Customer Reviews

Military Geography: For Professionals and the Public (Association of the United States Army)

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

 

 

If you are a serious reader of military history, a serving military professional, or a specialist in international security and defense issues, this book is worth your time. As an introductory text, it covers many topics that are crucial to military planning but often receive only brief mention in histories or briefings. Collins, a former Army officer, stresses land geography, but does not stint oceans, the atmosphere or interplanetary space. His discussions of urban areas are too brief, given the increasing amount of large-scale violence in cities since the end of World War II. More maps would also be an improvement. Nonetheless, highly recommended.

Sun Tzu the greatest military strategist to ever live dedicated two complete scrolls to the use of geography in warfare. The two scrolls were (translated) "Terrain" and the second was "Nine Grounds". Today the out come of all major conflicts are determined with a list of various factors one of those being geography. Knowing the "lay of the land" is a major asset to a tactician, knowing the "land" enables a planner to estimate probably courses of actions the enemy may take and how he may counter this move while using all available assets to his advantage, like the local geography. This includes every element from the weather, season, night, day, terrain, and that is to name but a few. The book covers topics from sea states to atmosphere as well as outer space and moon conditions. The book uses historical events to promote the topic by illustrating the events outcome due to some overlooked or advantages geographical condition. This book is not just for some planning officer at corps level but is an awesome primer for squad leaders and specialty troops like scouts, snipers and Special Forces operators. The book is also quite a good read for the armchair historian. The content of the book is put together excellent, the text, illustrations, and pictures are crisp and clear. The book is also oversized which makes it easier to read and handle. As a final not if you own this book, or like this topic I also recommend; "Battling The Elements" by Harold A. Winters.

Any amateur reader of military science and history knows a few maxims of military geography -- hold the high ground and let the enemy come to you for instance. But that is not the way that a professional military officer/geographer knows about the military aspects of geography.

This book is an extremely interesting mix of general discussion about military geography combined with detailed discussions of the situation at specific places where the US military has had to go.

Of particular interest to me was the chapter on the beaches in Normandy. Among all the descriptions of the physical geography is a description of the obstacles (which modify geography) such as beach fortifications. In talking about these his comment is: 'The aggregate could best be described as awesome.' This leads on to the construction of airfields in Normandy in the days after D-Day, seven airfields were operational by D+20.

I suspect that the military has books and courses on geography for their own use, but for the amateur interested in the details about military geography I can't recommend this book to highly.

The title is as basic as you can get yet has a deep insight into the geography of military operations and deployment. Its the nuts and bolts of how the military deploys its resources and moves them. If you are tired of military maps that show arrows of armies moving across a barren map, this book gives depth to how the military moves. Most interesting was space operations and the term "Gravity Wells" and Strategic Space Locations. This book should interest anyone seeking information about military planning and operations and infrastructure.

This is a tremendous book for anybody wanting in-depth information on geography and warfare but who does not have the technical background of a geographer or military analyst. It is full of excellent, high-quality photographs, and three-dimensional drawings that supplement the text in an excellent fashion. Maps are drawn, not reproduced from older texts, and the clarity and detail is beyond reproach. Chapters are organized by subject matter and the book even contains simplified explanations of satellite reconaisance and outer space applications. This is an excellent book.

When I think of this book, I do not think of the word "compendium". This is a "comprehensive compendium" of all things related to geography and warfare. The first chapters are much like a textbook introduction to physical and cultural geography. But interspersed are such interesting drawings as the effect of wave action on ship stability. The chapter on inner and outer space was especially interesting in light of the news reports of North Korea's interest in nuclear weapons to cripple command, control and communications using gamma "BOMBS". This is a book for people who forgot what was taught in, or never took a college geography course, and who know nothing about ground, sea or air forces. Since that would include most people, one might conclude that it is a good "read" for the target audience as specified in the Forward, the Preface and the Author's Introduction. The layout is a bit challenging. As a geographer, I might be tempted to skip the chapters on geographic features, but right in the middle of the chapter is a discussion of ship response to wave action. And so it is throughout the book. And the field of combat is far too complex and specialized to think this book can give an in depth review of what constitutes WAR or COMBAT or STRATEGY. Curious tidbits of information on military equipment, weather effects, weapons effects are interspersed throughout the text, albeit in a logical fashion. The best chapters are those providing analysis of a complete battle or campaign. There all of the pieces are brought together in a discussion integrating the effects of geographic phenomenon with the application of the war fighter. This is a great book for serious study. I might not, however, try to read it while watching Monday Night Football. To get the most out of it, it must be studied, likely not as a section in a more complex class, but rather in a class of it's own with additional research sections on strategy, Sun Tzu, logistics, or the evolution of war based on new equipment and trends.

Because the author has chosen to cover a very broad subject in a single volume each subject is given but a brief overview. For professionals in the field this book provides a good review. For those with a casual interest the book gives insight into avenues for further study.

Some of the chapters (esp. of physical geography + tides + winds) were interesting, making me aware of things I never thought about before.

But a fair amount of the book was just average, almost filler, and added little to my knowledge.

Overall, the book is worth reading.