Review:

WWII Orders of Battle

Data

by Bill Rutherford

While at Cold Wars `95 I picked up four of George Nafziger's WW II monographs, one by himself on the French army, and the first three volumes of a projected 10 volume (!) series by Charles Sharp on the WW II Soviet army.

Varying in length between 80 and 110 pages, these plastic-bound, magazine-sized books are little short of amazing! Though they don't, as a rule, deal with battalion-and-below TO&Es, they deal with just about everything else. The French army book, for example, provides complete OBs for the 1940 French army, the Vichy army, and the Free French army, down to the battalion level.

Sharp's Soviet books deal with the various early war mech/tank brigades and divisions (vol. 1), mid-late war tank formations (vol. 2), and the mid-late war mech and guards armored formations (vol. 3), and not only provide as complete OB information as I've ever seen, but also include extensive notes on equipment procurement/development/production, comments on the evolution of Soviet army formations during WW II, and (as does Nafziger's French volume) unit histories of all divisions and separate brigades.

Much of the information in the three Soviet volumes appear compliments of the post-Cold War Russian archives. I eagerly look forward to the next 7 volumes. Also, I've seen, but haven't yet sprung for, six additional books on the German WW II army. Oh, all four books provide bibliographies for those of you who travel to Europe and want to check on Nafziger's and Sharp's homework! Recommended; available for $19.95 each from George Nafziger at PO Box 1522, West Chester, OH 45069-1522.

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