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Post Info TOPIC: Another new book on British Army trucks of WW1?
Great War Truck


Brigadier

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Another new book on British Army trucks of WW1?
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I have been writing magazine articles on WW1 army trucks for the last six years and i now have an opportunity to do a book. The current plan is for it to be hardback, A4 size, 200 pages long, have about 20 pages of text,and 360 photographs of WW1 trucks in British army service.

My question to you (hopefully as a representative sample of potential buyers) is what would you like to see in it? I dont want to cover anything that anybody else has already done (so i dont plan on covering the history of the ASC) and i dont want to make it too technical, but it must be interesting and readable. Although i was planning on just 20 pages of text every photograph will have a long caption and all but a very few of the photographs will come from my own collection. I wasnt planning on covering staff cars and motorcycles as that is not really my area, just the trucks.

So, i am looking for some ideas for chapters. Any thoughts please gentlemen?

Another question is, how many photographs of the same type of truck are acceptable? For example i have over 100 photos of Peerless trucks, but how many of a GS Peerless could i use before you begin to fall sleep. Obviously i would want to use ones which were different in some way such as markings, battle damage, location or angle of shot but even you hardened enthusiasts may begin to lose some enthusiasm on looking at picture after picture of the same type of truck. I had about 4 or 5 in mind, but always open to suggestions.

Thanks

Tim

 

 



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baldwin


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Brilliant,this is going to be so good.



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Barry John
Kaiser


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I like it when a book on vehicles are both interesting to read, and useful as a guide and inspiration for modelling the subjects.

So a bit of technical details, preferably in some sort of context that gives you an idea of what technical solution X or capability Y meant for the use of the trucks.

A bit of history on the vehicles: When and where were they used? Did they have some noticeable impact on Operation X or did they make daily life on the roads easier, harder, a bit of both?

Finally I like some personal accounts and anecdotes from the people who used the vehicles themselves. What were they like to drive, repair and maintain? A funny anecdote related to the vehicle?

And last but not least, I like it when there's enough pictures of a vehicle so that you can pretty comfortably detail your own model to a decent standard, using the pictures for reference, but not enough to make it a Squadron/Signal walk-around type of book. So it's difficult to say just how many pictures one would need for each vehicle, based on that requirement. Sometimes two pictures are enough, sometimes you need 20. It all depends on how complex the vehicle is, and how good quality the photos are. A pic or two of the vehicle in an interesting/unusual situation can be inspiring as well.

A note on how the vehicles were painted/camouflaged would be nice as well.

All this is ofcourse the ideal vehicle book for me. There are a few like them out there (most of which have found their way into my book shelves), but most are not. Yet they can still be very good, and worth buying, without fulfilling all my wishes. smile



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Rob


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Kaiser sums it up for me - apart from books covering wide subjects ie the Vanderveen covering 1900-39 all nations an the similar Blandford Press one, has there been anything at all on British softskins?! A very much needed book and very excited about this

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Rathgeb


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I would be very interested.

About 10 photos per truck would be ok for me without getting bored.

Of special interest for me, personally, would be informations on exported vehicles, i.e. in foreign service.

Cheers,
Peter

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alfisherjr


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Sounds terrific!  I hope that you would include 3-view drawings and dimensions.  If available, representative WD registration numbers would nice nice for those who wish to model them.  Oh yes . . . color guides and special insignia as well!

Your articles sound interesting . . . how may I access them on the web?

Good luck with your writing!

Bosun Al



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PDA


Legend

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Tim, I liked the format of your magazine articles - at least, the ones I saw. If you just collected them all together I'd be happy.

But, to be more helpful, I agree mostly with what everybody has said here. I'd like to see the Ford Model T included, or just the "light truck" versions if you don't want to include cars. I'm not too fussed about scaled plans, but some dimensions such as length, width, track, and wheelbase alongside your photos would be good. Perhaps a "survivors" section giving details of vehicles we can see and visit, or a "this lorry can usually be found at the Great Wallop Steam Rally every April" sort of thing.

HTH



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PDA


Legend

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Oh, and could you include at least one steam powered lorry:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlscotland/4699574679/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlscotland/4699309769/in/photostream

 



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Paul Bonnett


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Hi Tim,
How many articles, in total, have you written ? Can you break the Chapters into,say, Light ,Medium and Heavy. Then a chapter on Specialist Uses -ie- Breakdown,Ack Ack, Ambulance etc etc. Followed by one on colours and markings etc Then a Chapter on Technical information ! All broken down with pictures of the various types/manufacturers etc. I was looking at the current magazine article about the Macks and thought scale drawings would be nice but then its not a modelling magazine !!! Just my thoughts
Paul

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Kaiser


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PDA wrote:

Oh, and could you include at least one steam powered lorry

 Seconded!



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Tank


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sounds good cant wait to buy hope we all get first dibs, smile



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Great War Truck


Brigadier

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Thanks for your input chaps. You have given me a new dose of motivation to get on with it.

The main problem I have is what to leave out. I dont have enough photographs of ambulances, or motorcycles to make it comprehensive so as a result I wont include them. I do have enough staff cars, but if I am leaving out ambulances and motorcycles then including staff cars would be a bit strange so they will be out as well making it just trucks.

You have all come up with some good ideas so I will respond to them one by one:

Personal accounts/anecdotes. Good idea, I will certainly do that. Also I have hands on experience and observations of our own trucks so I will certainly include those.

Technical details and history. I will include those within the captions and at the start of each chapter.

Paint, camouflage, markings. The paint is not too much of a problem, camouflage might be and markings will have a chapter on its own.

Exported vehicles in foreign service. I dont think I have enough photos of this to make it work, but I will give it some thought.

Drawings and plans. Sadly, I dont think I will be able to do this although I will try and include dimensions.

Survivors. I will think about this.

Steam Lorrys. Yes, definitely.

 I am concerned about the chapters but I hope that will fall into place sooner or later. Something else that troubles me is that there will be omissions. Every now and again I come across another really obscure vehicle used by the WD of which original photos dont seem to survive. It may well be that there are omissions, but I certainly hope to cover 99% of all the trucks used by the WD. On the other side of the coin I do have some unusual truck photos which I have not been able to identify. Would photographs of trucks which are unidentified detract from the book as a whole?

Thanks for your ideas.

I have just done a quick check on articles published in Military Machines International and came up with 34 which is a lot more than I ever thought I had done.

Due to copyright issues these can not be published online. I am working for a business which sells magazines and they wont be impressed if I gave scanned copies away, so please dont ask me. You should be able to buy most of these from their website and they do turn up on E-bay or militaria shows for not much money. I have given the dates when I think they were published but you might want to double check.

http://www.militarymachinesintl.com/issues.asp

Autocar                                                            ? 2006 or 2007

Liberty                                                             ? 2006 or 2007

Peerless                                                            April 2007

Nash Quad                                                       July 2007

Pierce Arrow                                                    October 2007

Mexico                                                March 2008

Holt                                                                  June 2008

Albion                                                              Oct 2008

Thornycroft                                                      Feb 2009

Leyland                                                            April 2009

Wells at war                                                     June 2009                   

Daimler                                                            September 2009.

US army surplus trucks                         January 2010.

FWD P1                                                      February 2010.

FWD P2                                                          March 2010.

Locomobile                                                      April 2010.

Borrowed trucks in US service            May 2010.

AEC                                                                August 2010.   

US reconstruction parks                                   October 2010.

Packard                                                       November 2010

Crossley                                                           January 2011.

US transcontinental expedition Pt 1                   March 2011.

US transcontinental expedition Pt 2                   April 2011.

Captured German trucks                                   May 2011.

Dennis                                                              July 2011

Brighton 2011                                                  August 2011.

Workshop lorry                                                October 2011.

WD AA gun lorry                                             December 2011.

Watery Grave   (FWDs off the coast of Hawaii)           January 2012.

Heavy repair shops                                           February 2012.

WD steam traction engines                                May 2012.

Learner driver                                                   July 2012.

Rolls Royce (between 2 World Wars)   August 2012.

Trucks of the Cologne occupation                     September 2012

Water tankers   and water purifiers                    November 2012.

Karrier                                                             January 2012.

Mack                                                               Feb 2012

White                           To be published

Bussing                         To be published

Thanks for all of your interest.

Tim



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Paul Bonnett


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Thanks for the list of articles Tim. Would you mind if I asked when you propose to publish your book ?
Paul

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gemsco


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Do you have an editor yet ?

I know one in my country

gemsco

 



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vintary


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I always look forward to your articles, I find them of great interest and I am looking forward to the book (well done).

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Great War Truck


Brigadier

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Thanks again. I hope to finish the book by the end of this year (which does not actually seem very far away now). I have a publisher all lined up so if he is happy with it then it should be out in Spring 2014 (he says optimistically).

Tim

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Paul Bonnett


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Look forward to its release Tim.

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alfisherjr


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Tim . . . I have plan views and side elevations for the chassies (i.e., without cab or box) of many American trucks from the 1920 Power Wagon Reference Book downloaded from Google Books.  Should you want any of them (either in the original blueprint format or changed to B&W and sharpened via PhotoShop) please let me know.  Included are Peerless, Atterbury, Garford, Kelly Springfield, Nash, and Mack plus many other.

Have greatly enjoyed reading those articles of yours that I've been able to find.  Is it possible that your publisher would let you put out-of-print articles in Landship as an advertising gimmick.

On another tack, I should think that photos of truck emblems and identifying features such as radiators and unique cabs would be most helpful.

 

Al Fisher aka Bosun Al



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CharlieC


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Another source of this book is: http://www.clpdigital.org/jspui/handle/10493/668 - allows direct download without jumping through Google's hoops.

Regards,

Charlie



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gemsco


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The Belgian army did order several British and American trucks during WWI. I'd like to know more about them.

Amongst the British trucks of WWI, I remember especially Lacre trucks (body built by not less than Van den Plas themselves) and Deasy ambulance.

Amongst the American trucks, there was the Kelly Springfield.

I suppose that you ha

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gemsco


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I suppose that you have an Editor for that super work. Otherwise, I know one that can edit it for free : myself !.
Gemsco , Chairman of the Belgian "Editions du Patrimoine militaire."

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Great War Truck


Brigadier

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Thanks for your suggestions guys. The plan is for it to be almost entirely photographs with in depth captions, so although i like the idea of the drawings I just wont have room for them. I have got a publisher who is pushing me to write and it all looks to be very positive. if it does not work out then i will certainly consider any alternatives. I do need to pull my finger out though and get on with it as it is taking longer than i initially planned.

I will have a chat with the editor of the articles and will see what can be done with those.
Thanks for your continued interest.

Tim

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Albert


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Tim's book coming soon! http://www.tankograd.com/cms/website.php?id=/en/British-Military-Trucks-of-World-War-One.htm



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Rob


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Superb, can't wait!

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Great War Truck


Brigadier

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I have come home to find my copy waiting for me. Not had time to read it yet, but a quick look through the pages and I am very pleased with the end result. 200 pages and 396 photos most of which come from my own collection.
I would be very interested in hearing any opinions or views from other forum members.
Thanks
Tim

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Rob


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Really looking forward to purchasing a copy and receiving it, will likely have to wait until later in the month though

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Albert


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Waiting for it to appear at eBay - then I'll buy it smile



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