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This is an in-depth examination of the infantry platoon and squad in modern warfare. It performs an interesting comparison of the conscription based armies of the 20th century with the all-volunteer forces that are being sent to Afghanistan and Iraq. King contends that the well trained small units that master the specific drills for counter-insurgency are much more effective than the mass armies of the past, and that the very size of armies in WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam made it almost impossible to effectively train and lead them. He examines S.L.A. Marshalls highly contentious evaluation of US infantry participation in combat (see Men Against Fire) and supports Marshall's conclusion, at one point citing the passive role of Audie Murphy's and Alvin Yorks fellow soldiers while those two individuals were performing heroically .
The book looks at US, Canadian, British, French and German units. For the US King investigates the US Army in Western Europe, a high intensity non-stop campaign with heavy casualties and a sub-par replacement system. If he had balanced this with an examination of Army and Marine Corps units in the Pacific theater, with long intervals between very intense, short operations he might find even more evidence to support his conclusion.
Kings arguments are pursuasive and raise the question of what will happen to infantry units involved in high-tempo operations with heavy casualties, that is non-counterinsurgency operations.
As a former Marine Corps infantry officer I agree with many of Kings observations. I just wonder what will happen when they cut the training budgets and bleed the experienced leadership out of the units. However, the good news is that great cohesion is built around mastery of small unit combat skills. Any General officer who does not make that his focus should retire.
This book is expensive, yet it is worth the price and hopefully will come out in paperback. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested or involved in small unit training in the police or military combat arms.
- Hardcover: 560 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (April 22, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0199658846
- ISBN-13: 978-0199658848
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 1.2 x 6.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Customer Reviews: 1 customer review
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#3,655,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1078 in Arms Control (Books)
- #6767 in International Relations (Books)
- #10082 in Military History (Books)
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