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Rating: 
Summary: Must have Organizational History of the WWII USMC
Review: Gordon Rottman, a prolific writer and historian who has recent some of the best Osprey titles, succeeds brilliantly with this 3 volume organizational history of the USMC in WWII. In a clear concise manner, Rottman, manages to give a detailed overview of the development of the USMC order of battle during the war. This book, as well as the other two volumes, is a must have for those interested in the Marine Corps WWII order of Battle.
Rating: 
Summary: ORDER OF BATTLE
Review: SOME CONFUSION COULD BE AVOIDED IF THE BOOK HAD BEEN TITLED PROPERLY: "ORDERS OF BATTLE". BATTLE ORDERS IMPLIES THE SET OF FIVE PARAGRAPH FIELD, OPERATIONS, PATROL, ETC PLANNING NOTES SOMETIMES KNOWN AS (SMEAC)OR SITUATION, MISSION, EXECUTION, ADMINISTRATIVE AND COMMAND AND CONTROL. AN ORDER OF BATTLE IS A TINY PART OF SITUATION.IN NO WAY ARE THE TWO SYNONOMOUS. ORDER OF BATTLE IS ALSO NOT COMPARABLE TO "TO&E" OR TABLES OF ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT WHICH IS A THEORETICAL LIST OF MEN AND EQUIPMENT IN A GIVEN UNIT TYPE. IT IS EASY TO FLIP THROUGH A BOOK IN A STORE TO DETERMINE INTENT AND CONTENT. WHICH IS HOW I CAME TO PURCHASE IT-BUT IT IS CONFUSING WHEN ORDERING ON LINE. WILL THIS BE OF ANY HELP TO THE FUTURE BROWSER? ONLY AS A REMINDER TO CONFIRM THE TITLE IS NOT MISLEADING AND YOU ARE BUYING WHAT YOU WANT. BY THE WAY, I WANTED AN EARLY SET OF ORDERS OF BATTLE NOT A SET OF ORDERS THAT SENT MEN INTO BATTLE...SO I AM HAPPY WITH THE BOOK AND ONLY OBJECT TO AN ON-LINE PURCHASE WHERE YOU MAY NOT BE RECEIVING WHAT THE TITLE PROMISES.
Rating:
Summary: US Marine Corps Pacific Theater of Operaions, 1941-43
Review: This series of books is indeed intended as order of battle studies. The reason for the Battle Orders title though is becasue of disput between Osprey and another publisher. Osprey would have preferred to call the series Order of Battle, but the legal aspests precluded this.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent source, but like reading an Encyclopedia
Review: US Marine Corps Pacific Theater of Operations 1941-43 is the first of three volumes in Osprey's new Battle Orders series, which seeks to describe "command, deployment, organization and evolution of forces in battle...including doctrine, training, tactics and equipment." Rottman's first volume covers the period from Pearl Harbor to the landing on Bougainville in November 1943. Overall, this volume is an extremely usefully research tool packed with graphically appealing data, but the narrative is too sterile and does not read well. This lack of readability appears to be due to the series format, and readers expecting something akin to the Campaign or Essential Histories series will find these volumes difficult to digest.Despite the stylistic problems, US Marine Corps Pacific Theater of Operations 1941-43 gets off to a good start with sections that clearly define the four combat missions of the US Marine Corps, its doctrine and training, and unit organization. The 18-page organization section is particularly detailed, with numerous line and block charts of units from Amphibious Corps down to platoon. The 8-page section on tactics is also very detailed. A 7-page section on weapons and equipment and a 6-page section on C3I are also decent. The final section of the book is a 31-page summary of Marine combat operations in the Pacific in the first two years of the war (Corregidor, Guadalcanal, Russells and New Georgia, and Bougainville). While this summary section has a dozen tactical maps, it does not provide anything like the narrative provided in a Campaign title. Detailed orders of battle are provided for each operation - too detailed in fact, with names of each battalion commander taking 2-3 pages for major operations. A brief summary section at the end lists all USMC casualties in these operations. My only concern is that there is too little information on the Marine commanders, particularly notables like Vandegrift who was a major figure in these early operations. Once these three volumes are available, readers will have a great reference tool available on USMC operations in the Pacific Theater. Those readers who require very detailed order of battle information will particularly enjoy these volumes, but readers expecting more of a campaign-style history will find this material too encyclopedic. Ideally, readers will rely on earlier Osprey Campaign series titles on the Pacific War to provide greater depth on operations and use these volumes to understand the organizations, doctrine and tactics.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent source, but like reading an Encyclopedia
Review: US Marine Corps Pacific Theater of Operations 1941-43 is the first of three volumes in Osprey's new Battle Orders series, which seeks to describe "command, deployment, organization and evolution of forces in battle...including doctrine, training, tactics and equipment." Rottman's first volume covers the period from Pearl Harbor to the landing on Bougainville in November 1943. Overall, this volume is an extremely usefully research tool packed with graphically appealing data, but the narrative is too sterile and does not read well. This lack of readability appears to be due to the series format, and readers expecting something akin to the Campaign or Essential Histories series will find these volumes difficult to digest. Despite the stylistic problems, US Marine Corps Pacific Theater of Operations 1941-43 gets off to a good start with sections that clearly define the four combat missions of the US Marine Corps, its doctrine and training, and unit organization. The 18-page organization section is particularly detailed, with numerous line and block charts of units from Amphibious Corps down to platoon. The 8-page section on tactics is also very detailed. A 7-page section on weapons and equipment and a 6-page section on C3I are also decent. The final section of the book is a 31-page summary of Marine combat operations in the Pacific in the first two years of the war (Corregidor, Guadalcanal, Russells and New Georgia, and Bougainville). While this summary section has a dozen tactical maps, it does not provide anything like the narrative provided in a Campaign title. Detailed orders of battle are provided for each operation - too detailed in fact, with names of each battalion commander taking 2-3 pages for major operations. A brief summary section at the end lists all USMC casualties in these operations. My only concern is that there is too little information on the Marine commanders, particularly notables like Vandegrift who was a major figure in these early operations. Once these three volumes are available, readers will have a great reference tool available on USMC operations in the Pacific Theater. Those readers who require very detailed order of battle information will particularly enjoy these volumes, but readers expecting more of a campaign-style history will find this material too encyclopedic. Ideally, readers will rely on earlier Osprey Campaign series titles on the Pacific War to provide greater depth on operations and use these volumes to understand the organizations, doctrine and tactics.
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