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5.0 out of 5 stars
Steven J. Zaloga Shines In M2/M3 Bradley, Feb 2 2004
By A Customer
This is a deceptively small book...containing a library of information. Zaloga starts with the armored personnel carriers of the 1950s, the birth of mechanized infantry combat vehicles in the Soviet BMP and West German Marder in the late 1960s, the faltering fits and starts of American MICVs of the Vietnam era, the merging of the armored cavalry and mechanized infantry requirements into one vehicle, and even mentions why heavy infantry carriers using converted tank hulls are shunned by most armies of the world. That's eleven pages of armored infantry carrying vehicle progress before Zaloga even begins to describe the Bradley Fighting Vehicle!Zaloga leaves no stone unturned. He quotes production figures per fiscal year. He describes the difference between the M2 infantry and M3 cavalry versions down to seating capacity and ammunition loads, with plenty of accompanying photographs. He describes when these vehicles were first fielded, and when the A1 and A2 models came out. Considerable detail is given to the weapons system, fire control, ammunition (including penetration stats!), even armor and its composition and thickness. This level of detail on a vehicle still in service is unprecedented. The only nits I could find was that Zaloga transposed H-series and J-series organization, and considering that the book was written in the mid-1990s, he doesn't mention the reorganization of Bradley squads around 1989-1990 when the six-passenger A2 series was fielded. On pages 33 and 34, he fails to mention that the 197th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized), attached to the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized), apparently never got Bradleys and went to war with M113s with Mk 19 40mm automatic grenade launchers. The figures for the armored cavalry regiment on page 34 are also off; it should be 123 tanks and 125 plus Bradleys in the regiment, with 41 of each in three squadrons, each squadron made up of three troops of nine tanks and 13 Bradleys each and one tank company of 14 tanks. Color plates for early-to-mid 1980s plain vanilla Bradleys are also absent, but not really missed as the overall Forest Green is pretty close to the grey in the black and white pictures. One thing I really would have liked to have seen is a list of when each unit upgraded to what model of the Bradley, but that's me. This book has an incredible amount of useful information in it about the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Technical data precise enough to be useful for wargamers, exterior and interior detail photos model builders will find most handy, evolutionary development and Gulf War descriptions for history buffs, this little book has it all. Dating from the mid 1990s, more recent developments are lacking, but still a most useful and fact-filled tome. Outstanding value for the money.
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