Boot Sale Bargains - For a Change!

A couple of useful paperbacks for the collection - £1 each - and I may look to acquire hardback versions in due course. 

Yesterday, Laurel and I braved the cold wind and threat of rain to visit our local boot sale. We were both shivering in fairly short order and it appeared that a number of sellers were looking to head home for the same reason. Before Laurel had her surgery we usually did I one boot sale a year as sellers and one of worst Robles you can have in expect of weather (except for rain) is the wind as it can wreak havoc with any clothes rails or rickety table displays of one’s wares. Yesterdays we saw a couple of stalls were this has happened with the result that the sellers either gainfully put everything back as it was and soldiered on or decided that enough was enough and started to refill the car, van or whatever!

Anyways, we had a pretty good day acquiring bits and pieces - Laurel did especially well - and so the picture at the head of this post shows part of my haul, at least the part of the haul of interest that is!

Operation Market Garden is an old favourite of mine and I have gamed it many times over the years. It has never failed to disappoint in terms of dramatic actions and nail-biting finishes. Can the British hang on to Arnhem for long enough? Can the 82nd and 101st ‘grab the bridges with thunderclap surprise’? Are 30 Corps able to make the long drive in time? “What about the Germans!?” As a wise Polish commander once said. Somewhere on the project list is the intention to tackle the Memoir ‘44 scenario that covers the campaign again at some point. I may even moot it as a club game perhaps. 

Arnhem Black Tuesday (19th September 1944, two days after the start of Operation Market Garden) has been described as the day it all went wrong for the British Airborne. Al ‘The Pub Landlord’ Murray’s book traces the events of that critical day from the perspectives of the Bridge itself, Arnhem, Oosterbeek and the surrounding woods. I shall certainly enjoy reading this.

The second book by Nick Lloyd covers the Great War on the Eastern Front, a theatre of that global conflict I know little about so it will be a useful introduction. 

Both of these books cost me £1 each and whilst they are paperbacks they are in ‘only read the once’ condition. The Arnhem book I may try to source a hardback version in due course.

My pickings at boot sales this year have been rather slim so I am pleased to have at las bucked the trend of coming home empty handed!