Army Uniforms of World War 2 [antikvár]

PREFACE Malcolm McGregor and I have set out to illustrate and describe the field uniforms of twenty-four nations who fought in World War 2. Each major campaign has been covered chronologically and illustrated by a commander, officer and soldier of the opposing forces in typical clothing and equipment. It has not been possible to include every country and if we offend national susceptibilities by the omission or slight coverage of any we apologise, for it was not our intention. We have tended also to give preference to the smaller independent armies, each of which had completely different traditions and uniforms, rather than show endless variations on the battle dress theme which was so prevalent in British colonial and dominion troops. This equally applies to the colonial armies of the other European nations. The Far Eastern theatre has also received less attention because of its complexity. In the 14th Army in Burma 118 different languages and dialects were spoken, and each of those peoples wore their own distinctive dress or badge. This volume deals specifically with army uniforms and it is now going to be followed by a companion volume on naval and air force uniform. For this reason we have not included air force or naval units even if they fought on land. One exception has been German parachute troops, who inconveniently transferred from the army to the air force before the war. Germany was the only country to place its airborne forces under air force command, so it would be illogical to exclude them. The same reasoning in reverse lies behind the omission of the Soviet Russian and American air forces which were not independent arms but a branch of the army. Auxiliary and paramilitary forces such as resistance movements, partisans, police and anti-partisan formations have been included although technically they were not part of the armed forces. A.M.