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Found a neat little book at my local Barnes and Noble store last night, and
thought I'd pass the information along. Title "US Army Handbood 1939-1945"
by George Forty, ISBN 0-7607-0848-7, printed by Barnes and Noble 1998. Cost
was only $10 US on their clearance shelf. Smallish book 5"x9" about 220
pages. Has a couple hundred B&W photos, some I've seen a lot I haven't.
The book is absolutely full of miscelaneous information that many of us can
use. Chapter 9 is "Weapons, Vehicles and Equipment" doesn't give a lot of
information on each but does have a brief run down on Armored Vehicles (Page
133) Artillery (Page 145) Vehicles (Page 158). Chapter 11 is "Vehicle
Markings and Camouflage".
For me, at least, the most information is given in the charts and graphs
scattered thoughout the book. Example, I've got a WC-54 Ambulance, want to
mark to 31'st Dixie Division, page 72 tells me that the 106th Medical
Batallion was part of the 31'st. Got a jeep you want to mark as Signals
company with the 4th Armor, page 78 tells you it's the 144th Signal Company.
Other miscellaneious trivia questions abound in the charts: 16 Chaplins
attached to Armored Divisions in '42 but only 8 in 43 and 45. - 37mm AT
weapon weighs 912 pounds (page 145) - 75MM Pack Howitzer weighs 2,160 pounds
(Page 146) - Will that new M3 tank you're looking at fit in the garage?
8'-3" Tall (Page 139).
The appendixes alone are worth the money:
Appendix One - Standard Abbreviations
Appendix Seven - Ground Radios
Appendix Eight - Divisional Shoulder Patches - No Photos but good description
along with a short list of Battle Honors.
Bottom line is that this is one of the best $10 books I've run across in a
long time. Don't know if it's available "on line" or not, but it is in the
store and on sale. I don't know the author or have any connection with
Barnes and Noble.
Tom Campbell - Birmingham, Alabama
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon May 01 2000 - 05:30:05 PDT