patches Posted April 28, 2013 Share #1 Posted April 28, 2013 Any of you old timers remember these? Books by the prolific American author C B Colby, he did books on EVERYTHING, for our purposes, he has alot of books relating to the Military of his day, the 50s-60s, these books are small in pages, but they are chalked full of period photos, and are good for reference to a degree, especially in reguards to Uniforms, Insignia, Weapons and Gear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.B._Colby A Sampling of his stuff. Most are his, there's some other stuff shown, but you know how these goolge image pages are. All these are still avaiable to buy, normally of course on Amazon, I picked up a load over the past three years or so. https://www.google.com/search?q=cb+colby&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=75t8UfjJIZPh0AHFnoB4&ved=0CDMQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=632#tbm=isch&sa=1&q=cb+colby+books&oq=cb+colby+books&gs_l=img.3..0.338126.339568.0.340289.6.2.0.4.4.0.510.510.5-1.1.0...0.0...1c.1.11.img.GUpqRy2u4MM&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45645796,d.dmQ&fp=c24c346b03d19a89&biw=1280&bih=632 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhollis44 Posted June 7, 2013 Share #2 Posted June 7, 2013 Agreed! I remember these books from my youth and checking them out from the school library. What great memories, and probably started my fascination with military history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbtcoveralls Posted June 7, 2013 Share #3 Posted June 7, 2013 god yes I remember them they were some of my favorite books in the Library. Covered all kind of interesting subjects from WWII weapons and vehicles to Civil war weapons. Still some of my favorite memories Tom Bowers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted June 7, 2013 Author Share #4 Posted June 7, 2013 indeed guys, these were always Favorites, true they were essentialy for young people, but they were and are a fantastic source of reference, especialy with many of the photos not being seen in anymore publications to date. Colby was alright, he was a member as we see of the Civilian Air Patrol for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobrahistorian Posted June 7, 2013 Share #5 Posted June 7, 2013 I just came across a few here in our museum's library a few weeks ago. Man that brought back some memories! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve B. Posted June 7, 2013 Share #6 Posted June 7, 2013 I loved those books! I always went to that shelf first at the library to see if there was anything new. I recently picked up a copy of "Fighting Gear of World War II - Equipment and Weapons of the American G.I." I still love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted June 7, 2013 Author Share #7 Posted June 7, 2013 There are a ton of very interesting photos in these books worthy of scanning and posting here on the forum, I would love to do some but I think my friend who does scans for me would kill me He's already working on my latest batch of junk to post here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38Driver Posted June 8, 2013 Share #8 Posted June 8, 2013 Can't forget the "Ballantine Illustrated History of World War II" books. They sold those at our elementary school book fairs in the 60s. Full of photos and reference material. Some really quality authors too. The parents didn't mind as I was reading all the time. I still will refer to them now and then as I have quite a number of them from back then. https://www.google.com/search?q=Ballantine+Illustrated+History+of+World+War+II&client=firefox-a&hs=kKW&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=dqqyUZTiM8qrqQGG84CwAw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1680&bih=889 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobL Posted June 9, 2013 Share #9 Posted June 9, 2013 The C.B. Colby Fighting Gear book - along with episodes of Combat and Rat Patrol - and the full color G.I. Joe fold out "catalogue" - were my primers for all things WWII. That C.B. Colby book was on my library book check-out list every week of elementary school in the late 60s, and early 70s. I transport myself back to a time - before smart phones and smart forums give instant access to just about any image of WWII that I can dream of - to recall the marvel of opening that book and discovering page after page of "actual Army pictures". It was like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket to all things militaria. I have to admit: many years later, I appropriated one of his captions as my own - G.I Business Suit. I wrote it into a standup for Lee Ermey (the Gunny) when I was making Mail Call. Just a small tip of the hat to Colby and his thin little book that had such a huge impact on me and perhaps so many others here. Somebody should make an app for those books. Nowadays, when the more cynical, grown-up version of me kicks in, I think about the mint he must have made by taking a few dozen public domain Signal Corps photos, writing a paragraph for each one, and then selling it to every school in every town in this country. Makes me like the guy even more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted June 9, 2013 Author Share #10 Posted June 9, 2013 The C.B. Colby Fighting Gear book - along with episodes of Combat and Rat Patrol - and the full color G.I. Joe fold out "catalogue" - were my primers for all things WWII. That C.B. Colby book was on my library book check-out list every week of elementary school in the late 60s, and early 70s. I transport myself back to a time - before smart phones and smart forums give instant access to just about any image of WWII that I can dream of - to recall the marvel of opening that book and discovering page after page of "actual Army pictures". It was like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket to all things militaria. I have to admit: many years later, I appropriated one of his captions as my own - G.I Business Suit. I wrote it into a standup for Lee Ermey (the Gunny) when I was making Mail Call. Just a small tip of the hat to Colby and his thin little book that had such a huge impact on me and perhaps so many others here. Somebody should make an app for those books. Nowadays, when the more cynical, grown-up version of me kicks in, I think about the mint he must have made by taking a few dozen public domain Signal Corps photos, writing a paragraph for each one, and then selling it to every school in every town in this country. Makes me like the guy even more. Yes indeed, but from what I found after getting about a dozen of his military related books, is a great many photos were never reprinted again and can be seen only in these books by Colby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northcoastaero Posted August 12, 2013 Share #11 Posted August 12, 2013 I remember these books in our grade school libraries also. You are correct about the informative photos. Thank-you for the memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted August 14, 2013 Author Share #12 Posted August 14, 2013 Well now that my latest grouping of photos from books and magazines, as well as a big group of my personel photos from when I was in the Service back in 80-82 are done now (I still need to post alot more of my service fotos, been dragging my a-s-s on that ) and have been for awhile now, me thinks the next project will be getting my friend to scan a wide selection of photos from Mr Colby's book that I have, and I have quite a few. So stay tuned, I have to talk to him, as to his avaiablity, he lives right across the street so it's not a biggie, and I will post the photos in the Photograph Forum naturally rather than here in this forum, which is reserved for talks on books not posting of photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted August 22, 2013 Author Share #13 Posted August 22, 2013 Got the Colby photos, my friend just has to get around to resizing the scans. I think I will post these few in the approriate Forums, as there are related photos that will add to a particular forum. I picked the most unique ones, there are loads of fotos in these books that haven't seen the pages of a book since they first apppeared in his books, or that matter, being posted online, but you know, I can have scanned dozens upon dozens upon dozens of photos, my friend would want to Hang Me By My Balls from Big Ben if I tried to make him do that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
42GMCCCW Posted September 7, 2013 Share #14 Posted September 7, 2013 Thanks for starting this thread about the books of CB Colby. I could recall reading these books years ago but forgot who wrote them. Looking forward to seeing some of the images from these books when you get the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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