The Second World War prompted the recruitment and training of British soldiers on a scale never seen since. Physical training, sports, recreational games and bayonet fighting training all fell under the instruction of what became the Army Physical Training Corps in 1940, a unit that had already proved vital in creating and maintaining fitness and battle-readiness among recruits in the First World War.

Adam W. Culling, Curator of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps Museum, has collected here a number of training and equipment manuals, books and photographs. Together these provide an insight into how the physical training instructor kept the British soldier Fighting Fit.

• Published

  to coincide with the 75^th anniversary of the Second World War.

• Plenty

  of previous success with the ‘Manual’ format, using facsimile material with an

  author’s curatorial input

• Has

  breakout potential in the fitness area alongside its safe spots in the

  nostalgia and WW2 markets

• Author

  is the curator of Royal Army Training Corps Museum, so has unbeatable access to

  primary materials

• Reviews

  in history magazines, national weeklies, national daily and Sunday newspapers,

  to include: The Independent and The Sunday Times, THES, and BBC History

  Magazine.