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Europa Games and Military History

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The Ivy League

April 19, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Another research trip brought us to the Stanford Library, which hosts links to more than 1500 FMs in its catalogue. This enabled us to add 79 new MOS (Military Occupation Speciality) field manuals to the collection, as well as an yet uncounted number of other FMs which still need to be processed. Browsing through the complete Stanford holdings will probabaly keep us busy until May, when another big update will be ready. Also, we’re currently evaluating possibilities of hosting the collection on our own server, which would ease access and backups. 

On a side note, “discovering” these files while the are presented and catalogued very open, visibly and very publicly accessible makes us feel like green novices. It is as if this collection was something any decent librarian could click together in 5 minutes, and our academic experience and credentials do not help. So thank you to Stanford, and if you have any tips on how to improve this collection, let us know.

Here they currently are:

US Army Field Manuals from World War Two 

US Army Field manuals from the Cold War

US Field Manuals defining Military Occupational Specialities (MOS), 1976-1980

US Army Field Manuals since 2000

The Online Doctrine Library grows a shelf

March 10, 2026 / / 0 Comments

One of our side projects has been expanded in the past days, and we thought we share:

We recently found 340+ FMs published between 1976 and 1980 on google books, each defining a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), setting skill levels and knowledge expectations for a solider in a defined role on the battlefield. These files have been cleaned up and uploaded onto a separate google site, which can be be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/us-army-mos-fms

Besides the FMs defining MOS skill levels and knowledge, the new cache also yielded a large amount of FMs from between 1940 and 1982. Full statistics again on the About page, but we now haver 80% overall of all field manuals which we know of.  There are again slight discrepancies between out bookkeeping, the number of locally saved files, and the number of files online, but we*re working on that.

The new ones often were just better scans of existing files, but there are about 60 new  manuals in the library, with beauties such as FM 8-24 Community Health Nursing in the Army (1980) and FM 10-26 The Army Food Advisor (1977), but also key documents like FM 17-36 Divisional Armored and Air Cavalry Units from 1965 and FM 17-95.

Remnants and Additions

March 10, 2026 / / 0 Comments

This is the second part of the large update announced yesterday. Bsides the FMs defining MOS skill levels and knowledge, the new google books cache also yielded a large amount of FMs from between 1940 and 1982, which enabled us to full some gaps. Full statistics again on the About page, but we now haver 80% overall of all field manuals which we know of.  There are again slight discrepancies between out bookkeeping, the number of locally saved files, and the number of files online, but we*re working on that.

The new ones often were just better scans of existing files, but there are about 60 new  manuals in the library, with beauties such as FM 8-24 Community Health Nursing in the Army (1980) and FM 10-26 The Army Food Advisor (1977), but also key documents like FM 17-36 Divisional Armored and Air Cavalry Units from 1965 and FM 17-95 The Armored Cavalry Regiment from a year later. You’ll find them, as always, on the drive.

The new lords can do without serfs this time

March 9, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Google Books scanned a large amount of books from the New York Public Library, amongst them hundreds of FMs. However, since machines are now more important than humans, the scans were simply dumped into the cloud – all named identical, often several volumes clustered together in single files, no keywords, no categories, nothing. Humans might stumble on these by accident, but the AIs read them in full and build their own content representations from them. The overlords do not need humans to read anymore.

Among the volumes scanned we found 340+ FMs published between 1976 and 1980, each defining a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), setting skill levels and knowledge expectations for a solider in a defined role on the battlefield. These files have been cleaned up and uploaded onto a separate google site, which can be be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/us-army-mos-fms

The irony of using googles infrastructure while bashing their AI ventures is not lost on us, and preparations are under way to move everything onto our own hardware, should the need arise. For now, we hope you enjoy the addition to our little collection. 

Oh, and this collection also profited from the new content, since there were several FMs interspersed that were on out missing list, so some more updates about these coming in the next days.

Another First!

January 27, 2026 / / 0 Comments

day we have another first: The first two FMs exclusively available on this site, contributed by a reader! We are very grateful for Scott to have scanned FM 5-31 Use and Installation of Boobytraps (1956) and FM 21-50 Ranger Training and Ranger Operations (1962) from our Missing list, and provided the scans to us. We reduced the resolution of the scans in order to scale them down to a web-friendly sice, but the quality is still way better than most of the MHI-scans of older manuals. So a very big thanks to Scott, and you*ll find both manuals in their respective sections, or with the links above.

Small Change

January 25, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Yet another batch of field manuals, closing more gaps in the Cold war department. About 20 new manuals, from FM 5-31 Land Mine Warfare (1949) to FM 44-1 Antiaircraft Artillery Employment (1952), bringing the total in Cold War to 1458, if I am counting correctly.  Yes, thats not significantly more than before, I had to remove some doublets, too, again. I am sure there are more professional ways to handle a PDF collection like this, but most probably also involve more time than I have on my hands. And it is late, again. Also, I updated the missing list again to reflect the new manuals.

Folders, Shelves, Libraries

January 15, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The US Army Field Manual Collection has grown again, and is slowly being enlarged into an Online Doctrine Library . which means other documents than field manuals are being prepared for this year. For now, we had to split the collection into three parts:

US Army Field Manuals 1930 (the year they started being numbered) to 1946
US Army Cold War Field Manuals (1947-2000, the year the numbering system saw massive changes)
This is the main site, which also contains updates and a missing list.
Recent US Army Field Manuals (since 2001, covering the war on terror)

In preparation are sites on US Air Force manuals, US Navy Manuals, and Ukrainian Army Manuals. No fixed timeline for publication, though, as usually. Plus there are a couple of game reports in our inbox, we hope to be able to put those up, too, at some point.

Tentatively Optimistic

January 8, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Good news, everyone! There is a new, official, “Europa” game company, formed by some veteran gamers and game designers, which acquired the trademark rights from Rich Banner. I know little more than whats in the announcement, so I will link to it and wish everyone involved a lot of success, for it would be great to take the old lady out to dance once more.

https://classiceuropa.groups.io/g/main/message/9712

I am delighted to see some news at all, look forward to what the company will release, and at the same time are a bit melancholic since I am not sure I will find partners – and time! to play Europa again soon. But this is good news indeed!

In Memoriam Ike Skelton

January 2, 2026 / / 0 Comments

And another small round of additions, this time based on another visit of the Ike Skelton Library Website, after a couple of google results showed us documents we had overlooked at our first trawl. The following manuals have been added:

FM 19-20 Criminal Investiation (1945)
 FM 44-95 Service of the Piece Multiple Gun Motor Carriages M15 and M15A1 (1944)
 FM 6-100 Tactics and Technique of Division Artillery and Higher Artillery Echelon (1944)
 FM 6-105 Armored Division Artillery (1944)
 FM 6-120 Field Artillery Observation Battalion (1945)
 FM 6-130 Field Artillry Intelligence (1945)
 FM 6-135 Forward Observation (1944)
 FM 6-195 Service of the Piece. 8-inch Gun M1 and 240-mm Howitzer M1 (1946)
 FM 6-77 Service of the Piece, 4.5-inch Gun M1 (1944)
 FM 6-77 Service of the Piece. 4.5-Inch Gun M1 (1941)
 FM 6-95 Field Artillery Field Manual. Service of the Piece. 240-mm Howitzer, M1918 (1940)
 FM 6-120 The Field Artillery Batallion (1952).pdf
 FM 6-122 Artillery Sound Ranging and Flash Ranging (1957).pdf
 FM 6-130 Field Artillry Intelligence (1948).pdf
 FM 6-20-2J Division Artillery, Field Artillery Brigade, and Corps Artillery Headquarters (1984).pdf
 FM 6-30 The Field Missle Battalion Corporal (1959).pdf
 FM 6-38 Field Artillery Missile (Sergant) (1962).pdf
 FM 6-50 Tactics and techniques for the Field Artillery Cannon Battery (C1) (1990).pdf
 FM 6-91 Service of the Piece 8 inch Howitzer, M2 Truck-Drawn  (1948).pdf
FM 101-10 Staff Officers Field Manual. Organization, Technical and Logistical Data (1945)
FM 101-10-2 Staff Officers’ Field Manual. Organizational, Technical and Logistical Data (1965)
FM 21-30 Concentional Signs, Military Symbols, and Abbrievations (1943)
FM 21-45 Protective Measures, Individuals and Small Units (1942)
FM 21-50 Military Courtesy and Discipline (1942)
FM 23-50 Browning Machine Gun, Caliber .30, HB, M1919A4 (1942)
FM 24-75 Telephone Switchboard Operating Procedure (1944)
FM 25-6 Dog Transportation (1944)
FM 30-15 Examination of Enemy Personnel Repatriates Documents (1940)
FM 30-25 Military Intelligence. Counterintelligence (1940)’
FM 31-25 Desert Operations (1942)
FM 31-50 Attack on a Fortified Position and Combat in Towns (1944)
FM 44-59 Service of the Piece–Multiple Gun Motor Carriage M15 and M15A1 (1944)

This brings the World War II manuals up to 403 manuals and 75% of all manuals known to us as existing. Happy New Year everyone! 

P.S.:

The Missing List has been updated, as well as the document summary. However, there are currently still a lot of errors in my master List (shouldn’t try doint this late at night all the time), so the missing list is not really reliable right now. We’re working to get things in order.

Another year at the ODL

December 30, 2025 / / 0 Comments

The free days over the holidays, when not spent with family, provided us opportunity for yet another round of research, reordering, and publishing. By no means done, we at least can present the first results: 

Anyway, enjoy the new material, and have a wonderful 2026!

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