New WWII Order of Battle Book

[Roscoe]

Hello All

The other day I was browsing the stacks in Powell's Book WWII section had a rather nice find, a new Soviet WWII Order of Battle Book.

The title is:

Order of Battle The Red Army WWII by David Porter and published by Amber Books out of the UK.

I highly recommend it. It's a slim volume, only a 192 pages but is packed with maps, a brief overview of the major battles, graphically representations of tank and rifle units and the best part; what I'll call branching tree charts of the various Armies and Fronts.

As a badge collector it's been invaluable to be able find where a particular units fits into the big picture.

As example: I have a 69th Guards Rifle Division and a quick glance I can tell
that it was part of XXI Guards Rifle Corps commanded by Maj-Gen P I Fomenko which was part of the 4th Guards Army commanded by Lt-Gen I V Galanin which was part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in August 1944.

It probably isn't the most comprehensive guide out there. For shear amount of information you can't beat Charles Sharps guides, which I have. But for ease of use you can't beat it and I'll turn to it first and often.

[centaur32]

YES! Thanks for the tip Roscoe. I just ordered my copy from Amazon and can't wait for it to arrive.

Cheers,

Jim:thumbsup

[Kirchgoens]

The one review on Amazon pans this new one heavily. Anyone know anything about this older, harder to find volume by W. Victor Madej?

[Eryk]

This is a W. Victor Madej book. Looks like he's still in business at Valor Home, with the book still available. (clumsy web site...) I have a couple of his books (but not the OBs) from the 80s. Lots of maps, but many if not most are simply copies of others (Ziemke, etc). Overall interesting, but well outdated today IMO.

[Roscoe]

I read the Amazon reveiw also and thinks it's unfair, I think the guy has some kinda of axe to grind. He's only reviewed one other book and its a business book. It may not rate 5 stars but it certainly doesn't rate just 1. I would rate it at 4 stars.

A quick check of the index shows 350+ Rifle Div listed just as an example of how complete it is.

Seeing as we have a lack of English language resources I still think it's a safe buy and a good addition to anyones book shelf.

[matteti]

FYI... here in Canada, it is available for 12.99 CAD at Chapters.ca or in-store.

[Kirchgoens]

Originally Posted by Eryk

This is a W. Victor Madej book. Looks like he's still in business at Valor Home, with the book still available. (clumsy web site...) I have a couple of his books (but not the OBs) from the 80s. Lots of maps, but many if not most are simply copies of others (Ziemke, etc). Overall interesting, but well outdated today IMO.

It is a kludgy website, and a bit political also. The author seems to have distinguished combat service in Vietnam though. He's earned his voice under fire...