Author: chef (Page 1 of 28)

Cover Basic Field Manual Vol III — Part of the cover of the US Army Basic Field Manual Vol III from 1935

US Army Field Manuals – A Collection

April 27, 2025 / chef / 2 Comments

Full Disclosure: This is me advertising one of my own side projects
Over the years I’ve collected quite and amount of the publicly available US Field Manuals that set down doctrine and guidelines for the way the US Army trains, organizes, and operates. The collection is still woefully incomplete, but contains now ~1900 files of US Army Field manuals from 1930 to 2024. I hope it will be a useful resource for anyone interested in the US Army and its history.

URL: https://sites.google.com/view/fieldmanuals/

VDV Manuals – A collection

March 19, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Keeping it up with military manuals, in 2021 some friendly reseacher posted a huge cache of military manuals and publications from the academy of the Russian Airborne Forces, the Воздушно-десантные войска России (ВДВ), or VDV. Again a translation is necessary, which fortunately can be done for free with a range of tools online these days. But the files deserve their mention, especially since the site is virtually invisible on search engines these days, and not everone as the stomach to go Ex to view the sites Twitter account.

URL: http://russianairbornetroops.info

Publications by the Austro-Hungarian Kriegsarchiv

March 1, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Das Kriegsjahr 1683

nach Acten und anderen authentischen Quellen dargestellt in der Abteilung für Kriegsgeschichte des K. K. Kriegs-Archivs, 1883

Feldzüge des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen

Österreichischer Erbfolge-Krieg 1740-1748

Nach Feldakten und anderen authentischen Quellen bearbeitet in der kriegsgeschichtlichen Abteilung des k.u.k Kriegsarchivs von Aurel von le Beau und Rudolf von Hödl

Volume I. Part1, Wien 1896
Volume I, Part 2, Wien 1896
Volume II, Wien 1897
Volume III, Wien 1898
Volume IV, Wien 1914
Volume V, Wien 1904
Volume VI, Wien 1905
Volume VII, Wien 1905
Volume VIII, Wien 1905

Geschichte der Kämpfe Osterreichs. Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz

Im Auftrag des K. und K. Chefs des Generalstabes herausgegeben von der Direktion des K. und K. Kriegsarchivs ·

Teil 1: Der Krieg gegen die Französische Revolution, 1792-1797
Band 1: Einleitung, Wien 1905
Band 2: Der Feldzug 1792, Wien 1905

Teil 2: Der Krieg 1809
Band I: Regensburg, Wien 1905
Band II: Italien, Wien 1905

Various

Biografien K.K. Heerführer und Generale, Wien 1888

Kriegs-Chronik Österreich-Ungarns.
Militärischer führer auf den Kriegsschauplätzen der Monarchie · Bände 1 – 14, Wien 1885

Der Krieg in Italien, Nach den Feld-Acten und anderen authentischen Quellen bearbeitet durch die Abtheilung für Kriegsgeschichte des K.K. Kriegsarchivs
3 Band: 1876, 490 pages

Die Occupation Bosniens und der Hercegovina durch K. K. Truppen im Jahre 1878, Wien 1879
Der Aufstand in der Hercegovina, Süd-Bosnien und SüdDalmatien 1881-1882, Wien 1883

Mitteilungen des K und K. Kriegsarchivs

Mittheilungen des K.K. Kriegs-Archivs 1. (Neue Folge, 1887)
Mittheilungen des K.K. Kriegs-Archivs 2. (Neue Folge, 1888)
Mittheilungen des K.K. Kriegs-Archivs 3. (Neue Folge, 1889)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 4. (Neue Folge, 1889)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 5. (Neue Folge, 1891)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 6. (Neue Folge, 1892)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement (1892)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 7. (Neue Folge, 1893)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 8. (Neue Folge, 1894)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 9. (Neue Folge, 1895)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 10. (Neue Folge, 1898)

Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement. Geschichte K. und K. Wehrmacht 1. (1898)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement. Geschichte K. und K. Wehrmacht 2. (1898)

Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 11. (Neue Folge, 1899)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs 12. (Neue Folge, 1900)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement. Geschichte K. und K. Wehrmacht 3/1. (1901)
Mittheilungen des k.u.k. Kriegs-Archivs – Supplement. Geschichte K. und K. Wehrmacht 3/2. (1901)

Catalogues and Bibliographies

Katalog der Bibliothek-Abteilung des K und K. Kriegsarchivs

Band I, Erster Teil, Wien 1896 – Kriegswissenschaften und Heerwesen im Allgemeinen, Truppenkunde, Heeresorganisation ; Heeres-Ergänzung und Verwaltung, Personalvorschriften ; Truppenausbildung, Dienst und Exercieren ; Kriegskunst ; Waffenwesen und Artillerie

Band II, Zweiter Teil, Wien 1896 – Kriegs- und allgemeine Baukunst ; Technologie und Verkehrswesen, Militär-, Train- und Pferdewesen ; Terrainkunde ; Seewesen ; Mathematik ; Naturwissenschaften ; Sanitätswesen ; Geographie, Statistik, Volkswirtschaft, Reisen

Band II, Erster Teil, Wien 1897 – Kriegsgeschichte ; Heeres- und Truppen-Geschichte ; Militär-Schemata

Band II, Zweiter Teil, Wien 1897 – Allgemeine und Staatengeschichte

Band II, Dritter Teil, Wien 1897 – Biographien, Mémoires und Correspondenzen ; Staats- und Rechtswissenschaft, Culturgeschichte und Religionswesen ; Philosophie, Unterrichtswesen ; Sprachwissenschaft, Literatur und Kunst ; Encyklopädie ; Bibliothekswissenschaft, Bücherkunde und Archivwesen

1. Nachtrag, Erster Teil, Wien 1905 – 1, Nachtr. 1 / Von 1897 bis Ende 1904

1. Nachtrag, Zweiter Teil, Wien 1905, 2, Nachtr. 1 / Von 1897 bis Ende 1904

1. Nachtrag, Autorenverzeichnis, Wien 1905, Nachtr. 1 / Von 1897 bis Ende 1904

Screenshot of Ukrainian Field Manuals - https://sprotyvg7.com.ua/vijskovi-publikacii

Ukrainian Field Manuals – A Collection

February 28, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

The Ukrainian people were forced into a brutal war by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and had to adapt quickly and creatively to stand against the numerical superiority of the Russian Army. Support from the West was often lackluster and unreliable, many NATO states themselves torn between rising nationalist sentiments, pacifist traditions, and the desire to help a democratic European nation to defend itself.

The Training Department (G7) of the Headquarters of the Territorial Defense Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine follows the example of the US Army and has made most of its manuals available online to the public. With a bit of automated translations, a lot of knowledge about the Ukrainian Army is available in these documents.

As of this writing, the war is neither decided nor over, and we sincerely hope the West can find its way back and be a staunch defender of democracy and freedom.

URL: https://sprotyvg7.com.ua/vijskovi-publikacii

Winds of Change

February 27, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Most likely, if you end up on this website, you got sick of the song some three decades ago. But this is not about the Fall of the Wall, this is about my own little corner of the web, and some changes will be coming this year. I have not properly played Europa in over a decade, and I do not thing I will ever get my shipment of “Total War” I paid more than two decades ago. So all things “Europa” will be rounded out by files, and then assembled into an Europa archive for those still interested. And yes, I will continue to add game reports, but I would like to focus a bit more on military history. The library will become a place for online available sources, some of which may be a bit harder to find. There will be a new bibliography for the Austro-Hungarian military history, and some lists of available regimental histories as well, and I will structure and revisit the Link section, too.

As in the past, more important things like family and job mean I will rarely have time to create my own original content – it took me three or four months to research and write “Battle of Balakliya”, and its not even a very good essay, more of a test case. So I will do what I have done for the last thirty years: Look for cool things other people have written or done, and point you to them. Ever since I had to steer my career away from the academic work on military history, I have always been grateful to have the possibility to collect, curate, and assembling things I was no longer able to focus my work on. So if you have anything to share on the topics of the organization and equipment of military forces, I will always be grateful if you share.
Also, ask me about my other collections.

Screenshot of the CDSG's website, January 2025 — Screenshot of the CDSG's website at cdsg.org, January 2025

The Coastal Defense Study Group

January 27, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Woe to the Europa player who ever would have to create maps for the US coast and put CD counters on them in any Europa scenario. Any game in which the Axis would be able to mount a significant threat to the US is one that has already turned sour for the Allies.
If you should find in such a predicament, though, the first and best source for such information would be the Coastal Defense Study Group and its exhaustive Wiki covering the history of US fortifications. The CDSG works to educate and preserve the history of the United States coastal defenses, and does so through conferences, a journal, and the already mentioned resources on the web.

URL: cdsg.org

The War against

January 20, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

… what exactly is unclear, but the shouting got too much for us. We will be deactivating the Twitter account of the Generalstab, There is not much else to say, it was fun while it lasted, but I refuse to look at the things promoted and shoved in my face on Twitter these days.

So the plan is to move to where the Sky is blueer during this year. I admit I have been lazy posting and engaging online a lot, since other projects took precedence. But I have been busy during the past years, and will actually be able to share some of the results soon, probably on the other long-term project the Ametria site. It will be more oriented towards interaction, scientific study and historic work, and sources will be king. I hope to interest some of you for it, come the time.

Thank you to the CDSG!

January 15, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

I recently found some time to work on putting the U.S. Field Manual Collection on a more solid footing, going through the various FM 21-6 (Index of Training Publications) and other lists to see what manuals are still missing, and seeing if they are available online. All this for a bigger update at the end of this month, when I will add roughly 200 new FMs or variants thereof, and correct some spelling errors.

Sometimes, the search for missing FMs ends at the gates of a mailing list who’s owners remain unresponsive. Sometimes, the reply comes quick, and I get more than I asked for. The webmaster of the Coastal Defense Study Group was so kind as to indulge my request for a couple of FMs and instead handed me their whole repository of documents, for which I am deeply thankful. I do not take donations for this website, but if you want to support the amazing work the CDSG does for the military history of the United States, please head over there and have a look!

Southern Sector in 1944: General Soviet thrusts and Axis pockets

An Epic Ending

January 12, 2025 / chef / 0 Comments

Ken Newall’s report of his solitaire game playing Scorched Earth had been a persistant source of entertainment for many readers on the Europa mailing list as well as for me. Finally I would the time to upload the last reports from the autumn and winter of 1944, concluding this monumental spectacle, and finishing with an insightful wrap up. The posts will be published over the coming weeks and conclude on February 19th. This should give me enough time to catch up with all the other exiting reporting that happened in the past years on the Europa list. So there will be no want for game reports this year, and I think I will stick to the schedule of having a new post every week for as long as I can make it last.

We are so back!

November 17, 2024 / chef / 0 Comments

Hey everyone,

welcome back! I went the easy way of not completely rebuilding, but switching out the vulnerable Plugin against newer ones, updating everything and trying to fix the most glaring security holes. The alternative would have been to import 1000+ pages into a new system, which I dreaded for … three years? And then dropped the idea. For now. At some point, a major migration will have to happen again, but not just now.

So we’re back online, with some game reports and articles still missing their proper side bar navigation, and some odds and ends broken, but in a much better state than the catatonic half-life this site’s had during and after the pandemic. Of course, this means there is now a host of new things to do – links to post, game reports to add, comments to answer, and all that. Going will be slow, but: We’re so back!

Thank you!

Das Kriegsjahr 1683

Feldzüge des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen

Österreichischer Erbfolge-Krieg 1740-1748

Geschichte der Kämpfe Osterreichs. Kriege unter der Regierung des Kaisers Franz

Various

Mitteilungen des K und K. Kriegsarchivs

Catalogues and Bibliographies

Katalog der Bibliothek-Abteilung des K und K. Kriegsarchivs

The Library

The Europa Magazine

The Grenadier

Executing the Schlieffenplan

The Nisei

Alexander Alexandrovich Novikov

Parachuting the Netherlands

Anglo-Greek Relations and British Strategy in the Aegean

Defending Sicily in Second Front

The Axis Allies in WW2

Notes on the Italian Army

Links

A Winter War – Game Report No 1

Balkan Front – Game Report No 1

Balkan Front – Game Report No 2

Fall of France – Game Report No 1

Fire in the East – Game Report

For Whom The Bell Tolls – Game Report No 1

For Whom The Bell Tolls – Game Report No 2

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Game Report No 4

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Game Report No 5

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Game Report No 6

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Game Report No 7

The Invasion of Spain

March to Victory No. 4

Over There – Game Report No 1

Over There – Game Report No 2

Scorched Earth Game Report

Second Front “Baby Grand”

Second Front from WitD

Second Front – Accountant Style Game Report

Second Front AAR No 5

Storm over Scandinavia: Arctic Thunderbolt

Storm over Scandinavia: Northern Theater of Operations

Northern Theatre of Operations

Storm over Skandinavia: Campaign for Norway

The Damned Die Harder

War in the Desert AAR 1

War in the Desert – Mini Wavell

War in the Desert AAR 3

Wavell`s War – Desert Cauldron Scenario

WitD/GE Test Game #2

Wavell’s War – ME/ER Scenario Game Report

Iraqi Campaign Game Report

Wavell’s War – Game Report No. 3

War of Resistance – Game Report No 1

War of Resistance – Game Report No 2

War of Resistance AAR 3

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