Customer Reviews

Order of Battle: U.S. Army, World War II

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I found my copy of this large (9 1/2" x 12") and somewhat heavy (4 lbs or so), well-made, well-organized book in a military collector store in Pineville, NC for $20. I see now that it is out of print and is bringing $120 used. My copy is in excellent condition, save for a small tear on the dustcover jacket. Anyway, to the review.......... This book is the main staple in my enormous WW2 collection. At 604 pages, it stops at nothing to give you in painful detail the US Army organization in WW2. It's all here - divisions by number, infantry, armor, cavalry, tank destroyers, field artillery, coast and anti-aircraft artillery, engineers, campaign key codes, ghost and deception divisions, and color photos of infantry and armored shoulder patches. Every unit is broken down into unit history, camps and forts activated and stationed, casualty numbers, commanders (generals) and their service dates, and a play by play timeline of campaigns, areas of battle and battles fought. I'll never give up my copy of this book. It is my side-arm for knowledge. If you can find a means to pick one up, I strongly suggest it.

Shelby Stanton has assembled a massive collection of information on every battalion-sized unit or higher that fought in WW II. Detail includes TO&E, campaign credits, overseas moves, redeployments, and much more. This is a must have reference for any WW II historian.

Oder of Battle: US Army, WWII is the way to start from. Covers all major formations during the war and covers the Combat regimental assigments during this period. As a general source of information this book can not be rivalled. This also gives the reasearcher a start on working on a day by day OB for the US Army in WW2. I highly recommend this book to all students of military history.

Shelby Stanton's 1991 book "Order of Battle, U. S. Army, World War II" is a reference you can't get along without if you're serious about researching the history of the major tactical units of the Army ground forces from battalion through division. Within this framework are included all armored, cavalry, tank destroyer, coast artillery, antiaircraft artillery, infantry, chemical mortar, and engineer units. That's not everybody that on occasion served in a frontline rifleman capacity, Stanton acknowledges, but he had to limit the work to keep it manageable.

Stanton's "Order of Battle" is every bit the equal in scholarship (and size, too!) of the volumes known collectively as "U.S. Army in World War II", the official record published by the U. S. Army Office of the Chief of Military History and its successor, the Center of Military History. One has to wonder why Stanton's book was not published as one of the volumes of the widely-known "green books" series.

But it apparently is claiming a place among the minutely-detailed and factual histories of the Army in World War II. If you're into that sort of thing, you see Stanton's book cited ever more frequently in discussions of fine points.

"Order of Battle" is likely in fewer libraries than the volumes of the official "U.S.Army in World War II". But it's worth looking for.

Shelby Stanton, an attorney, was born after World War II, in 1948, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, graduated from Louisiana State University, and served in Vietnam as an infantry captain.

This book sets what should be the standard for all order of battle books. Units down to battalion level are detailed. Not only the composition of the units is given but also the location of the unit and campaigns participated in are listed. I have yet to see another o/b book this detailed.

I found this book to be the most helpful source of information on unit histories for all ground troops in World War II for the U.S. Army. If you are a World War II history buff, and you really want to know the facts about how each group won the war in the European Theatre, this is your book. It also gives some general history for each unit before and after the war.