Category: News (Page 1 of 15)

75%

June 5, 2026 / chef / 0 Comments

75% is what we have now.

3.484 field manuals are now in the library, which is 75% of 4.614, which is the number of all field manuals of which we have knowledge so far. The upload to the MOS-department is happening as I am typing this, and the FMs will be added next week – I need at least the weekend to check for duplicates, and version control.

A lot of of older FMs, especially in the Second-World-War-Range, will be replaced with higher resolution ones, which we have recently found a new source for. The “Missing”-List needs to go back online, and we plan to change the hosting arrangements a bit. But this is now definitly the largest, most complete collection of US Army field manuals anywhere on the web.

Have a great weekend!

Hacks and Crooks

May 18, 2026 / chef / 0 Comments

Today we’re uploading another 200 MOS Field Manuals to the library, which brings the total to a little over 3400 of the 4500 FMs we know of as today. We got a bit distracted by discovering a nice way to download full documents from yet a different source, which is yielding a lot of high-resolution-scans of older manuals. So the 200 new ones are an intermediate step, with about 300 more still to be reviewed, and of course the “regular” FMs need to be processed yet.

Enjoy the read, and if you have anything missing to add, we will always be grateful!

Decimated

April 23, 2026 / chef / 0 Comments

Just a short update: Another 99 (so not quite a decime) Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) field manuals have been added to the library, bringing the total to over 3100, with hundreds still left to be processed. As usual, you will find them at

https://sites.google.com/view/us-army-mos-fms

The Ivy League

April 19, 2026 / chef / 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 / chef / 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 / chef / 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 lords can do without serfs this time

March 9, 2026 / chef / 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 / chef / 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 / chef / 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.

Tentatively Optimistic

January 8, 2026 / chef / 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!