Michael Dorosh Posted March 11, 2007 Share Posted March 11, 2007 Just picked this book up along with three other new Osprey titles called German Infantryman. The German ones are execrable. One even has a cover photo of an artillery piece. They're mostly terrible. The US book seems good (the actual title is US Army Soldier Baghdad 2003-04 but I didn't want the subject line to seem contentious) but I am not an expert...more importantly, I guess I want to ask if anyone else has read it, and is there anything of value in it in regards to crafting US-Syrian scenarios for CM:SF? Or rather, any glaring errors we would be wise to avoid in doing so, or simply explanations of practices that would somehow apply to Iraq but not a hypothetical incursion into Syria? Is it possible the book is already out of date as far as extrapolating current US Army practices? Anyone have just a general impression of the book they want to share? And hey - are any of you IN it? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Ruddy Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 (Never pass up the opportunity to go head to head with the one and only Michael Dorosh) Osprey...? hmm... I do like/enjoy/use *some* Osprey publications, especially when painting miniatures etc... but I'm not sure that they'd qualify as either professional or academic sources. They seem for the most part to be more like History of Warfare for Dummies books. I am not familiar with the book in question, nor with current US Doctrine so I can't really comment on how valid it is. All I can say is: Osprey as a source? Are you grog enough? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 I think Osprey has changed its image in the past few years though. The recent series THE GERMAN ARMY for example, has some brilliant sidebars and contains info on such things as auxiliaries and civilian officers (Beamten) that aren't to be found in other mainstream sources. They are still uneven - GERMAN INFANTRYMAN highlights that - but there are some real gems among them now. I think your comments on Osprey were fair even 5 years ago, but they have done a lot to raise their standards, I think. Or maybe they just have better authors now. I still caution anyone not to use them exclusively, but the bad old days of misinformation that marked the MAA series are hopefully over. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunnersman Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 Execrable? Whoa! Where'd that come from? I'd thought I've heard them all. Not know them all...heard them all. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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