Customer Reviews

Field Artillery and Firepower

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I bought this book I was looking for specifics on a number of items regarding recent NATO and Warsaw Pact artillery practices. Since the author was an extremely well placed observer / participant to all this I was looking forward to the book. My initial impression though was that it lacked the hard data and analysis that I was looking for and it promptly went into the 'read later' pile for a couple of weeks.

Clearing my mind of preconceptions, I started back in on it and found it rewarded careful reading and contained far more content than I had originally thought. Almost every time I dipped into the modern era sections I found more to hold my interest. You won't find anything here that can't be found in the open press but it is still very much worth having. I thought that the description of the twists and turns of NATO / WP doctrine in the three eras following 1945 was particularly good and finally explained things that I had never understood from other readings. He discusses the interplay of the role of conventional artillery, nuclear escalation, and logistical constraints in a way that finally makes it clear what the limits available to the strategists were. Great stuff!

Now if only he could have supplied more tables, charts and dates. Oh well, if there is a second edition that rolls more of that in then I'll buy it.

This is a great book, and I highly recommend it to those with an interest in the Offensive Support BOS, however, do NOT get *this* edition. This one runs through till the end of the 1980s, and there is a later edition that continues the book up till 200x. Get that one instead.

This book was purchased as a gift for our son who is a Field Artillery Officer in the Marine Corps. He really likes it as it has such a history of artillery throughout the years. Very nice!

Exceptional, one-stop shop of Field Artillery and Firepower education. I am a professional Artilleryman and I am better for reading this book. However, truthfully, I should read this again because the amount of knowledge available was simply more than I could retain with one reading.

This book is the best and most comprehensive work I've ever found on artillery. As a serving artillery-man it provides the historical background information which makes us do an not do things without knowing why. Glad to have purchased this standard work (still studying though).