Gordon L. Rottman (1947–2026)

Osprey's The Rocket Propelled Grenade is a truly outstanding introduction to this great battlefield equalizer, solving many puzzles, such as its name RPG. "Rocket Propelled" never made much sense, what other purpose than propulsion could a rocket have? RPG actually is the Russian abbreviation of Reaktivnoi Protivotankovii Granatomet. The Russians have a real talent to develop sturdy, cheap and simple weapons.

These weapons deliver bang for the buck in asymmetric warfare, offering the modern show more Davids a chance against today's Goliaths. It just happens that today's Davids are the enemies of the West. Thus, like the Kalashnikov, the Soviet designed RPGs are the weapon of choice of rebels, insurgents and terrorists. Flexible light infantry forces which try to survive on a highly mechanized battlefield. Defensive measures against RPGs further increase the sticker price of weapon systems and reduce their flexibility, thus making them less suitable in an asymmetric conflict.

Rottman is highly knowledgeable about this topic and has personally experienced the RPG's power during his service in Vietnam, which results in a condensed and excellently illustrated booklet. On the strength of this title, I will probably pick up Rottman's other title in this series about the Browning gun. The only thing not working in the Osprey Weapon series are the amateurish, out of place paintings. Give the authors those four extra pages to work with. show less

This is a book that you can read by its cover as Rottman provides a good overview of the U.S. Army's cavalry arm's efforts to remain relevant and keep their identity long after there was no denying that the time of the horse had basically passed in war.

As is typical for me in regards to this series, I'm left with the sense that the parts are less than the whole. Still, some of the parts are pretty good, as Rottman is able to say intelligent things about the machines, the training and outlook of the crews, and the operational and tactical situation. When it's all said and done though, I would still prefer more tactical coverage. Single biggest insight: That by Kasserine Pass the M3 medium was already out of production and only two U.S. tank show more battalions in theater were using it in battle. Biggest annoyance: The howler where Rottman refers to "hussars" as heavy cavalry, when in German parlance they were always light cavalry (maybe the author was thinking about the Polish hussars). show less

Another workmanlike number in the long-running series. Apart from the level of detail that Rottman provides about the making of combat engineers in the Heer perhaps the most striking thing is how much these men accomplished with so little heavy equipment when it came to actual construction. If I found a particular lack I'd like to have known more about how these troops felt about their role as specialists in using flamethrowers, and how much they trusted their equipment.