Osprey Roundup

By John Prigent

I’m sorry that there was no Roundup last month, but no books arrived for review until after the deadline for the February issue. This time you get two months’ worth instead!

Essential Histories, The Texas War of Independence 1835-1836 From Outbreak to the Alamo to San Jacinto, by Alan C Huffines, ISBN 1-84176-522-8, 96 pages

I’m starting with this one because I like it so much. It gives the political background to events, including the several Mexican revolutions and swings from Republican to Centralist power that complicated the Texans’ original search for a measure of self-government. Then comes the actual Texan declaration of independence and the Mexican oppression, including the massacre of prisoners who had merely been in the area of fighting. Terror was one of Santa Anna’s explicit weapons. The actual battles get less attention, having already been covered in other Osprey books, but there’s quite enough here to show what happened without a blow-by-blow account. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in Texas or US history.

Fortress 28, Forts of the American Frontier 1820-91, Central and Northern Plains, by Ron Field, illustrated by Adam Hook, ISBN 1-84176-775-1,64 pages

Following on, here’s one for Western fans. It’s full of old photographs of the forts, and has excellent plates of them to show general layouts as well as details. Lovers of the John Wayne cavalry films may get a shock to realise that many of the forts had neither walls, stockades or even proper gates – the howling Comanche climbing the high stockade seems never to have existed. But some did have those accoutrements and anyone wanting to show US Cavalry or Infantry models in their true environment will find this book invaluable. Recommended!

Fortress 27, French Fortresses in North America 1535-1763, Québec, Montréal, Louisbourg and New Orleans, by René Chartrand, illustrated by Donato Spedaliere, ISBN 1-84176-71-X, 64 pages

Here we go further back in time to the French colonial period in North America. The fortified cities are well described and shown in good illustrations and colour plates, and the smaller forts are not neglected. The several sieges are also described. Readers may be surprised to realise just how small the “cities” were in those days – mostly with far fewer people than the small market town where I live in England. If North American history is your interest you’ll need this book , Recommended to Canadian readers in particular for its coverage of Montréal and Québec.

New Vanguard 86, M109 155mm Self-propelled Howitzer 1960-2005, by Steven J Zaloga, illustrated by Tony Bryan, ISBN 1-84176-631-3, 48 pages

This is a very interesting account of the development and service use of the M109 and also the M108 105mm SPH. The first chapter describes the various designs that were tested and used before the new M108 and M109 emerged in the late 1950s and then deals with the new vehicles’ characteristics. Then service use in Vietnam is described. Post-Vietnam developments take two chapters, looking at the quests for longer range and for more lethal shells including area-effect sub-munitions and the special nuclear and chemical warheads. Then comes Israeli use of the M109, followed by a chapter on precision-guided munitions. Next is a comprehensive look at how the M109 has been improved to the new Paladin and at the FAASV ammunition transporter, with service in both Gulf Wars covered last. The final chapter is about foreign users and the modifications they have made.

The differences between the basic M109 and the A1/A2/A3/A4/A5/A6 versions are clearly stated, making this an excellent reference for modellers working with the several Italeri/Testors kits, and the photographs and colour plates cover non-US use of the series as well as US Army service. Very highly recommended!

Battle Orders 9, Japanese Army in World War II, Conquest of the Pacific 1941-42, by Gordon L Rottman, ISBN 1-84176-789-1, 96 pages

This is a detailed examination of the Japanese Army at the beginning of World War 2. It begins with how the Imperial Army was created back in the 1870s and its development until 1941. Next come details of the divisions involved in the 1941/42 fighting, with campaign histories of each. Then the Japanese doctrine is described, mainly based on the attack, and the unit organisations at all levels with notes on unit designation, task force organisation and tank regiments. A useful table of the tank types in each regiment is included. Tactics, weapons and equipment including artillery and tanks as well as small arms, and command and communications each get a chapter. Finally there’s a long chapter on combat operations, examining the Japanese attacks on the Philippines, Bataan and Corregidor, the Dutch East Indies, Borneo and New Guinea. Malaya, Singapore and China are not included, not being part of the Pacific area and therefore no doubt left for one of the future books promised. Plenty of maps show the courses of the campaigns and there are orders of battle for each force.

This is a must-buy for anyone interested in the 1941/42 fighting. Recommended!

Elite 122, World War II Infantry Tactics, Company and Battalion, by Dr Stephen Bull, illustrated by Peter Dennis, ISBN 1-84176-663-1, 64 pages

This is a very interesting book, dealing with the tactics used by German, British and US units not only in theory but in actual actions. Infantry weapons, machine guns, mortars, mines and antitank tactics are all covered. There’s also a chapter on motorised and armoured infantry showing how the tactics of the three armies differed, and one about co-operation with tanks. Actual combat examples are used throughout the book, and the photographs and plates are informative too. This is a great reference for diorama builders as well as fascinating to read. Recommended.

Campaign 147, Crete 1941, Germany’s lightning airborne assault, by Peter D Antill, illustrated by Howard Gerrard, ISBN 1-84176-844-8, 96 pages

This was the Fallschirmjaegers’ last mass airborne attack and it is well described here. The very detailed analysis shows how the fog of war prevented better decisions by the defenders and goes right through to the evacuation from Sphakion, with credit to the Royal Navy for its part. This book will give tank modellers some new ideas for models of the Matilda and Light Tank Mk VI tanks used in the defence, though unfortunately very few photographs of them were taken and no markings are visible on the one shown here. Recommended.

Battle Orders 10, US Tank and Tank Destroyer Battalions in the ETO 1944-45, by Steven J Zaloga, ISBN 1-84176-798-0, 96 pages

This is a really good reference, not just a list of units and their composition. The tank battalions here are the “separate” ones at Army level, not those in armoured divisions. The infighting that resulted in daft ideas gaining official acceptance is described both for tanks and tank destroyers. The unit organisation chapter gives details of the separate tank battalions and the tank destroyer battalions, with descriptions of how their organisations changed over time. Their equipment is considered too, including T10 Shop Tractors, DD tanks, mine rollers, and mine flails, and both SP and towed tank destroyers. Tables give all the various battalion tables of organisation and equipment, backed up by excellent pictorial graphs, plus the actual tank and tank destroyer strengths in the ETO at various dates. A long chapter gives examples of actual combat from the Normandy landing to assaults of fixed fortifications and meeting a panzer counter-attack, and finally there are brief histories of all the separate tank battalions and tank destroyer battalions, in most cases with notes on their equipment. Highly recommended!

Elite 124, World War II Infantry Anti-Tank Tactics, by Gordon L Rottman, illustrated by Steve Noon, ISBN 1-84176-842-1, 64 pages.

This book gives everything you could possibly want to know about its subject. It looks at infantry’s vulnerability to tanks and tanks’ vulnerability to infantry, and then goes on to describe all the basic anti-tank weapons from anti-tank rifles and small-calibre anti-tank guns to bazookas and anti-tank grenades, including a discussion of the various types of projectile and their uses. Then there’s an examination of anti-tank tactics and finally a long chapter looks at all the actual weapons of each main combatant and the tactics used to employ them. The many photographs and plates of the major weapons show how they were used. This book is essential if you build dioramas that feature opposing infantry and tanks. Recommended!

Men-at-Arms 422, German Armies 1870-71 (2) Prussia’s Allies, by Michael Solka, illustrated by Darko Pavlovic, ISBN 1-84176-755-7, 48 pages

Here are the “other” German troops of the Franco-Prussian War, often neglected but very well treated here. Baden, Bavaria, Brunswick, Hesse-Darmstadt, Mecklenburg, Saxony, and Wurttemberg are all included with descriptions of their infantry, cavalry and artillery uniforms. The good colour plates are backed up by monochrome reproductions of older plates by such authorities as Knotel, making this a great reference for figure modellers.

Warrior 96, Carolingian Cavalryman AD768-987, by David Nicolle, illustrated by Wayne Reynolds, ISBN 1-84176-645-3, 64 pages

Fans of ancients and medievals will need no more that the name of David Nicolle to buy this book. For the rest of you, it covers some fascinating early cavalrymen in good detail and will provide plenty of figure modelling ideas. Recruitment, training, life, clothing and equipment, and battles are all here. The illustrations are excellent, with many photographs of surviving statues and manuscript illuminations, and the colour plates are just as good. Yes, the death of Roland at Roncesvalles is among the plates though the famous Song of Roland is not quoted as a source! Highly recommended.

Campaign 148, Operation Barbarossa 1941 (2) Army Group North, by Robert Kirchubel, illustrated by H Gerrard & P Dennis, ISBN 1-84176-857-X, 96 pages

This is a clear account of operations up to the siege of Leningrad, and makes it clear that shifting and poorly-defined objectives were almost as much to blame as the weather for the German failure to take Leningrad. Finnish operations stopped short of the city, since all Finland really wanted was to regain its pre-1939 frontiers and Stalin had warned of wrath to come if they went any further. The campaign is well described, with excellent coverage of the fighting accompanied by birds’-eye views and maps. The photographs are a mixture, concentrating mainly on the men and their commanders but with some tanks and equipment – however since this is not a modelling reference but a campaign history they do their job. The plates are atmospheric but readers will boggle gently at some of the tanks shown, which seem a bit distorted. Recommended as a history since there’s so little in print in the English language about the Northern Front of the Russian Campaign.

Battle Orders 6, The American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, by John F Votaw, ISBN 1-84176-622-4, 96 pages

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the WWI doughboy. It gives a great deal of detail about how the US Army was organised in the first place to grow to its eventual size, with its doctrine and training. The idea behind US doctrine at the time was “open field warfare”, in other words the attack as opposed to the defensive trench warfare actually practiced on the Western Front. Training was aimed at this, and not surprisingly led to high casualties since neither men nor officers were trained for what really faced them. There are pen pictures of the main commanders, details of unit organisation from AEF level downwards, and examples of actual combat. Infantry, air, artillery and tanks are all covered. Recommended!

Campaign 149, Falaise 1944 Death of an army, by Ken Ford, illustrated by Howard Gerrard, ISBN 1-84176-626-7, 96 pages

This is great! Most coverage of the Normandy campaign has focussed on the D-Day landings, on Operation Cobra or on small sections of the battle, but here we get the whole story of how the Falaise Pocket was created by hard fighting co-ordinated between Commonwealth, US, and Polish forces. The French also get a look-in but this mainly shows their ineffectiveness at this time. The French Resistance is not included. Contrary to many assumptions, it was not Montgomery’s decision to pin German forces by attacking on his front – it was Eisenhower’s. This allowed the eventual US breakout and the formation of the Falaise Pocket, and the whole story is given of how switching attack points back and forth along the whole Normandy front led to both. There are good maps, and the birds’-eye views of important parts of the continuing battle are very helpful. Osprey has rearranged the captions to these so you don’t have to search around the edge of the view to find the next one, making them much easier to use. Highly recommended.