Field Equipment of the European Foot Soldier 1900-1914
Review on Amazon: Published in 1902 by the French Army, and translated into English, this work is the most detailed study of the equipment carried by the infantryman of Europe, from the late Victorian period at the turn of the Century through to the outbreak of the Great War. It covers the clothing, rifles, knapsacks, cartidge boxes, small articles of equipment, web gear, camp tools and personal items. It also shows tables of nomenclature and weights of each item. They have added the British 1908 Pattern Web Gear manual, as they were the only nation to change just prior to the Great War. This manual covers Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Austro-Hungary, Russia, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Norway, Holland, Sweden & Switzerland.
1994 reprint of l902 and 1908 editions, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, 206 pages, 40 photos, 23 plates of line drawings of equipment. new hard bound with decorated cover.
Copies available from several sources if you google it. Price seems to be between £20-30.
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
There are a lot of copies on abebooks; it is by Commandant Henri Lavisse, or Commandant Emil Charles Lavisse.
The dates in Amazon's review made me smile a little, as well:
"European Foot Soldier 1900-1914... Published in 1902... detailed study of... equipment... from the turn of the Century through to the outbreak of the Great War."
That's clever, that is.
That aside, it sounds like a good book, and I will add it to my list. Thank you.
High guys, got an international browsing problem down here so can't do much om google! Can you tell me if the book covers the "minors" or just the big powers? How does it do on the Balkans?
Regards, Brennan
PS the problem is in part a connectivity one so attemps to upload a post with my latest conversion write up are drowning in frustration! At least it's better than a few weeks back when some careless @#$%^&* put a truck through/over a roadside cabinet & ripped up several hundred metres of fibre optic cable - cause 1st a complete shut down then horrible bottle necks (once service was rerouted) before the cable was replaced!
-- Edited by Brennan on Tuesday 25th of May 2010 05:59:06 AM
