U.S. Army 1941-45 (Men at Arms Series, 70)

This is just the WW2 source I was looking for.

Book arrived in good time. Condition was excellent pages crisp and no creases. Back cover started to yellow but all Osprey Publishing books will do that with time even if kept in good storage. Was well satisfied.

The volumes in this series generally mix campaign history (and the context of a war as a whole) with commentary on weapons, uniforms, and equipment. And Katcher is a very experienced military historian who generally does exactly that, but this volume -- a revision of the original 1977 edition -- concentrates instead on the Army's combat and service dress and backs it up with frequent quotations from and references to the actual regulations and other official sources. For the collector, or even just the detail-oriented, this is a gold mine. Katcher provides the best discussions I've seen of what "olive drab" actually means (it's actually a whole spectrum of numbered shades), the psychology of dressing for comfort instead of for show (like the British, often), and why the M1 helmet is still perhaps the single best item of military gear ever designed in this country. There's also a good deal more subtlety involved in the design and tailoring of a modern military uniform than most of us might expect. The color plates and their very detailed captions are, as nearly always, excellent.

great.

This is a very bad record of the war, only shows uniforms, comes under the category of ripoff

good

Carter Rila's assessment of this book is correct. It is an older title, and while it is well written and contains useful information, it is misnamed. It appears to be a survey of US Army uniforms and personal field equipment - the text contains little else. Weapons, organization, history are all absent. The bare bones descriptions of uniforms fail to address the subject adequately, and the use of direct quotes from Army regulations seems to be more of a waste of space than a selling point.Good photographs from contemporary sources, though these can probably be found in Stanton. Current photos of artifacts photographed in harsh lighting and not terribly useful; especially photo of divisional and army shoulder patches which is murky.Colour plates would be only reason to buy this book. Collingwood has a gritty, softer style than Chappell, Volstad or Hook, but illustrates well the major uniform types. Facial expressions don't seem to change much - all the figures look so grim! - but there is a bit of variety in the poses and facial features.Much useful info on uniforms - the main purpose of the book - but this info is found in greater detail in many other volumes. The author and illustrator can be forgiven as I am sure that when this book first came out, much of what was contained had not been published in the mainstream.

This book is well illustrated but tries to cover too much in too little space. When such as Shelby Stanton (c.f.) devote whole books to the WW II clothing alone and others to individual equipment it is no longer needed.The publisher has realized this and has brought out a new three volume set in this series covering the same era. The publisher should simply let this one go out of print. Its day is past.