Customer Reviews

Order of Battle: Allied Ground Forces of Operation Desert Storm

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Order Of Battle is a complete and definitive study of the allied unit operations and involvement in Operation Desert Storm. Thomas Dinackus offers a comprehensive listing of all the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, British, French, and Arab/Islamic units that served in the Gulf and depicts the command structure between the nits before and during the Persian Gulf War. Order Of Battle also identifies the organization and major types of equipment employed by the units serving in the Gulf. Throughout Order Of Battle are vivid snapshots of the operation including the first shots fired in Operation Desert Storm by an Apache attack helicopter unit and the first Patriot missile unit to engage an Iraqi Scud. Color plates of unit patches, plus other fascinating elements from the conflict are showcased, along with a unique comparison of Operation Desert Storm to the conflicts in Vietnam and Korea. Order Of Battle is an essential reference for military buffs, insignia collectors, war gamers, and students of ground combat in modern warfare.

Tom Dinakus'Desert Storm book is an extremely handy volume for anyone interested in modern armies. It is particularly valuable for anyone reading other accounts of the Desert Storm campaign, as it provides a more comprehensive explanation of the forces deployed during the war than is available in most other books on the subject. Even if you're not interested in Desert Storm, it provides a very useful guide to the composition of the US Army at the height of its powers in the days immediately after the end of the Cold War.

An accurate order of battle is a necessity for understanding any military situation. Whether writing a book, designing a wargame, or preparing a briefing for decision-makers - I've had many opportunities to do all three - I found that order of battle separates facts from rumor or opinion. I have also found that too often, military history books do not provide adequate orders of battle or that they provide only a single "snapshot" of a complex process.

This book is an accurate, thorough description of the complex organizations of land combat that won the Gulf War. It covers the US military and the broad spectrum of allied forces, with notes as to equipment, operational role, and dates of arrival and departure in-theater.

Invaluable for any future historian or for the veteran who wants to be able to point out their outfit and show their part in the victory. Those who have read other accounts of the Gulf War (such as those published by the GPO as well as the wide range of memoir literature) will find this a useful supplement. Those who have found Shelby Stanton's US order of battle volumes on World War II and Vietnam useful will find this more so due to the inclusion of allied forces and greater context. And the hard-core OB specialists will need to have this on the shelf near their copies of Joslin and Tessin.

Order of Battle : Allied Ground Forces of Operation Desert Storm, is a pretty concise order of battle book on the larger units that were deployed during DESERT STORM. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Reserve components are listed here. Additionally there are summaries regarding the conflict and the weapon systems involved. ... The price is very reasonable for this published resource and can be a point of departure for future study.

Most order of battle books merely provide a listing of units participating in a specific war or campaign. Tom Dinackus' Gulf War order of battle study goes far beyond that. He not only covers US Army and Marine Corps combat units, but addresses Allied units. For a conflict so recent it is surprisingly difficult to locate detailed information on the units involved. Even the Army's and Marine Corps' records and campaign participation lists are sometimes in error. Tom Dinackus by far provides the most comprehensive work on this subject. Another area in which this book excells is the analysis of the types of combat units deployed, which allows one to examine the build-up of Allied forces. It also provides the task organization for combat of these units, or how they were cross-attached and reassigned to different commands for the actual conduct of the 100-hour ground war. This makes it a particulary valauble research aid.

This is the most accurate and comprehensive "order of battle" book I have ever read. It provides the researcher and war game enthusiast will all the data one could ever want. The depth of detail and the author's accuracy regarding my specialty (Marine Corps) is amazing. Mr. Dinackus covers virtually every aspect of the American armed forces during the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991 including combat, Aviation, naval, service, and support units in Southwest Asia and even covers those that did not go "Downrange." Bravo Zulu.

I want to write something special about this book..instead just look at the authors who reviewed it. That alone speaks volumes as to how good this book is and how much information is packed into it's pages.

Best Buy !

Great for finding out what units were where and what they did during the 100 hour war. Provides information on when appeared in theater and what they did during Desert Storm. Also provides information on Reserve and National Guard participants.

If you a war gamer this work will do just fine. However, if you
are a professional soldier or military scholar you will find a
big topic of information missing. Military order of battle contains detailed information on unit commanders and key (general officer) staff. Dinackus should have provided at least the names - rank - branch of commanders down to battalion and
similar data on all Generals. The one time he looks at General Schwarzkopf in the form of a bio sketch it is very light. All in all this is not a work that should have gotten by the editor.