Excellent picture book showing a wide variety of wrecked and abandoned aircraft, tanks, and ships from World War Two from all over the world. Not a lot of explanatory text unfortunately.

‘Abandoned World War II’ is a book for lovers of armchair travel and history


The Second World War truly lived up to its name, touching every corner of the world as is ably illustrated in the book Abandoned World War II Aircraft, Tanks & Warships by Chris McNab.

This fascinating coffee table book sits at the intersection of history and travel with an impressive collection of photographs of artifacts that litter the globe more than seven decades after the end of the the deadliest war in history.

Divided into geographical sections, the book collects photos from a variety of sources that show rusting tanks, crashed aircraft and sunken ships, but much more, including numerous fortifications and other historical remnants.

While the photos are the book’s biggest draw, the well researched captions are its best attribute, offering much needed context for many of the images, but also imparting interesting and lesser-known stories about the war in some of its most far-flung locales.

For me, the most interesting photos were the abandoned German submarine bases which were brutalist masterpieces before brutalism was a thing, but there were many other images which captivated me.

While the book seems comprehensive, the images chosen represent just a tiny portion of what travellers with a keen interest in the war’s history can discover. I can think of fortifications in Quebec’s Gaspé and at Cape Spear, Newfoundland that I have seen that could have been in the book, but aren’t, and the remains of a crashed Liberator bomber that rests on the top of a mountain in Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains as another example.

Abandoned World War II isn’t for everyone, but if you sit at the centre of the Venn diagram where history, architecture, treasure hunting, archeology, travel and photography overlap, then you’ve found your next read.

It is amazing the amount of World War 2 wreckage that is to be found around the world! From Germany to the South Pacific, the Arctic to the Sahara Desert, this book identifies many, many planes, ships, and tanks. Filled with amazing photographs, it is a treat for any history buff to enjoy!

Author Chris McNab published the book “Abandoned World War II Aircraft, Tanks and Warships” in 2021. He has published dozens of books on the military.

I categorize this book as ‘G’. The book contains over 200 photos with captions. The photos are of the current existing remains of WWII. Some photos are of fortifications. Other photos are of the remains of WWII aircraft, vehicles, and ships. Each chapter of the book is a different geographic region.

I enjoyed the 1.5+ hours I spent reading this 224-page WWII history. The book contains some very good photos. There were several fortifications shown that I had not heard of. Both Axis and Allied relics are depicted. It is amazing what can still be found if you are willing to work a little to get to it. I give this book a 4.4 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

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There have been a lot of books written about World War II and the equipment involved in it, but this book is probably one of the best ones that I have read concerning this subject matter. The author divided up the book by the different theatres of war and went into each theatre individually talking about what was used in general and what was unique about each area.
The photographs show and the book elaborates on how the environment and climate of the different arenas of war contributed or harmed the remains of the war.
There was a lot of focus on the primary theatres of World War II like Europe and parts of Asia, but remainders of the war are also present in places that one might not expect them to be. It is not just the remains of ships, tanks and planes that remain, it is also armaments and transports, army surplus that was dropped and other things that are not often thought about.
The focus on each theatre of was interesting because it brought forth the fact that there was really no place in the world that was not impacted by World War II. From Australia and New Zealand to South America and the islands of the Pacific - they all have remnants of the war with them.
The photographs that are in this book truly show how the different wrecks and abandoned items have remained or are in the process of disappearing into nature. If not reading this for the historical aspect of it, I would recommend this simply for the photographs involved as they truly demonstrate and showcase the history of them.

As a history nerd, I adored this book, and I will definitely be purchasing it for my own collection. I thought the photos were absolutely amazing, and they told such a story about the past. This book is the perfect fit for anyone interested in war history, or even just history in general.

A lovely book for the those interested in WWII or photography of historical items. I've been to some of the places featured that are museums or protected like, Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and the gunnery bunkers overlooking the beaches in Normandy, France. And I realized I've seen concrete pillars in waterways that I didn't realize were defenses against attack.

The photography is beautiful especially the underwater shots. And I am fascinated by a tanks and ammunition's left abandoned in fields. I also learned about places like a submarine tunnel in Croatia that tourists can swim through. The book is organized by land and sea areas and easy to navigate. This isn't the kind of book I would buy for myself but I would gladly check it out from a library or gift to a history buff. Thank you NetGalley and Amber Books for a temporary ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

It's hard to believe that photos of remnants from WWII can be beautiful - but they are, some are also eerie or haunting. It's also astonishing that so much is still littering our planet after all this time. Each photo comes with a brief description that is just enough to explain what we're seeing and allow us to research each object further if we wish to. Very impressive!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

What an outstanding collection of illustrations of the almost forgotten detritus of the Second World War! The author has brought together a quite eclectic mix of images from around the world that brings into focus so many issues relating to this global conflict. In the first place, this collection makes abundantly clear just how global this war was; it also reveals the seemingly profligate deployment of millions of dollars worth of war matériel to all theatres of war. From our current perspective in terms of elapsed time and - in many cases - physical distance from our relatively comfortable existence, it can be hard to comprehend the threat faced by totalitarian regimes in Germany and Japan and how great the effort that was made by the Allies to confront and face down this threat. This book helps to reinforce our understanding of the scale of this effort. What is less comfortable though, is the evidence it provides of the cavalier approach taken to the rehabilitation of the areas scarred by the necessary efforts to combat the Axis forces, particularly those more distant from supposedly civilised countries. Merely dumping the surplus matériel in the ocean or leaving it in situ to trust or decay seems shocking in the eyes of the more environmentally aware twenty first citizen.

I am enthralled with this book. I can't wait to buy it as gifts.
I was amazed at all the different weapons and vehicles laying around in various countries being slowly covered and absorbed by nature.

The photos are really breathtaking and tall the story with so few words necessary.

So many aspects of this book took me by surprise, so many things I had no idea were even made let alone still lurking around.
To find there are some of these beautiful relics still accessible to the public is mind blowing, as is seeing giant guns and military vehicles in places where people just live and work around them like any other monument or statue .
This wouldn't be my usual type of book but I was sold on the front cover alone. I'm glad beyond belief I had the opportunity to read it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

In Vietnam the other year, our guide round the Cu Chi tunnels was of the opinion America only entered that war because they had so much materiel left over from World War Two, and needed something else to produce to keep the military machine making money. The point being, war leaves things behind, and this high-class photo book proves that. This is the detritus not left in bunkers, storage and missile silos hoping to be of use, but the wreckage, the mistakes, the accidents and the "can't afford to clear up after ourselves" of WWII. It is also the bunkers and silos themselves, mind – while the subtitle suggests this is just the vehicles we also get the anti-landing, beach-interrupting concrete, anti-torpedo walls, and domes that acted almost as planetaria for trainee gunners to know their skyward trajectories.

Covering the globe and by that covering all forms of warfare, this book might leave you nonplussed as to its intended niche audience. If you're a fan of war materiel, would you not prefer to see a museum-spec article than a sheer wreck (the Welsh plane crash we get to early here so unrecognisable it's a wonder the caption knows what it is)? If you're a fan of the hubris of war, the Albanian bunker syndrome and so on, would you really relish the imagery of field guns and extinct plane engines? This isn't a book I'd ever buy for myself – I was here to appreciate the fact I could spend just an hour or so – the right amount of time for me – with such an esoteric subject. What I'm duty-bound to say it it's been really well produced, although the amount of pictures crossing the double-page spread did delay things considerably when looked at digitally. What I'm very pleased to say is that this, in its short pieces of introductory prose, is very sincere in remembering the wounds the live explosives and land mines still cause to this day, and very sincere in paying tribute to the bones and blood that remain the greatest thing the War ever left anywhere.

This book would be a wonderful gift for anyone who loves history and in particular World War II. With over 200 pages of photographs, this book shows the remnants of WWII that been abandoned in situ. Each photo is captioned with the location and the importance of the object/location. I was pleasantly surprised to find the book featured locations on every continent but Antarctica. I honestly did not know that Australia had fortifications built during WWII. My favorite things featured in the book were the German submarine base in France and the submarine tunnel in Croatia. I’m amazed at how much munition was just dumped into the ocean.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars - It was really good

This book is filled with over 200 pages of photographs of abandoned materials from WWII. The book is broken down by areas around the world and the abandoned materials you can find in those areas.

As someone who enjoys photography of abandoned places and things, this book was fascinating. It was a very different look at WWII and the impact it is still having on history today. When the war ended, thousands of materials were left behind to rot where they stood and now they stand as monuments to a huge piece of history. I enjoyed how this book was broken down by different areas of the world because it shows that every part of the world was touched by this war.

The photographs in this book were wonderful. It was fascinating looking at how time has impacted these items. I especially enjoyed the underwater photographs of ships and aircrafts. It was fascinating seeing how the ocean has reclaimed these vehicles and made new environments.

So If you are interested in history, photography, or military vehicles I highly recommend this book.