Featured battle : Vauchamps

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 14 February 1814

Classic Napoleon with part of his force withdrawing to pull the Allies forward. Then a strong flank attack which forced them to withdraw. Followed by a long swing round their now left flank to block their retreat. The plan almost worked. One of the key elements missed was getting hosre artillery across the line of retreat, the mud was too deep for them to travel quickly enough. The Allies were badly mauled losing 40% of the men.

United States Army Armoured Divisions of the Second World War (Images of War series)

Michael Green
What the title should really say is 'The organisation and structure of ...' as the text of this book is much more about how the command structures that became the US Armoured divisions came about and how they were organised. It gives a brief history of armour development before the war, and how the US Army responded to it.Then it goes into some detail on the ethos behind the various commanders' reorganisations, and how the establishments ended up. There is a very brief section at the end on the battles of the different divisions, but if you were looking for unit histories, I wouldn't choose this. Where the book comes into it's own is, as you'd expect from the series, in the imagery. Basically after the text detailing what vehicles each division was authorised to maintain, there are extensive photographs of all the vehicles and equipment mentioned, showing wherever possible each variant. Using the usual, well produced mix of contemporary black and white photos alongside modern colour images of museum exhibits and restored examples, after going through this book you'll definitely be able to spot an M4A1 from an M4A3(76) Wet. The sometimes dry main text is well balanced by the detailed annotations to the photos. All in all, a thorough coverage for the armoured enthusiast, modeller or re-enactor.
Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley, 2019