I.S.O. Playfair and the "Official History" series

[Prince of Eckmühl]

I must have read a dozen books about the North African and Italian campaigns in the last year. In perusing the volumes, I'm constantly coming across references to Playfair and/or the British "Official History" series of books that was published after the war.

I can buy volumes 1-4 from Amazon, and am considering doing so.

Are any of our readers familiar enough with Playfair's work to make useful comment on the pros and cons of owning a set (apart from the cost)?

[JeffroK]

Its an excellent work, but written in the time and from the view of the British.
Provides a lot of detail not covered very well elsewhere.

I would suggest doublechecking it against the Australian & new Zealand Histories available online, plus the Indian and Sth African histories which are slowly being digitized. (Hyperwar)

[wodin]

I agree with jeffK. As with most works written during or not long after the War they usually are very biased and are riddled with misconceptions and inaccuracies. Though this doesn't make them invalid as they are also full of information that more recent books haven't covered.

I'd say get them. A great addition to any Military History collection.

[Prince of Eckmühl]

ORIGINAL: JeffK

I would suggest doublechecking it against the Australian & new Zealand Histories available online, plus the Indian and Sth African histories which are slowly being digitized. (Hyperwar)

The AWM and NZETC sites have excellent resources for anyone who's interested, as does the USA in the form of it's downloadable Green Book PDF collection. I hadn't thought about the Playfair volumes in that light, but for some reason or other, the UK is a little spare in sharing it's official histories, at least the ones that were originally printed by His Majesty's Stationery Office! I guess I'll go ahead and order them. The four volumes run about 2500 pages in total, I believe. When you look at what we pay for wargames, the books are bound to be a bargain.

Thank you both for your comments.