Buy the book Hamish Wilson The study of military history is a very real part of most gamers interested in the hobby of map board gaming and in this column I hope to pass on information about books - hard back or paper - which should be of interest to my fellow gamers. In general I intend to deal with books covering campaigns, weapons, strategy and tactics and the people involved with them. Might, men and materials will be the principal subjects of the books dealt with here. Sidgewick and Jackson have produced two very well illustrated books recently. The first is a popular history of the North African campaigns of the Second World War. Written by Warren Tute with a forward by Manfred Rommel it is very well pro vided with pictures. This period of W.W.II has been extensively covered not only in the broader aspects of the campaigns from O'Connor to Tunis but also in detail in several excellent volumes such as Barnett's "Desert Generals" or Michael Carver's studies of "Tobruk" and "El Alamein". What then is the significance of this new work ? The book is not in the strictest sense a military history but rather a piece of very high quality journalism which is able both to bring a feeling of the Desert War to life on the page and to act as an excellent popular history of the complete period. The great triumph lies however in the illustrations. Tute has raided the files of the Nazi propaganda magazine ''Signal'' and some British and American picture files to compile some of Ihe finest colour pictures of the North African battlefield I have ever seen. The black and white pictures will be very largely familiar to most but the colour. ..''The North African War" by Warren Tute with seven maps and umpteen photographs is published by Sidgewick and Jackson at œ6.50. From the same publisher comes one for the ''Frigate'' enthusiasts amongst us John Terraine is the author of "Trafalgar" and what a beautiful job he's done on it! After swiftly setting the political and strategic scene for us, introducing us to the principal protagonists and showing us the ships Mr. Terraine takes on the voyage which was to culminate in the battle whlch established tne might of the British Navy and Nation for the next century. The action is presented in magnificent detail. Not content with simple orders of battle or chronologies or texts Mr. T. gives us contemporary illustrations together with small detail maps of parts of the battle as they develop. Detailed comparisons of ships' logs are an extra joy for the nit-pickers and as a source of ''what if ....'' ideas the book is invaluable. It's not just full of information, it is also a beautiful book . Two paperbacks worth a mention. Penguin have published Arrians' "Campaigns of Alexander" in their Penguin Classics series at œ1.00. In a short foreward, the background for this work - written four hundred years after Alexander's death - is clearly established, and while the maps are small enough to be irritating, the feast of information here is worth a lot more than the seemingly high price of œ1.00 for a paper back. Only slightly cheaper is George Millars account of the famous Bruneval Raid now out in Pan Books. Once again this author, well known for his other military books: "Maquis" and "Horned Pigeon", keeps his story rattling along at a good pace. Thoroughly researched and most readable, despite short chapters, this book comes complete with illustrations and a rather inadequate map. Sornebody has to do a "Patrol" scenario on this one! "The Bruneval Raid" by George Millar, Pan Books at œO.75.