The 1970's saw the appearance of a different kind of book that enhanced the study of World War II campaigns and battles--the service handbook. Although far from numerous, such handbooks are a necessity to explain how the armed forces of different nations operated, information not readily available in the histories written in the immediate postwar era.

To help fill this information gap comes prolific author George Forty. A retired Royal Armoured Corps officer who joined the service in the waning days of World War II, Forty later became the director of Britain's Tank Museum, helping to make that institution a world class museum. Forty also penned more than 70 titles, including 1979's "U.S. Army Handbook", a comprehensive guide to the service that discussed its organization, equipment, training, and tactics. Nearly 20 years later Forty gives the same treatment to his former service in the "British Army Handbook".

Weighing in at 436 pages, the "British Army Handbook" begins with acknowledgements, three pages of abbreviations, and an introduction. The abbreviations pages are important as Forty uses them extensively to shorten the text as much as possible. Chapter 1 provides the historical background for the World War II British Army, while Chapter 2 speaks to the mobilization and training of the Army once war was declared. Chapter 3 begins the discussion of the organization of the Army at its higher levels (corps level and above), while Chapter 4 goes into the non-divisional units, headquarters, and staff. Chapter 5 describes the combat arms and provides some details of the very traditional and historic formations that make up the British Army, while Chatper 6 is about the supporting arms, such as the Royal Army Service Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, and so on.

Chapter 7 delves into divisional organizations, where Forty desribes combat formations and details of their organization at different times during the war. Chapter 8 talks about the British soldier: what he wore, his personal equipment, rank and insignia. Chapter 9 is all about weapons, vehicles, and equipment. Chapter 10 is a short discussion about tactics, while Chapter 11 is a treat for modelers in talking about vehicle markings, flag codes, and camouflage. The last chapter is about the role of women in the war, starting with the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and continuing with the other uniformed services that women could join.

The author provides six informative appendices. Appendix 1 provides a list of British divisions that served in the war along with a brief note of where they served. Appendix 2 is about military symbology used in British maps, while Appendix 3 provides formatted examples of appreciations of the situation and operation orders that were key to British Army command and control. Appendix 4 is a helpful but incomplete listing of the units that formed the all-British 21 Army Group in Northwest Europe at the end of the war, while Appendix 5 is a short discussion of the radio sets used by British forces during the war, again a key element of command and control. Finally, Appendix 6 is a brief section on key general officers and their wartime service.

I am a fan of these kinds of books as they allow anyone with no background in the subject to learn enough to make the reading of conventional military histories more understandable, as most historians decline to provide the kinds of details shown in the handbooks. The author must walk a fine line in writing these volumes--provide just enough detail without making the book too lengthy and complex. An illustration of that difficulty can be found in Chapter 7, where Forty works hard to provide the details of British Army divisional organization in the form of charts and tables that are difficult to understand but are necessary for their brevity.

Along with its companion volumes on the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, Forty's work is most useful to those looking to fill that gap in their knowledge of World War II military history, and would be a welcome addition to many libraries. ( )

Really all you need to know about the British Army in the Second World War ( )