Philip Jowett

My main intention on picking up this booklet was to learn some more details about Japanese home defense, besides the fact that Philip Jowett is usually a reliable read; he has the Osprey formula of striking color art and dense information down pat.

If there is a broad lesson to be taken from this exercise it's how inadequate Japanese resources were in the face of their ambitions, particularly as society slouched towards total collapse in 1945. I'm well aware of the crimes of the Japanese show more military 1931-1945, but the overall effect leaves me with a feeling of poignancy; more so than the the tail-end of the Third Reich. show less

This is another one of those Osprey booklets that, while fine on a factual basis, has been superseded a bit on the interpretive front. In particular, it's now appreciated that Helsinki had aggressive designs on Soviet Karelia from almost Day One of the republic, and that pressure from London and Washington had a lot more to do with Finland ceasing operations in the Continuation War than any sense of satisfying war aims. Still worth reading though.

More Osprey at its most workmanlike, as the real focus here is orders of battle, uniforms, and timelines. However, it is much better than nothing, particularly for the student of the Spanish Civil War, who has probably picked up a vague sense of the conflict in question, but really has no detailed knowledge. I personally always wondered about what the scale of the conflict really was, and how the Spanish forces were smashed at the start, and those questions were answered.

Philip Jowett is Osprey's usual author when it comes to 20th-century wars and armies in what might have been considered secondary theaters of action, though with developments in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire and China one might argue that the tables have been turned. Be that as it may, this booklet is up to Jowett's previous standards in providing an overview of the action and the nuts and bolts of the forces involved; no one does better with making a chronological outline serve the show more purposes of narrative than Osprey. About the only thing to be missed is some bibliographic apparatus, and Osprey has a strong enough website that they should really start providing such information there; it is to be admitted that 48 pages is a brutal length to work with. show less