New books from After the Battle

[mars]

I have a great news, it looks like After Battle would continue publishing new then and now books after it was bought by Pen & Sword, here is a few:


Operation 'Dragoon' and Beyond: Then and Now (Then & Now) by none other than Jean Paul Pallud
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/13...KIKX0DER&psc=1


Operation 'Dragoon' and Beyond: Then and Now (Then & Now) by none other than Jean Paul Pallud
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/13...KIKX0DER&psc=1

The Battle of Stalingrad: Then and Now (Then & Now) by Karel Margry
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/13...KIKX0DER&psc=1

The Siegfried Line: Then and Now (Then & Now) by Daniel Taylor
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/13...KIKX0DER&psc=1


The Red Army Towards the Oder: Then and Now (Then & Now) by Daniel Taylor
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/13...KIKX0DER&psc=1

[Edward]

This is great news.

Pallud first wrote about "Operation Dragoon" in ATB 110 (2000)

After The Battle no. 110 (2000)
"THE RIVIERA LANDINGS - Operation 'Dragoon' "
D-Day in the south of France in August 1944 is described in detail by Jean Paul Pallud, including the drive to the north.

Operation 'Dragoon' and Beyond: Then and Now
(Pen and Sword - 13 November 2023)
by Jean Paul Pallud
224 pages - hardcover

"From the Riviera, to the Rhine and on to the Colmar pocket, all three operations are covered in this volume by Jean Paul Pallud, and each show the action and locations in our unique ‘then and now’ style.

The project of a landing operation in southern France was debated between American and British Allies from mid-1943, the Americans favoring the idea, the British expressing doubts on the value of such an operation. The Russians intervened in November when, at the ‘Eureka’ conference at Teheran Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet state, declared he was much interested in an operation in southern France. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to launch Operation ‘Anvil’ in southern France at the same time as Operation 'Overlord', the Normandy landings.

Convinced that the Allied forces in the Mediterranean would better be used in the Italian campaign, Churchill appealed directly to Roosevelt in June to cancel 'Anvil' but Roosevelt answered that he was definitely for 'Anvil'. On July 2, the Combined Chiefs-of-Staff directed General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, the C-in-C Mediterranean Theater, to launch Operation 'Dragoon', a three-division assault against the coast of southern France by August 14.

Under the shield of a large naval task force the US VI Corps and French forces landed on the beaches of the Riviera on August 15. Opposition from scattered German forces was weak. As the swiftly defeated German forces withdrew to the north through the Rhône valley, pressed by the leaders of VI Corps, the French captured the ports of Marseille and Toulon, soon bringing them into operation. Troops from Operation 'Dragoon' met with the Allied units from Operation 'Overlord' on September 15. At the same time Headquarters of the US 6th Army Group, under Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, became operational taking command of the US Seventh Army and the French 1ère Armée.

The swift campaign soon came to a stop at the Vosges mountains, where Armeegruppe G was able to establish a stable defense line.

The leaders of the 6th Army Group reached the Rhine in mid-November but there would be no crossing. Eisenhower ordered Devers to use whatever force necessary to clear the area between the Vosges and the Rhine and to turn the Seventh Army north as quickly as possible, attacking west and east of the Low Vosges."

[Orwell1984]

The books are new but I'm not sure how much of the information is. What Pen and Sword seems to be doing is collecting articles from the ATB magazine together, repackaging them and selling them in book form.
This isn't clear in a lot of the descriptions but some of this new series do make it more apparent.

The Red Army Towards the Oder Then and Now
ttps://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Red-Army-Towards-the-Oder-Hardback/p/23666

contains:

Issue 188: The Battle for Festung Posen, 1945

Author: Tomasz Zgoda. 14,132 words, 40 Black and White and 40 Colour

illustrations. Story covers 26 pages of ATB magazine.

Issue 184: The Oder Bridgeheads, 1945

Author: Tomasz Zgoda. 11,032 words, 33 Black and White and 34 Colour

illustrations. Story covers 24 pages of ATB magazine.

Issue 192: The Battle of Festung Küstrin

Author: Tomasz Zgoda. 10,444 words, 22 Black and White and 23 Colour

illustrations. Story covers 16 pages of ATB magazine

Battles for the Channel Ports Le Havre and Boulogne Then and Now


https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Batt...rdback/p/23729


contains:

The book contains the following two stories from ATB magazine:

Issue 139: The Capture of Le Havre

Author: Karel Margry. 17,441 words, 76 black & white photos.

Issue 86: Operation ‘Wellhit’ – The Capture of Boulogne

Author: Ian Galbraith. 9,099 words,. 80 black & white photos

[mars]

Originally Posted by Orwell1984

The books are new but I'm not sure how much of the information is. What Pen and Sword seems to be doing is collecting articles from the ATB magazine together, repackaging them and selling them in book form.
This isn't clear in a lot of the descriptions but some of this new series do make it more apparent.

The Red Army Towards the Oder Then and Now
ttps://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Red-Army-Towards-the-Oder-Hardback/p/23666

contains:



Battles for the Channel Ports Le Havre and Boulogne Then and Now


https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Batt...rdback/p/23729


contains:

That is a disappointment since I have all issues of the after battle magazines, going through these titles, I find at least the following are not old articles from the magazines


The Siegfried Line: Then and Now
The Battle of Stalingrad: Then and Now
Operation 'Dragoon' and Beyond: Then and Now

[leonventer]

Thanks for the additional info, mars and Orwell1984 -- very useful to know!

I also have all the AtB magazines, so I'll pass on the Oder title, but I'll be getting the Stalingrad one.

FYI, Blackwell's (blackwells.co.uk) is currently offering it at a great pre-publication price.

Regards
Leon Venter

[Orwell1984]

Originally Posted by mars

That is a disappointment since I have all issues of the after battle magazines, going through these titles, I find at least the following are not old articles from the magazines


The Siegfried Line: Then and Now
The Battle of Stalingrad: Then and Now
Operation 'Dragoon' and Beyond: Then and Now

Not so sure about the Stalingrad one as it's edited and on Amazon the description contains the following:

This book brings together three After the Battle stories devoted to that historic struggle.

which leads me to believe three articles are being combined.
The Siegfried line one says it is edited by Daniel Taylor, not written by. Again this makes me think articles being pulled together.
That leaves Dragoon and, IIRC, Pallud did articles on that.


The Siege of Leningrad: Then and Now (Then & Now)due Oct 2023 says:

This book is from an article in issue 123 of After the Battle magazine, the joint authors were Karel Margry and Ron Hogg.

Nordhausen Concentration Camp: Then and Now (Then & Now) due Oct 2023 too states:

The book contains the following two stories from ATB magazine:

Issue 101: Nordhausen
Author: Karel Margry, 118 black and white photos.

Issue 111: The Gardelegen Massacre
Author: Karel Margry, 78 black and white photos.

so I think it's safe to conclude that all of these new releases will be repackaged articles.

[Jukka Juutinen]

Hmm. If the new Then & Nows are laid out like in the past, there must be new material since for example the page count for the Oder volume is 224 and the 3 mentioned articles total 66 pages.

[Bombphoon]

Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen

Hmm. If the new Then & Nows are laid out like in the past, there must be new material since for example the page count for the Oder volume is 224 and the 3 mentioned articles total 66 pages.

...or they have just still used the old material but laid out the photos and wording bigger.

[Bombphoon]

I emailed ATB to ask if these are just reheated/reformatted ATB articles and received no reply.

If so, I'll give them a miss as I have all the mags.

A pity, as ATB's new research and photos is what made the magazine so exemplary.