The 79-ers Reading Club - Part Two

Five more books to read. The first one is great background and the collection of four volumes has tons of great photos to inspire your figure and vehicle collections and  wargame board set ups for urban and rural guerilla actions.

Stanhope, Henry. The Soldiers- An Anatomy of the British Army.  

Hamish Hamilton Ltd, London, 1979.

A very interesting and informative book. It covers all aspects of army life in the late 1970s. It has sections on Organisation, Deployment, The Regiments and Military Society. The problems of the army are discussed too, from TAVR recruitment and promotion to army wives and housing issues.  This gave me  some good ideas as to why army units may become disaffected and liable to join different sides in the Winter of ‘79.

Barzilay, David. The British Army in Ulster. Four volumes.

Century Books, Belfast, 1977-1981 .

This book is largely a day-by-day history of the Troubles and also has sections on equipment, operations, The IRA and some individual Regimental experiences of their tours in Ulster. It has a lot of great photos of the sorts of military deployments we would see in a ‘Winter of ‘79’ Britain.

Volume One deals with 1969-73,Volume Two with 1974-5, Volume Three with 1976-7 and Volume Four with 1978-80 (this last volume is rare and expensive).

A Soundtrack of Resistance - Part One

As 1978 lumbered into 1979, "YMCA" by the Village People took the number one single spot from the Christmas hit,  "Mary's Boy Child" by Boney M. 

In the album chart, "Grease" was ousted by Shawaddywaddy's "Greatest Hits"  album.

As ever, the mainstream music charts ignored the building resentment in the country. On the streets and in their bedrooms, the yooff of Britain were listening to songs that gave vent to their feelings.

The first three songs for 'A Soundtrack of Resistance'  have served as the inspiration  for the titles of the background, my blog and the main rule set.

(1)  "Winter of '79" 

by The Tom Robinson Band (TRB)

(2)  "Power in the Darkness"   

by The Tom Robinson Band (TRB)

 These two tracks come from"Power in the Darkness",the debut studio album by the Tom Robinson Band, first released in early 1978. The album reached number 4 in June 1978 spending 11 weeks in top 40.  Neither of the above tracks was released as a single.

(3)  "Living on the Frontline"

by Eddy Grant.

This single reached as far as no.11 on 2/6/79 (co-incidentally my 17th birthday😃 ) and had 7 weeks in the top 40.

So Pop-pickers, coming up in Part Two:  

The Clash, Elvis Costello and The Ruts.

A Post with Posters (& Road Signs).

I have made several road signs(many copied from Northern Ireland photos) which I want to use in my Winter of '79 campaign. I have added some posters and notices that I have produced for plastering on walls and some period film and advertising posters too.

As they might be useful to other players, I have put them in a pdf so you can copy & paste them (and size them) to use in your streets. The file is here

. 

The 79-ers Reading Club - Part One.

I’m always looking for sources of information, photos and ideas to add more to my wargames campaigns.

Although there is a fairly large amount on the internet about the time around 1979, it is not considered of

 major historical interest. Apart from the ‘Winter of Discontent’ and the rise of Margaret Thatcher, the 

topics online are a bit limited. The best sources I have found are in books of the period. Fortunately, they 

are a bit obscure to the general book-buying public and can be found quite cheap. 

So here are some of the books in my Winter of ‘79 library that I think other players will useful. None of 

these are in print any more but I picked my copies up at charity shops, second-hand bookshops and 

militaria fairs for a few quid each. Of course, you can go all modern and search for them online.

Gander, Terry.  Encyclopaedia of the Modern British Army. Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge, 1980.

An excellent book packed with useful information and photos about all branches of the army and their 

equipment in this period. It also covers the organisation and uniforms. There are many 1/76 scale plans of

 the vehicles and artillery which are handy for modellers. In my opinion, this is, by far, the best source 

book I have found for the army in my campaign.

Beaver, Paul. Encyclopaedia of the Modern Royal Navy. (including the Fleet Air Arm and Royal 

Marines). Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge, 1982.

This fine book is similar to the army one and lists pretty much every ship in the RN at the time. It also has 

a really good section on RM kit especially some of their more specialised equipment for amphibious 

operations. 

Gander, Terry.  Encyclopaedia of the Modern Royal Air Force. Book Club Associates by arrangement 

with Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge, 1984.

Another great book in the series and very handy for me as there are so many RAF bases in the East 

Midlands. Even though it was written only a few years later, there are several things which were

 introduced after 1979. For instance, the RAF Regiment had only just started to acquire its light tanks and 

Spartan APCs in 1980, in ‘79 they were still carrying out their longer range area patrols in unarmoured 

landrovers. Also Tornados were undergoing trials and hadn’t been deployed yet. 

The next three books are very much ‘coffee table' books with less information than the encyclo-paedia series above. That said, they are full of clear photos of vehicles, ships, planes and weaponry. Many of these are in colour and they make this range of books another really useful resource

for your Winter of ‘79 campaign.

Rogers, Colonel H.C.B. The British Army Today and Tomorrow. Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton, 1979.

Hill, Rear Admiral J.R. The Royal Navy Today and Tomorrow. Book Club Associates by arrangement

with Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton, 1981.

Mason, Group Captain R.A. The Royal Air Force Today and Tomorrow. Book Club Associates by 

arrangement with Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton, 1982.