Generalstab des Heeres [German General Staff]: Einzelheiten und Technische Angaben englischen Befestigungen (Details and Technical Specifications of British Fortifications) , Berlin: [Department for War Maps and Surveying], August 1940.

11.5 x 8.5 inches, 30 x 21 cms, 70 printed photographs on 50 pages plus some line drawings. In nice overall condition in its original red wrappers with a Bundesarchive stamp on the front cover. As part of their plans in the late summer and autumn of 1940 for Unternehmen Seel”we (Operation Sealion), the invasion of Britain by large-scale troop landings along the South Coast, the German military High Command gathered together and published detailed information on various elements of Britain's defences and military capabilities. This copy was issued to 3 Kompanie, Panzer Abwehr Abteilung 22, an anti-tank unit, and carries their signed "Geheim" (Secret) acceptance acknowledgement. These military intelligence photographs - clearly obtained from a number of sources - are of coastal guns, light armoured vehicles, aerial photographs of harbour gun emplacements and flak batteries, line drawings of details of defence bunkers and pill-boxes. Two or three of the photographs show various defence works being inspected by Winston Churchill and other dignitaries and are most likely British press photographs being put by the Germans to uses for other than originally intended. This volume of photographs, Einzelheiten und Technische Angaben Englischen Befestigungen, is amongst the rarest of the German invasion plan published documents. No copy has been recorded as appearing for sale on the international marketplace for at least the last five years; no copy appears to be held by any major British or institutional library; in North America only the Library of Congress is recorded as holding a copy. (Price includes postage UK) (Book ref. as-1898)  £650.00

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