It has only taken me a decade to complete this book. It gives actual examples of games played during World War II, a war in which wargaming was just seen as another tool for training and operation planning.
The games played just before and during World War II mattered. As a result of those wargames, battles were fought, campaigns were launched; lives were lost, lives were saved. An overview of such games has been covered in the literature before. This book is different as it aims to examine the detail of these wargames by including primary material; extracts from source documents, wargaming rules and umpiring guides from the pre-war period until 1945.
Included are detailed guidelines on the German use of wargaming during the war based on post war analysis by the American military. This includes outlines of best practise and the value of these games.
Samples of the German map based tactical exercises set at platoon and company level.
An example of a British attack on a village.
British and American umpire manuals with rules for arbitrating field exercises, sand table and map wargames.
A Royal Navy carrier wargame: Find Fix and Strike (1944).
I did a talk and uploaded it to YouTube History Wargaming Book Channel
