A must have for Military Personnel/ Historians
920025
A must-have for war history buffs. Clausewitz is quoted in almost every military planning and educational writing/ teachings.
3258423
I absolutely love this book. There are incredible photos of common and rare insignia and it is chock full of stories about the US soldiers who brought many of the pieces home as well as stories about some of the German soldiers who wore them. Mr. Bando is known for his detailed research leaving no stone unturned. You will not be disappointed.
2714451
I read the hardcover edition while on deployment overseas and could not put it down. I became interested with the soldiers and tactics of the 95th Rifles after watching "Sharpes Rifles" on PBS.

Urban's research and writing style superbly captures the life and campaigns of the British Rifleman during the Napoleonic Wars. As a career soldier, I saw many similiarities with the trials and dangers faced by these soldiers and those of today. The weapons have changed, but many of the the hardships remain. Their tactical deployment and experiences have become the foundations of today's modern infantry.

I highly recommend this book to historians, military buffs, Sharpe's series fans and anyone who wants to read a true "ripping good yarn".
2935332
This is an outstanding text and a must have for anyone studying the uniforms and equipment of the Vietnam War.  I have always been interested in the kit of the advisory/early war era (1957-66) and Mr. Miraldi does not disappoint in the least.  What is remarkable is that advisors generally had a good deal of leeway with their kit - usually anything from regulation USGI uniforms, to old items left over from WW2 & Korea, to custom ARVN uniforms (though these were usually bespoke due to the small sizes of Vietnamese soldiers).  There are plenty of color photos using modern models (wearing original kit), good close-ups, and concise explanations of the depictions.  I highly recommend this book for those seeking to learn more about the equipage of that era.
1357394
Hallowed Ground packs a great deal of information regarding Gettysburg, past and present, into a tight package. I own an earlier edition, and I used the photographs in it as part of my lectures when I was teaching a unit on the Civil War.

McPherson is a renowned author, winner of the Pulitzer for Battle Cry of Freedom. That volume should be the go-to book for anyone looking for a first highly literate glimpse of the American Civil War. This book is only about Gettysburg, as it is today and as it was then. McPherson has not only walked every square inch of the area involved, but also takes his students on tour there. He tells the reader what parts of the standard park guide tour script are actually incorrect, which is particularly useful for those visiting the park. In fact, this guide is primarily targeted for those planning to walk the large area encompassed, but I haven't been there, and most likely wont, and I never regretted the purchase of that earlier edition. If I were teaching still, or mobile enough to be able to do that tour, Id buy this one as well.

I am delighted to be able to review the DRC for the newer edition, which contains even more digital photographs. I couldn't see a lot of themgot a blank, gray box instead, which happens with galleys sometimesbut the quality of what I could see was excellent. Put this together with a lot of other primary sources, including battle plans, letters written by those involved at the time, and photographs that were already in the earlier edition, and its clear this is a volume that belongs on the shelves of every Civil War buff or instructor, as well as any other interested party.

Highly recommended.
655546
The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam  by Martin Windrow is, quite simply the best book I've ever run into on the French view of the military aspects of the battle of Dien Bein Phu. The book covers the entire siege at basically the company or when necessary the platoon level. It is lavishly illustrated with an absolutely huge variety of maps, 20 of them. The maps are all placed at the front of the book and numbered, then throughout the text, Windrow references a particular map when describing a specific action. It is the most comprehensively mapped book I've ever seen with the sole exception of Dave Powell's epic Maps of Chickamauga.

Another aspect of the book that is particularly useful is Windrow's description of mundane military tasks to put them in context for readers who lack background knowledge about military matters. One example deals with the plight of the gunners serving the French artillery. Windrow describes how crewmen had to open a cardboard tube, extract the 90 odd pound round, remove the warhead from the propellant case, discard a number of the charge bags, re-insert the war head, select, set and screw in a fuse all before the round could be inserted into the breach and fired. Windrow's point is the sheer physical exertion involved in a banal phrase such as "the French artillery fired an average of 500 rounds per gun that night". Windrow intersperses descriptions such as this, on a number of topics throughout the book, which makes it extraordinarily accessible for readers without a military background.

There are two caveats potential readers should be aware of. First, while Windrow has accessed all the existing French archives, accounts and military journals, he's done little or no research (at least none was listed in the bibliography) from the Viet Minh perspective. Second, the book doesn't cover the political aspects of the battle, essentially all the political matters are condensed into one chapter at the end. Readers could remedy the lack of political content by reading Morgan's Valley of Death.

Allowing for those two issues, I recommend the book very highly to pretty much anyone interested in Dien Bien Phu.
629717
These Book is a must for any historian, uniformologist, collector, and  painter of military miniatures, or any enthusiast of the Napoleonic  period.
You can find; A unique insight into the life of this elite  fighting corps.
Lavishly illustrated, with 12 colour plates exhaustively  detailing the equipment, uniform and combat experience of the Guard.
The  Napoleonic era is one of the most popular amongst military enthusiasts and  wargamers.
No mere ceremonial outifit, the Guards were involved in the  thick of the fighting - witness their near destruction at Waterloo!
In  the back of the Book there is a part of the introduction that I would like  to include It goes like this;
Napoleon's Imperial Guard was the elite  corps of the French Army, and, as members of the Emperor's personal Guard,  its soldiers were accorded a degree of care and attention which  distinguished them from the rest of the French Army. The Guard differed  from the guard corps of other European sovereigns of the period, in that  its function was rather functional than ceremonial, and its expansion was  such that it came to represent a considerable portion of France's military  establishment. By supplying personnel to other units, it functioned as a  training school for the remainder of the army, yet the elite status of the  guard did little to protect its soldiers from the rigours of combat in the  brutal Napoleonic Wars.
I would like to finish saying that this book is  a great study of Napoleon's Imperial Guard, with a detailed history of the  daily life and dutys of those regiments featured, the author try to focus  here the presenting uniforms and detailed pieces of equipment, show men in  actual conditions of battle and peacetime.
4883086
This book is an excellent collection of photographs and first person stories of members of the the Ramcke Brigade. Included is a basic table of organization and chain of command. It contains a brief history of operations but was lacking in details for events after the battle of El Alamein. The famous convoy hijacking consisted of a couple sentences.  The paper and the photos are of very high quality. I recommend it as a starter book for anyone interested in the subject, it is also an excellent reference for reenactors and scale modelers. the only reason I did not give 5 stars was that it lacked  the in depth history I was looking for. Pricey but a must have in any Afrika Korps or Airborne book collection or reference library.
1758326
A great compliment to Mr. Eward's other title on Marine Corps uniforms and equipment. A bit more detail on the proprietary equipment from Eagle Industries, like the LRP-FORCE or the FR-specific load bearing vests that Eagle produced would have been nice, but the amount of detail that the author can get into in a book of this size must force them to be choosy. Excellent book, definitely a must-have for students of the subject.
2472021
I wish more people, especially members of the media, would read this non political survey of U.S. military history from the early 1600s beginnings of English settlement to the collapse of the Soviet Union and Desert Storm, with extensive bibliographies. This is an excellent map for the beginning student of our military history, charting the territory. It can help us avoid taking too short-term a perspective on current events.

Without this grounding it's easy to believe our current challenges are new. They're not. The U.S. has faced constantly changing threats throughout its history, even as the country itself has continuously changed. U.S. military strength has always fluctuated, expanding in times of threat & contracting in peace. We have gone to war ill-prepared, then triumphed after spectacular military build-up.

We have been in a near constant state of preparing for war, fighting war or recovering from war. Public opinion has usually been divided, including going into the world wars. War has always had collateral damage. It has actually become considerably LESS unpleasant as technology & strategy have advanced. The Civil War, World War I & some battles of World War II were barbaric compared with anything we've seen recently.

Our military has made vital contributions to our economy, technological advance, education and civil rights. Minorities, especially blacks & Native Americans, have played vital roles in our military throughout our history.

The perspective given by Allan R. Millett & Peter Maslowski raises questions such as how could guerrilla warfare be described as a "new" challenge? Guerrilla warfare has been an issue since the Revolution. We ought have a good grasp on it by now.

The book's weaknesses are mostly attributable to it being an ambitious survey. They include gaps in coverage (how did we get from post Vietnam demoralization to Cold War victory?) It's long on facts, short on explanation and analysis (WHY did the Soviets collapse? WHY did we succeed?) It's necessarily superficial & doesn't probe controversy deeply (there's scant attention to the U.S. relationships with Saudi Arabia or Israel).

On the other hand, the book is very good on the relationship between the U.S. & the U.K. It's surprising how late (going into World War I) Britain was still regarded with wariness.

The book is thought-provoking on the unattractiveness (similar to Russia) of the U.S. as an invasion prospect. It also puts into perspective the claim that the U.S. never invades other countries (we've been invading throughout our history).

The book is quite good on the relationship between civilian authorities & the military, on the evolution of military management (professionalization is not a new concept) & on the rise of air power. It also touches on nonfiring Soldiers, an important issue excellently addressed in Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's "On Killing."

In the context provided by this book, it's abundantly clear talk of a "peace dividend" & even the "end of history" after the Soviet collapse was naive. More troubling, history suggests conscription probably isn't gone forever (though it'll take a bigger crisis than the one we face now to prompt a return). The book, though, is good at showing conscription isn't what it's made out to be & its role in nudging volunteerism.

National Guardsmen & Reservists will find here that tensions with the Regular Army have always existed, that the National Guard & Reserve playing a significant role in conflict is nothing new, that Citizen Soldiers have a proud tradition & that there's always been room to raise the standard of the Guard & Reserve.

As a Soldier, it's fun to see pieces of Army history we've already learned out of context fall into place & into perspective & to get a better grounding in, for example, who the people were whose names now live on in the names of Army posts.

Millett & Maslowski's excellent survey is on the U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List (Sublist 1).
3380406
The daily life of the combat infantry soldier in South Vietnams northern provinces, operations ranging from the coastal plains and rice paddies, to triple-canopy jungles, to the rugged mountainous terrain, home to the well-armed North Vietnamese Army moving supplies along the many tributaries of the infamous Hoi Chi Minh Trail.

The book is well-organized, the font is easy to read, and the photos are clear.  The individual accounts provided by veterans, their photos, and newspaper articles published at the time add a personal touch to the narrative.  A must-have for the veterans who were there.

A special debt of gratitude to Dutch author/historian Paul Crucq.  BATTLEFIELD 44 would not have become reality without the 7 years of detailed research that he tirelessly devoted to this project.  Thank you!
727530
No doubt, wihtout question, the must have book for serious Civil War Reenactors to view period photos of NC Soldiers.  Greg did a greta job not only in pulling together period photos, but giveing a narration of each photo for the reader.  The book includes photos of some civilians also, which i hope he could spin into a separate book for the period.  Great book,,,glad i bought one early, and am proud to own it.  Its the highlight of my book collection.
1285993
This book methodically and thoroughly delivers exactly what it promises.  And this English-language book is a rare treasure, because there are very few books which cover this subject in English.

Starting from the pinnacle of the entire German war machine with the Kaiser himself, the book details the command structure, unit responsibilities, and specific composition for the entire imperial German army.  Following through its top-down progression it covers: the Supreme Army Command, the War Ministry, Supreme Commander East, the army groups, the armies, the general (corps) commands, and the divisions.  The book also unravels numerous mysteries, such as the bewildering array of unit naming conventions, the creation and dissolution of temporary commands, the large array of unit types, the varying armament compositions between unit types, the growth of the air force, and all the administrative and logistical elements which are essential to any modern armies battlefield success.  In addition, it presents several appendices which list: the complete German order-of-battle (OOB) for August 1914, the 18th Army's OOB for the March 1918 Kaiserschlacht Offensive, a summary list of brigade and mobile unit formations throughout the war, and a listing of all the army and higher level unit commanders throughout the war.

The book tackles a very daunting subject and quite lucidly explains the inner workings of the German war machine.  If you want to know how the German army was structured during the First World War, then this is the book for you.  The book suffers from a few weaknesses (but its valuable content overrides these).  The most annoying thing about the book are the incorrect dates found throughout the first part of the book (e.g. p. 79 "During the 1918 offensive, General of Cavalry von der Marwitz was in command.  The 2nd Army was dissolved on 13 January 1918 in Gembloux.").  I actually sent an email to the publisher months ago about this but still have yet to receive a response.  The other significant complaint I have is that the writing style is very dry and dull, but it is a reference work after all.

In summary, I recommend you buy this book if you are doing scholarly research on the WWI German army.  If you are looking for a narrative history or the complete German orders-of-battle for all the individual battles during the war, then look elsewhere.  All in all, this is an outstanding and rare English-language reference work on the WWI German army.
162858
This is a great book at an unbeatable price for people new on the subject. It compiles a lot of information about the history of special forces. There are also a lot of pictures with explanations. Special Operations of most wars since WW 2 are explained and a lot of information about weapons, tactics, guerilla warfare and so on are given. Most world-famous special forces(like the British SAS,German GSG9 or US Navy SEALs) are included, with some of their best-known operations captured in word and picture. If you don't have it, you need it! Especially at this price!
2281029
Great collector reference...must-have for every WWII USMC collector!
3258176
I, too, am a historical reenactor of this time period and have read several books on the subject. This one is a definite must-have book for your collection. It lays out a lot of information in fairly good detail. I make this a Christmas gift to my other friends.
1225317
Extremely informative historical piece of writing laid out in an interesting and chronilogically easy to follow format.  Excellent book that was well researched with lot of cross references to historical events, places and figures.  Writer Gail Buckley did outstanding job of providing historical contexts to her research with the more "infamous" figures in our country's history. This is the type of history book that I painfully missed in my education of our country and military. A must read for anyone wanting a more expansive and "complete" view of the "forgotten american's" contributions to our military's history/success, fight for personal democracy, justice and equality.