For those of you who are strict fanatics when it comes to accurate and complete orders of battle (AND are connoisseurs of quality books), Biblio Verlag's newest addition to its book list might be of interest. This is their fifth volume in a series of which a total of twelve volumes will complete the set, The name of the series is Der Geheimen Tagesberichte der Deutschen Wehrmachtfuhrung Im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 1939-1945- Translation: "The Secret OKW War Diary in the Second World War, 1939-1945."

The name of this series tells it all! Each massive 9 1/2" by 13" volume is handsomely bound with the highest quality given to every step in the production of the books. Each volume ranges from 550 to 600+ pages. This is the daily situation reports of every front in the war! The reports are given on a daily (yes folks! daily) basis. Each front is split up into different sections per day. The Russian front is so large that it is subdivided into army groups!

The detail of these reports is outstanding, often mentioning individual battalions but most often listing the actions of regiments and divisions (and corps/armies, of course). At the end of the books there is a "Formation register." This lists every conceivable unit (from battalion to army group) as to which pages in the book they are listed. For example, 1st Regiment Brandenburg is listed on pages 192, 253, 263, 277, 281, and 283 of Vol. 8 of this series. The 44th Infanterie- Division is listed on over fifty pages of Vol. 8 alone!

In effect, a battle history of every German unit can be formed by following the action reports of a particular division through these volumes! Complete orders of battle are listed every three to four weeks. I'm not just talking divisions but independent regiments and brigades, as well as such specialty battalions as the 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion, etc!

The beauty of this series lies in the large maps which take up the end of each book. These situation maps not only list armies, corps, and divisional positions per month, but independent units abound as well!

A "Lokationregister" is also listed. This register mentions on which pages in the book you will find a particular village/town/city mentioned! Thus, if you want to locate the city of Kalinin, you simply look at the register (which is listed alphabetically) for that city. The "Formation register" is well organized, too. We are not just talking about German Army units, but Luftwaffe ground units, flak units, specialty units, naval units, and Waffen-SS formations--the whole German military might'

True, the text in these books is in German. But the manner in which the information is set up is so simple that you don't really need to speak the language. Certainly this is especially true of the situation maps and orders of battle. Each volume is split up into three to four month intervals. For example, Vol. 8 (the newest addition) lists the German operations from 1 September 1943 to 30 November 1943. As of August 1988, only Volumes 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 have been published.