; trace of spotting to top edge. Very good condition. "This book is the fourth in a series of illustrated narrative histories of the British Army's colonial campaigns in the last century. It seeks to outline, within the confines of one volume, Britain's attempts to deprive the Afrikaners of the independence they had striven for since the seventeenth century, not only during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 but also in the earlier clashes between Briton and Boer since Britain acquired the Cape of Good Hope in the Napoleonic War." .

(Cape Town: Jeremy Spence, 1974). 4to; original brown boards; dustwrapper; endpaper map; pp. x + 371. Dustwrapper edgeworn and a bit sunned; boards somewhat mottled, with bump to top edge of upper board; foxing and browning throughout. Good. "Mr. Morris' section on the dreadfully sad effects of the wars on the fabric of Portuguese family-life, alone, is an intensely moving masterpiece of emotional analysis and reportage, while his careful examinations of problems of terminology, the many pitfalls of anti-terrorist countermeasures, misuse of propaganda materials, and media and official responses to the balancing of security requirements and public information requirements, are highly illuminating and penetrating." .

(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987) 0297790420. 8vo; original dark brown boards, lettered in gilt on spine; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; pp. xiii + (i) + 289, incl. index; plates; maps. Dustwrapper slightly sunned on spine panel. Very good condition. "The Banner of Battle is the first comprehensive interpretation of the subject stressing the European and Baltic angles, and so bringing the Crimean War clearly and astutely into focus." .

(New York, Harper & Brothers, 1913). 8vo; original blue cloth gilt; pp. (x) + 463, incl. index; monochrome plates; maps and battle plans, incl. some folding. Cover very worn; hinges splitting, with old cloth tape repairs; ownership inscription on flyleaf; sporadic foxing. Fair condition only. .

(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965). 8vo; original red cloth, lettered in gilt on spine; no dustwrapper; tinted top edge; pp. ix + (i) + 164, incl. index; several plates; seven maps. Spine very slightly cocked; light soiling to cloth; small pen mark to front free endpaper; a little foxing. Good condition. A volume in the 'Great Battles of History' series. "It is indicative of the interlocking vagaries of modern global strategy that Britain waged this battle for survival, the gravest in her history, with her main land force at that time in the field, three thousand miles from the mother country, in the empty desert of North Africa." .

(London: Collins, 1941). Small 4to; original buff-coloured cloth, with dark brown emblem and lettering to upper cover; pictorial endpapers; pp. 72; monochrome illustrations in text; some full-page colour illustrations. Regular, light browning; occasional fox spot. Very good condition. Popular wartime overview of all aspects of the British Army, dealing with everything from the Royal Tank Regiment to Mascots and Military Music. .

(London: Jonathan Cape, 1954). 8vo; original burgundy boards; dustwrapper; tinted top edge; pp. 222; map. Dustwrapper tanned, a little foxed and slightly edgeworn; gift inscription to front free endpaper; scattered light. Good condition. "The Rev. James Chutter, senior chaplain with the South African 2nd Division, gives an eye-witness account of 'what happened at Tobruk' - the fighting which led to the surrender of that place to Rommel in June 1942 and the conditions there later under heavy bombing by the R.A.F. He was later moved to Italy and remained a prisoner of war first in Italian and then in German hands - at Moosburg, then in the Sudetenland, then in Brunswick - until he was liberated by the advancing Allies." .

(Hannover, printed by Werner Degener, 1946). Small quarto, original black cloth with gilt boar on upper board, worn, with lettering on spine rubbed, pp. 189, folding maps, a few carelessly folded, with consequent slight creasing or fraying of edges, slight rippling in the text. Fair condition. .

(London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1954). 8vo; original red boards; dustwrapper; tinted top edge; pp. xii + 232, incl. index; plates. Dustwrapper rubbed, very slightly edgeworn, and sunned on spine panel; spine somewhat cocked; earlier owner's name on front pastedown; scattered, moderate foxing. Good. 'When Otto Skorzeny snatched Mussolini from an "impenetrable" mountain prison, he astounded the world - and gave a striking demonstration of the new warfare beyond the barrack-square, the beflagged lines of battle, beyond even the "rules of war."' .

(London, Ian Allan, 1973). 8vo; original red cloth; no dustwrapper; pp. 184, incl. index; monochrome plates; maps. Cover a little sunned. Very good condition. "This book is not a history of the American Civil War: it is a description of the armies of both sides; giving their equipment, their organisation, and their methods of fighting, illustrated by examples from battles and campaigns." .

(London: Jonathan Cape, 1964). 228 x 342 mm; printed green folder housing fifteen facsimiles, maps and information sheets relating to the Crimean War; accompanying summary of contents, set of questions and reading list. Folder a little browned and worn; some fox spots and trace of silverfish attention. Good condition. Missing the broadsheet 'Florence Nightingale'. .

(Pretoria: State Printer, 1989). Quarto, original green cloth, pp. xii + 277, a few plates, tables. Owner's name on the half-title-page, small impressions on the endpapers, otherwise fine condition. .

(Pretoria: Staatsdrukker, 1993). 4to; original green cloth; pp. xiv + 301. Small stain to front endpapers. Near fine condition. History of the defence of the Cape colony from 1872 to 1882. .

(Johannesburg: Voortrekkerpers, 1942). Squarish 8vo; original red cloth, lettered in black on spine and upper cover; pp. 312, incl. index. Ex-library copy, with code to tail of spine, also elsewhere; label or pocket scar to front pastedown, stamps and codes elsewhere; joints and extremities rather rubbed; occasional fox spot. Fair condition. (Nienaber I, p. 330) Uncommon: OCLC finds only the British Library copy. "Toe ek 'n rukkie gelede die lewe van Genl. Beyers beskryf het, het die tydperk van die Rebellie my heelwat moeite verskaf, aangesien nog geen omvattende werk oor hierdie gebeurtenis bestaan nie. Ek kon stukkies en brokkies uit verskillende boeke kry en uit die blouboeke wat na afloop van die Rebellie deur die regering gepubliseer is, kon ek die vernaamste feite kry, maar dit was alles so obevredigend. Ek het toe maar besluit om self 'n werkie oor die Rebellie te skryf." .

(Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2012) 9781770224285. 230 x 150 mm; laminated pictorial wrappers; pp. xv + (v) + 266, incl. index; maps; plates. Fine condition. "On 23 November 1977, an armada of helicopters and aeroplanes took off from Rhodesian airbases and crossed the border into Mozambique. Their objective: to attack the headquarters of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, where thousands of enemy forces were concentrated. Codenamed Operation Dingo, the raid was planned to coincide with a meeting of Robert Mugabe and his war council at the targeted HQ. It would be the biggest conflict of the Rhodesian Bush War. In this fascinating account, Ian Pringle describes the political and military backdrop leading up to the operation, and he tells the story of the battle through the eyes of the key personalities who planned, led and participated in it. Using his own experience as a jet and helicopter pilot and skydiver, he recreates the battle in detail, explaining the performance of men and machines… Read More

(Durban: Durban Light Infantry, 1979). 210 x 297 mm; saddle-stitched pictorial wrappers; unpaginated (but pp. 12, excluding cover); three actual commemorative programmes mounted within, with accompanying text alongside; some illustrations; short history of the regiment; roll of honour for wars from the Anglo-Boer War to South Africa's border war. Foxed and a little curled. Loosely inserted are several items relating to the Durban Light Infantry, including correspondence from the Col. Cyril Metcalfe, two programmes from Metcalfe's 80th birthday celebration (the cover of which is a Leyden cartoon showing the colonel, in a tank, bearing down on Father Time, and one of which is signed by several regimental luminaries), programmes from the 1989 Officers' Mess Dinner and the Presentation of the National Colour to the regiment in the same year, plus several issues of the DLI Flash newsletter, etc. .

(Durban: The Headquarter Board of the Durban Light Infantry in co-operation with the Regimental Association, 1969). 2 quarto volumes; original blue cloth; dustwrappers with earlier owner's additional adhesive lamination, adhering to boards; pp. xx + 368, xxii + 487; photographic plates; maps, incl. some folding. Dustwrappers somewhat worn and tanned; earlier owner's hand-stamp to front free endpaper in each case; scattered, moderate foxing. Good condition. "In its long and notable career, the Regiment has not only been involved outside South Africa in two world cataclysms; it has been involved also in some of the major events in the country's internal history. Colonel Martin's account of the Bambata Rebellion and of the Rand Revolt (to name only two instances) has much to interest the general student of the history of South Africa." Volume 1 covers the years 1854 to 1934, and the second volume is concerned with 1935 to 1960. .

(Cape Town: Purnell, 1974) 360001963. Volume IV in the series 'South African Forces World War II'. 8vo; original blue boards, lettered in gilt on spine; pictorial dustwrapper; pp. xii + (ii) + 448, incl. index; plates; maps. Dustwrapper a bit creased and edgeworn, with archival tape repairs to reverse of tear at head of spine panel; bump to bottom fore-corner of upper board; some light foxing to edges and rear endpaper, occasional fox spot elsewhere. Good condition. "James Ambrose Brown's Eagles Strike is practically a blow-by-blow account of the air and land battles fought in North Africa between 1941 and 1943. It shows the South African Air Force in action with the famous Desert Air Force of which it was a vital part. Here for the first time the reader will find a narrative of every great land battle of that period - the saga of retreat and advance over a thousand miles of desert - with, for the first time, the part of the air forces related to the total strategy. Here is the… Read More