Customer Reviews

Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces: Uniforms and equipment 1932-45 (Men-at-Arms)

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4 star:		(1)
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Gary Nila has produced a book that collectors will not want to miss. Unlike most Osprey titles, this one is packed with photos of artifacts and discussions on markings, variants and construction--just the sort of stuff collectors need and want.
Photo quality is wanting, however. Many images are a too dark to see the details that the author describes. Nevertheless, collecting WWII Japanese material is an area in need of quality research, and author Nila has filled an important niche. It is well-worth the price. I would have happily paid more for a hardcover edition with better photographs. I hope Osprey and Nila work out plans for a more comprehensive treatment of this subject.

An interesting little book on a little written about subject. A good acquisistion for those interested in WWII and what went on in the Pacific theater of operations.

Nicely written. Well informative. Well illustrated.

For such a small volume, it is packed with useful information, and vivid pictures, many of which have never been published before. Not only will this book be a useful reference tool for the historian of the WAr in the Pacific, but also useful for those who create wonderful masterpieces in the scale modeling community. Mr. Nila has placed amazing color picutures of uniforms and equiptment used by Japan's elite Naval Landing Forces. This book is a must have...
Keep up the GOOD Work Mr. Nila

Gary Nila has again brought another excellent title to the Osprey Line. His knowledge of Japanese military is amazing. And for those of us who have interest in this topic, we are offered this grand title. A long over due look at the Japanese SNLF in WW2. One reason this is hard to cover is that the men fought to the death and very few remained after the war. But the war against Russia in 1904-05 saw the birth of the SNLF. From that point on the Japanese honed their skills and made this an elite unit. In 1932, "the Shanghai incident" saw the return of the SNLF. The SNLF's attack of the East Dutch Indies included paratroopers and an amphibious landing in unison to great success. The SNLF was key in the taking of the Phillipines, Wake Island and Tulagi. Perhaps the SNLF's best fighting occured on Tarawa- in a losing effort. Inflicting heavy casualties on the marines 1st and 5th divisions. Only 17 Japanese were taken alive in the end. Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa saw SNLF troops of the under trained variety(replacements)and they did not fare as well.

This 48 page book includes everything you would expect. Uniforms, helmets, weopons, insignias and many good photos. But the book is also very useful for the history of the individual units. The 4 naval bases that the troops worked out of are covered here. As well as the units action in WW2. The book is very informative with regards to changes in uniforms over the course of the war. The uniforms change a great deal from 1932 to 1945.WIth a specialty unit such as the SNLF's there are a lot of different patches and insignias for the tunics. They are explained well here. If you are new to Gary's books- you will enjoy his Osprey titles about Japanese Naval Uniforms.

I only wish the book was longer, but few Japanese every voluntarily surrendered in combat so little in the way of first-person accounts is available for the historian to work with. Anyway, this is an excellent introduction to the Imperial Navy's shock troops in WWII.