Reference, Histoire et Collections Equipment of the US Army 1, American Field Artillery 19

HISTOIRE ET COLLECTIONS


Equipment of the US Army 1, American Field Artillery 1941-45. By Paul Gaujac, with illustrations by Nicolas Gohin. Soft covers, 7.75 x 9.5-inches, 82 pages. Contains 70 B&W photographs, 67 color photographs, 17 color plates, 60 tables, glossary and bibliography. ISBN 978-2-35250-058-2.


Amongst model manufacturers these days, there seems to be a resurgence in releases of US artillery, as can be seen by new items from DML, AFV Club and a newcomer, Vision Models (never mind that a styrene British 2 Pdr. AT gun is coming!!). However, and in general, ordnance is usually the least-popular subject amongst modelers, kit manufacturers, and publishing houses. Thus, there is not very much available in the way of a one-stop reference for US field artillery as used in World War Two.


Luckily for us, this new title from M. Gaujac (who should be familiar to readers as the author of several outstanding large-format books devoted to US operations in Normandy, Brittany and Southern France), goes a long way to redressing this imbalance.


The format and physical dimensions of the book should be familiar to modelers who may have titles from the Planes and Pilots series, or Les Materials de LArmee Francaise series in their libraries. The text is dense and extremely detailed. Much space is devoted to the reasoning and the means that saw the US develop modern, mobile artillery for the use of armies in the field. Unit structures and how they changed in the period covered by the book are also exhaustively detailed, as are the overall command structures. Much space is also devoted to the improvement of lethality; observation, communication and coordination of units in battle as well as ammunition, radios, telephones, optics and other related items, including light aviation, are also detailed. Some information on the development of specific guns and howitzers are given, along with complete specifications of all of the featured pieces.


The pieces covered include the 75mm and 105mm pack howitzers; 105mm, 155mm, 8-inch and 240mm howitzers, and 155mm and 8-inch guns. Where applicable, self-propelled gun variations are covered, while the main wheeled and tracked tractor types are also given their due. No anti-tank, anti-aircraft or coast artillery types are covered, but that is not within the scope of this book. On the other hand, the larger mortars and some forms of rocket artillery are given a brief once-over, as are some lesser legacy types, such as the French-designed 75mm field gun, 155mm field howitzer, and 155mm field gun. Tabulated data is seen in 60 different places between these covers. The information they provide ranges from ordnance specifications, to production figures, to unit structure and deployment areas.


For such a compact book, it is literally exploding with high-quality imagery. Archival B&W as well as color photographs are used along with various bits of color art work to physically describe the various pieces of ordnance. In a few cases, museum examples of vehicles and ordnance are also shown. In addition, full-color photos of preserved uniforms, insignia, shoulder patches, field manuals and various bits of specialist equipment are spread throughout. Captions are informative and the reproduction of all the images is first-rate.


This is an outstanding book and is sure to become a contemporary bible on the subject. It is extremely well-presented from every angle and is as timely a release as one could ever wish for.


Highly recommended.


Frank V. De Sisto


Histoire et Collections books are available in North America from Casemate Publishing at: www.casematepublishing.com.


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