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Disambiguation Notice:

The United States Army is not the same as the entire United States Department of Defense - please do not combine.

Image credit: U. S. Army

Series

Works by US Army

US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76 (1970) 1,384 copies, 9 reviews
The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants (2009) 172 copies, 3 reviews
U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook (2004) 152 copies, 1 review
FM 21-26 (2004) 149 copies
The U.S. Army Leadership Field Manual (2004) 108 copies, 1 review
U.S. Army Survival Handbook (2002) 93 copies
U.S. Army Hand-to-Hand Combat (2001) 89 copies, 2 reviews
Boobytraps FM 5-31 (1965) 83 copies
Infantry Drill Regulations (2008) 67 copies, 1 review
U.S. Army Zombie Combat Skills (2009) 48 copies, 1 review
FM 100-5 Operations (1976) 30 copies
THE LAW OF LAND WARFARE. (2017) 26 copies, 1 review
Combat in Russian Forests and Swamps (1951) 25 copies, 1 review
Drill and Ceremonies (2003) 22 copies
Special Forces Handbook (1996) 21 copies
Rigging : TM 5-725 (1968) 21 copies
Night combat [historical study] (2017) 21 copies, 1 review
Engineer Field Data FM 5-34 (2017) 19 copies
Sniper Training: FM 23-10 (1980) 19 copies
Airborne Operations: A German Appraisal (1989) 16 copies, 1 review
Military Symbols FM 21 30 (1973) 13 copies
Counter Sniper Guide (1985) 12 copies
History and Role of Armor (1970) 11 copies
Combatives: FM 3-25.150 (2004) 11 copies
Military Training (FM 21-5) (1959) 10 copies
U.S. Army Fitness Training Handbook (2003) 10 copies, 1 review
A pocket guide to France (1944) 9 copies, 1 review
Ranger Handbook 9 copies
Leadership Counseling (1985) 7 copies, 1 review
The Amphibious Eighth (1946) 5 copies
Survivability (FM 5-103) (2012) 5 copies
A pocket guide to Germany (1965) 5 copies
A Pocket Guide to Japan (1982) 5 copies
History, v Corps (1945) 5 copies
The Army Clerk (1943) 5 copies
FM 3-0 Operations (2008) 4 copies
Army (1997) 4 copies
Essential Army Manual (2011) 4 copies
Soviet Army Operations (1978) 3 copies
Railsplitters 3 copies
Desert Operations FM 90-3 (1992) 3 copies
Grenades and Pyrotechnics (1968) 3 copies
Army recipes 2 copies
1985 Weapons System (1985) 2 copies
Tm 30-303 Italian (1961) 2 copies
Our army at war 2 copies
FM 3-7 NBC Handbook (2020) 2 copies
WELDING THEORY (2000) 2 copies
FM 5-102 (1985) COUNTERMOBILITY. (1985) 2 copies, 1 review
Ranger Handbook (2011) 2 copies
Mortar Gunnery FM 23-91 (2012) 2 copies
M-1 Garand, TM 9-1005-222-12 2 copies, 1 review
The Officers' Guide (1942) 2 copies
Principles Of Quick Kill (1996) 2 copies
survival 2 copies
TC 25-8 TRAINING RANGES (2022) 2 copies
Army missiles, Rockets (1958) 2 copies
Interior Guard 2 copies
Transportation Operations (1995) 2 copies
Fire-Fighting Operations (1999) 2 copies
Review report: 1 copy, 1 review
Engineering and design: 1 copy, 1 review
Chesapeake Bay study; 1 copy, 1 review
FM 21-10 (2012) 1 copy
MRAP (M-AV) Handbook 1 copy, 1 review
Headstart 1 copy
Survival 1 copy
Overmatch 1 copy
[No title] 1 copy
Etiquette 1 copy
We, the 48th 1 copy
191 Tank Bn 1 copy
Army FY83 Overview (1982) 1 copy
Leadership 1 copy
Drill and Ceremonies FM22-5 1 copy, 1 review
THE NEW TESTAMENT (1942) 1 copy
A Short Guide to Iraq (1942) 1 copy
Drill and Ceremonies (2011) 1 copy
The Army 1 copy
FM 3-06 (FM 90-10) (2014) 1 copy
New Soldier's Handbook (1942) 1 copy
FIELD ARTILLERY GUIDE (1942) 1 copy
[No title] 1 copy
Pocket Guide to France (1944) 1 copy
Korea, 1950 1 copy
First Aid (2002) 1 copy
Cavalry - FM 17-95 (1977) 1 copy
OCS SOP 1 copy
Carbine, Cal. .30, M1 1 copy, 1 review
Soldier's BCT Handbook (1969) 1 copy
FM 23-8 1 copy, 1 review
FM 23-5, Caliber .30, M1 1 copy, 1 review
FM1-100 Army Aviation (1997) 1 copy

Tagged

army (120) Army Manuals (33) Army Reference (60) Artillery (42) Divisions (47) ebook (44) European Theater of Operations (48) Field Manual (53) Firearms (26) history (95) how-to (27) Infantry (63) Leadership (40) manual (90) military (355) military history (89) non-fiction (214) outdoors (47) reference (158) survival (208) to-read (86) training (28) Unit history (123) US (26) US Army (126) USA (44) war (52) weapons (40) WWI (74) WWII (379)

Common Knowledge

Gender
n/a
Nationality
USA
Disambiguation notice
The United States Army is not the same as the entire United States Department of Defense - please do not combine.
Associated Place (for map)
USA

Members

Reviews

102 reviews
I recently picked up a book from the library called The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants by the Department of the Army. Yes, that Army, the US Army and Pentagon are listed on the back page. This is a 'no-nonsense survival aid, {...} an essential guide for serious adventurers and the armchair botanist alike." I thought I would get some interesting information about locally edible and poisonous plants, but the book provided something else, a serious scare. First, the book covers the show more tropics, subtropics, and temperate zones, but covers very few edible plants from each region. That is OK, even if not great. In the beginning of the book it is stated that you should never eat any plants you can't securely identify to the correct species. Well, well - I would like to see the person that can identify any plant to the correct species based on the photos and descriptions in this book. I can't even see some of the plants in some of the photos. Many of photos are grainy, too dark, and over-tinted in green. And when they couldn't find good photos they resorted to stick figures of the plants, also badly pixelated.

The photos of sorghum grains, the only photo used to illustrate this plant, looks like a large bunch of small cockroaches on a tabletop. The description of sorghum, which supposedly is there to help you identify the plant, follows: "There are many different kinds of sorghum, all of which bear grains in heads at the top of the plants. The grains are brown, white, red, or black. Sorghum is the main food crop in many parts of the world." Would you be comfortable with identify a wild plant as sorghum after reading this? I mean, the only real description here is that the seed color can vary and that the seeds are in heads on the top of the plant. It doesn't even say it is a grass! Plant families are only listed for poisonous plants, I wonder why? If you get sick, only then you need to know the family?

The mixture of tropical with temperate plants provides some interesting contrasts. Sago palm (with a horrible photo), and sassafras (with a great photo, from the season when the plants have leaves) share one page. Same with prickly pear cactus (Opuntia) and pokeweed (Phytolacca, a plant which actually is very poisonous if raw or taller than 25 cm.)

Some information is dangerously wrong. The fish tail palm, which I recently saw in the botanical garden in Stockholm, is edible, but the fruits are toxic and the leaves can give you dermatitis (link)." In this manual, this is a perfectly fine plant without any warning signs at all. Only 17 poisonous plants are listed, and this book is supposedly covering the whole world.

Looking through this book I am starting to think it is a joke. Either that, or the American soldiers are much dumber than I thought. The text reads often like an essay by a 4th grader, for example:
"Look for sugarcane in fields. It grows only in the tropics (throughout the world). Because it is a crop, it is often found in large numbers."

This book is an embarrassment to the US government, US publishers, and botany. The book was published in 2009, and even if it was printed in China (true), I bet the material was provided from the US.

Remember that this book is called the "Complete guide..."? It is as complete and useful as the human anatomy chapter of a high school biology book is to a neurosurgeon. As a survival aid, this book is not very helpful, and could even be risky to use for the serious outdoorsman. I also really doubt there are any armchair botanists out there that would enjoy a book with so many botanical faults. I really hope the US Army provides their soldiers with better field manuals than this. There are many more and better books on this subject for those that really are interested in wild edible plants and wilderness survival.
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This book is a small compilation of reports written after the end of WWII by German officers on a variety of topics. In this case, all of the reports deal with small unit actions by the Germans and the Soviets. Needless to say, there is literally nothing out there that describe small unit actions (unless it is in a memoir), so the reports written and included in this book are definitely worth their weight in gold. The book is broken up into seven different chapters and include topics such as show more infantry, armor, engineers, fighting in the taiga and the tundra etc. etc. Within each topic/chapter, there are a bevy of small unit engagements described by the Germans. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every chapter, as they describe in minute detail what was going on from the tactical perspective, while we normally only get the operational perspective (i.e. the 30,000 foot perspective). I would highly, highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in combat on the eastern front. show less
I saw this book referenced in several books that I own. Finally found a reference copy in the main library in Portland. Actually they had both 1950 and 1959 versions. I was impressed with the original 1950 version published just after WWII. After some online searching, I found a 1950 (non-former library) version in Very Good condition and ordered same from a WA bookstore.

Loaded full of information and data about the US Army from the Revolutionary War up through WWII. You name it and it is show more probably found in this book. The source book bible! Not a normal book that you can sit down and read straight through. More of a book to savor select chapters when you have free time windows.

As I read other books that mention specific information, I just cross-reference the details in the Almanac to get a more complete picture of the topic.

The book includes a summary of naval history to compliment Army information and presentation of the the national command structure. Would love to find the equivalent book of naval history for my collection.

This is a very good book for research, data checking and cross referencing. A nice compliment to other books in my library. A worthy find.
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The authors had a collection of 157 examples of improvisation which were highly edited to produce the current work. It would have been simply better to publish all 157 examples "as is" rather than shape it into the current document to support present doctrine. True butcher job but an interesting read none the less.
½

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Statistics

Works
2,498
Members
9,326
Popularity
#2,584
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
93
ISBNs
914
Languages
3

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