Jentz is one of the finest armor scholars around and Osprey usually does a good job with many of their titles but the publisher made a mess of this one. The reader will be annoyed by glaring editing errors, mispellings, awkward paragraph formatting, and poor proofing. The production history of the vehicle could also have been presented in tabular form instead of chunks of text. There is good info here but you will have to tolerate the inexcusable editing.

Jentz is one of the finest armor scholars around and the New Vanguard series is a budget edition for building a modeling reference library BUT the atrocious spelling, grammar, page/text layout & formatting sprinkled throughout the text seriously detracts from the value & enjoyment derived from perusing a well done reference publication. The editing is really inexcusable. Much information regarding production details could also have been presented more effectively in tabular form. The publisher did such a bad job on proofreading that only if you have a very high tolerance for the flaws and also believe that there are no errors in the factual content will it enable you to confidently accept the contents.

A great alternative to the expensive foreign imports today. Good information and color plates.

I like Peter David (David Peters) books as they are a nice leasure read. The plots are never so intense that you can't put the book down and pick it up again in a week and have to reread. I'm not saying there is no plot...he comes up with great plots but they are easy to follow. I actually bought this book by accident. (picked up the book in front of it and it was torn so I just grabed the book behind and tossed it in my basket). I am now getting read to oder 2 or 3 of the others in this series.

Originally published under PAD's "David Peters" pseudonym, there's nothing wildly exciting about this series. Still, they are pleasant Peter David fare, with standard David themes of the importance of personal freedom and the dangers of corrupting power, interspersed with the usually welcome David humor. There are some interesting bits about growing up in a world changed so much by pollution, but no new ground is broken here, either for fiction in general or for Peter David works. Quick reads, I'd recommend them for PAD completists, esp. if you can get them second-hand.

I was very surprised when I stumbled upon this series at the book store over the summer. I picked it up quickly as I am quite a fan of Peter David. Needless to say I was very happy with my purchase. Not only was the book fast paced, but it was surprisingly amusing. There a great moments in the book just after an exciting fight seen where you will find your self laughing out loud. There are few books where I find myself doing so. The rest of the series has been equally entertaining. The only shotcomming is the length of the books. If they weren't so great I don't think I would try and convice anyone to pick up such a small book for what is becoming an increasingly unreasonable price for books.

As with all of the Vanguard New Military series, this book is a compromise. It is not a photo book with line drawings for modelers, though it does have some color drawings. The mini history is good, covers all of the varients, but due to space, is short.

What irks me the most is that the cut away is hard to see the inside. I like to see what the inside of the vehicle looks like, it is very hard to do with this book & all of the others in this series. There should be line drawings of the inside from top, left & right perspectives. That would move this book into a five star rating. The photos are good, detailed, clear. Not much else is available at this time, a good addition to a collection.

This book is the main Leopard book you need. It covers the development of the first Lepard 1 in 1965, and gives you all the details of the version up to the Leopard 1A5. I also covers foreign versions and other versions made with the Leopard chassis. It includes colorful illustrations from Michael Badrocke, on of Britain's leading illustrators of military and other high-tec equipment.

The only reason why this book only got 4 starts, was because the rest of the book is only in black-and-white.

But the information is worth it for a Leopard 1 enthusiast!

As to the PJ's (Air Force Pararescue Jumpers) being "real life heroes of the perfect storm," the book only mentions ONE rescue attempt during the Perfect Storm by the PJ's. That attempt failed. In fact, the Coast Guard ship had to come out and rescue THEM. Yes, you can be a hero for an attempt, but let's not go overboard in naming our book after one rescue attempt in a much bigger event, where other agencies have a much better claim of being "the real life heroes."
The book focuses on "a PJ," coincidentally the author, not PJ's in general. The Perfect Storm part takes 30 pages, IF you include the soap opera parts about the wives calling each other for news. A pararescue helicopter and tanker was dispatched during the Perfect Storm to rescue a sailor doing a solo trip around the world. The rescue was aborted due to heavy seas, and the rescue helicopter itself ditched on the way back to base, with the loss of one airman. The helicopter ditched because it was unable to refuel with the existing drogue design. The author, in charge at the base, grounded rescue attempts of this airman due to his orders and impossible conditions. Because his men were angry at him for this, they made life hell for him: They stole his jacket, and snuck a bottle of booze into his luggage as he was about to fly into a Muslim country, which if discovered would have gotten Jack in enormous trouble. There's so much talk of the PJ "teamwork" ethos in the book -- but where did "teamwork" go when his men acted in petty ways, and caused Jack to have to leave command of the unit?
Parts of the book are interesting. Jack, of course, makes almost no mistakes, and his wife is a perfect angel. She understands when he says, "yes, I went to the strip bar, but that's where the debriefing session was held."
The unexamined assumption that OF COURSE men who work hard have to relax by drinking all night, having bar fights, and visiting strip joints is overdone.
The book does provide information about a little-understood group of airmen who put their lives on the line to rescue others in what can be very difficult situations, much like the Coast Guard rescue jumpers. Their main purpose is to rescue downed pilots and personnel in need of medical help, on land or sea, but they're also available to help civilians when civilian rescue agencies don't have the resources available.
There is some understanding of the mentality of repeatedly putting your life on the line -- you might as well die doing something you love, while helping others.
Although the author reports many accounts of mission failure and limitation due to a poor drogue design, making it difficult to for helicopters to refuel from tankers during rough weather, the author doesn't argue for a better, heavier, longer, wider (or whatever) fueling drogue design.

I thought this book was about PJ's in general, and then some additional detail about Jack Brehm's particular experiences. I was expecting it to cover PJ training, the Pipeline, various missions, etc. That is not the content of this book. This book is a biography of Jack Brehm, who happens to be a PJ. Many of the anecdotes in the book (more than half, it seemed like) are about Jack Brehm's family life and/or his relationship with his wife. There are many, many pages that barely mention his work as a PJ. And there are very few stories or accounts of PJs other than Jack Brehm. It's not necessarily bad, just not what the title had led me to expect.

One major anoyance when reading this book is the unabashed hero worship. I certainly feel that Brehm and other PJs are legitimate heroes, but the unrelenting worship, and the "perfect marriage" stories, really detract from the realism of the story. It also becomes very tedious to read.

Overall it is still a readable book because the subject is so inherently interesting. Just be aware before you buy it that it is a biography of a single PJ and not a book about the Pararescue service.

I really enjoyed this. The pace was quick and the stories were very engaging. It's interesting to read a book about heroes, written by one of them, when he obviously doesn't consider himself a hero. He sees all of his friends that way, though, and the humility of this view makes the book all the more enjoyable.

Highly recommended.

What makes the Merkava unique in modern MBTs is the engine in front approach to crew protection. This means that there is access via a hatch in the rear of the vehicle, yet there one interior drawing (cut away) is not detailed enough to gain a real appreciation of what the designers accomplished.

Overall, this book is ok for a modeler, but I would want to see more of the interior of this tank.

Because the IDF tank corps modifies the Merkava Chariot tank once each decade, then Mr. Katz should have known that the version for the entire next decade of 2000 to 2010 was only months away. Sure enough the announcement in November that the new Merkava Mk4 with the 1500 hspw pack with unique kinetic energy amunition was in production and under going field test that have exceeded 10,000 hours by November 5th, 1999. So much has been up graded electronically as well as performance that it rates as much fanfaren as the introduction of the first Merkava! I hope the author will consider an up dated or revised edition and yes, more color photo's and interior detail would not hurt either... Thanks

Many reviewers forget that this book originally came out in 1997 although the lastest New Vanguard reprint occurred this year (2002). What that means is although the Merkhava Mk.IV made its' debut this year, the book has material that is now dated (The book's text only alludes to the Merkhava Mk.IV).

However, the New Vanguard series isn't a sales brochure meant to be the latest and greatest, but a book of historical art plates and background information for modellers, gamers, and military history enthusiasts. If you're buying the book as I did looking for great color plates and some background information then this is a great buy. I love my copy. Peter Sarson, the illustrator, is world-renowned and well-deserving of his spectacular cut-aways and drawings. I've found the book incredibly useful for the paintjobs and extra detailing on the Merkhava models I'm working on.

Don't buy this book if you only want up-to-date statistical information about the Merkhava tank series...

BUT, do buy this book if you're looking for wonderful color plates of the Merkhava tanks, a useful history of the tank, some great photographs, and some other great information. I recommend the book for those reasons.

My only criticism is that the book gives the lion's share of credit for the Merkhava design to General Tal, but many sources are now beginning to credit another officer, Yisrael Tilan - who also designed the tank, quarreled with Tal and later left the project. Hopefully another publisher will eventually give Yisrael Tilan the credit that he deserves.

First and foremost, the introduction was very sad but made me keep reading. Although my sympathies lie more in the nationalist camp, through reading this book I was able to comprehend why the loyalists have done things like the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in '74. Taylor does a wonderful job of showing that in a conflict such as that in Northern Ireland, no one is innocent, and people feel forced to do things that they would never do under normal circumstances. I would have liked to have seen more about the loyalist splinter groups, as well as the UDA's connection to Combat 18, which is a British neo-Nazi group, but those are tiny little nit-picky details in a much wider conflict. Like his book on the IRA, Taylor has done massive amounts of research and interviews with this book. I feel sorry for the people who have died in this conflict in the past 33 years, and Taylor has shown me why I feel that way.

This is actually a very good book it shows the plight of both Nationalists and Unionists in Northern Ireland, but more importantly it shows how the Loyalist paramilitaries(the UDA and UVF) although not nearly as powerfull or as well trained as the Republican IRA and INLA, have never the less been able to kill over 900 hundred Catholic civilians. The book does a good job making a distinction between members of the UDA and UVF like Gusty Spence, who did not want to hurt Catholic civilians, and depraved killers like Johnny Adair and Billy Wright, who only killed innocent unarmed men and women. The one thing the book shows exceptionally well is how the UDA and UVF were Ultimately no match for the seasoned IRA(although they try to stoke thier inflated ego's by saying they were winning against the IRA when everyone agrees they were actually losing).

This book is blunt, painfully so in that it is chilling to hear people speak so openly about the atrocities they carried out in N. Ireland during the troubles. What other reviewers have failed to mention in their pro-nationalist writings, is the underlying feeling of alienation that the Loyalist people of Ulster are enduring. On one hand, republicans are relentless in their campaign of bombing and shooting, and on the other, the British Government, giving concession after concession to Sinn Fein/IRA. Add to that the Shankill bombing, Enniskillen, Warrenpoint etc, and one can understand the pent up hatred in the protestant population, manifesting into terrorism for some. This book tries to explain the rationale in the thinking of the people responsible for Loyalist violence, without condemning or condoning it. His insights in to how the escalation of the war by the new blood in the UDA and UVF ultimately brought about peace are controversial but probably right. Unionists are the majority and the IRA should accept that so that others don't have to pick up the gun to defend their way of life. A good read, it takes its place amongst the numerous books written on republican terrorism.

This book follows in the footsteps of other Zaloga titles, like "T-72", "Tank war-Central front", or just about anything else he has written. Paranoia of Russian weapons has seemed to be hunting Steven, as BMP is a clear reflection of that. The whole book is quite tilted in all aspects, from beginning to the end, he boasts of Western tank designs at the expense of Russian equipment. Illustrations are sharp, however no special variants are displayed in the drawings, just the standard BMP-1, 2, 3's). In other worlds, you want to have good illustrations of this vehicle for modeling purposes, then perhaps the books is what you need( even though frontal and rear color-plate drawings are scarce, 9 of 12 drawings are straight side-views ), however, if you want this book for educational purposes, my recommendation would be to look for a less biased source to get a fair evaluation. -david

Zaloga has been writing about Soviet hardware for many years for many respectable publications. This New Vanguard series is very informative for a book its size, has a lot of detail & pictures that are helpful to modeler and collector as well.

Zaloga captures well why this series of vehicles has not fared well on the battle scene. Its light armor does not do what it is supposed to do-protect its crew. The BMP1 weapons do not do what it they are intended to do- defeat the enemy. Too many blind spots, restrictions on range, poor sights make the early varients of the BMP1 a piece of junk. In my years as a Tank Commander studying this weapon system, crawling around in it and watching it run at various army posts, we never feared it. The BMP2, was a little better, at least fielding a 30mm automatic cannon that would pose a threat to a Bradley. The BMP3 is a very aggressive (desperate?) attempt to mount something for everyone. 30mm cannon, 100mm cannon, missles, this baby's got it all. But the armor is still too light for its crew and too much in a small package? Time will tell on that.

No book this size can please every reader, but I would definately recommend this one to all as a great primer on the IFV produced in greater numbers than any other, the one first mass produced.

I enjoyed the history of the Challenger tank and the author's frankness about its shorcomings (you do have to read between the lines, though, afterall, the author is British). These New Vanguard books are a compromise between larger, more detailed histories and photo books aimed at modlers. As with many compromises, not all will be satisfied. Its a good buy, what soured me was the interior cutaway lacked complete detail & is hard to see some of the drawing due to the way the drawing is cut out on the centerfold page. The older Vanguard series avoided this by having the interior drawings (and more of them) on one page.

The book in the Vanguard Series about the Challenger Main Battle Tank offers a good introduction about the development of the tank and its configurations. This is about as far the book goes. For a modeler who is looking for more close-up details and always hungry for a lot of color photographs in all prespectives possible, the book falls short of expectations. Modelers would be more rewarded from specialty publications like Concord Publications, Squadron "walk- around" series or the excellent publications from Verlinden.

A mismash of sociological, economic babble which doesn't seem to go anywhere. Are they trying to apologize for the shortcomings of the sectarian state or minimize them ? Their historical perspective is minimal. A complete waste of paper, ink and the readers time.

In this review, I will concentrate on the global approach of Bew, Gibbon and patterson on the Irish question. Their book itself is very good, especially their analyisis of contradictions within the unionist bloc. I recommend it to anyone interested in Northern Irish politics. But I think that what is highly contestable is their "red marxist" approach on the national question. in Ireland; they claim that the struggle for emancipation is opposed to the struggle for reuniting the country. They argue that "the democratic, that is to say the national stage of the Irish revolution seems to have been complete as it ever could in 1921." They claim elsewhere that recent "urbanisation and industrialization have relegated the national question to the margin of Irish politics" ; thus "there is nothing inherently reactionary about a national frontier which puts Protestants in a numerical majority". They even adavance that "Imperialism's real impact upon Irish society has not been a substantial one"!!! Thus, for them, the issue of partition has no substantial material basis, it divides catholic and protestant workers (thus hinders socialist struggle) they refuse to see it as a question of democracy and emancipation regarding it as an issue of "territorial completion". Socialists should work to democratize the two partition states and not concern themselves with national reunification as "reactionary nationalists" do. As to the mythical nature of the national question today, nothing could be further from the truth. Every single aspect of economic, political, and ideological life in the north of Ireland is overlaid, "overdetermined" by the national question. Until the national question is settled, there can be no "pure" class politics in Ireland. To presume that the left can organize solely on class issues is to judge that the national question will go away if we only ignore it. Or to presume that the working class in the north can forget about the national question and unite on social and economic isssues only is volontarism of the most crass kind. The conflict over territorial boundaries is not a question of some instinctual "territorial completion". It is not the struggle over the territorial extent of the NI state per se which, in an emancipatory perspective denies its legitimacy. The border is a geographical expression of the sectarian class relations through which the state operates, and on which its very existence depends. The border is the over-arching manifestation of the structural inequality between catholics and protestants. This is why socialists work to "smash the orange state", one of the main reasons being the irreformable caracter of the state. But, this is not to say that nationalism is suficient (or synonymous with) to bring socialism about. But, appart from their contestable views, it should be well stressed that the book is really worth reading, the authors are very rigorous in their analyses which attain a high level of quality, unfortunately abscent from most books relating to the questions relating to the north of Ireland. (For those who would like to have more bibligraphical informations on criticism relating to Bew, Gibbon, Patterson, contact me through e-mail). Liam O'Ruairc.

As per my subject...Great photos, but the commentary leaves a lot
to be desired. In my humble opinion, this book should be passed up, and the money saved put into a better book.

Design, editing and content are sloppy. (I have the St. Martin's Press edition, ISBN: 0-312-26098-9.) The insertion of quotations and insets is clumsy; as a result, the text doesn't flow smoothly from one page to the next. Also, sentences are repeated and sometimes cut off altogether (see the end of page 16 and the beginning of page 17; the sentence at the end of page 17 is incomplete as is the final one on page 124.) Perhaps the British edition by Spellmount Ltd. is free of these flaws, but I haven't seen it. Some of the insets containing specifications of sniping rifles are not even accompanied by a diagram of the firearm -- a major omission in my view. Since I know nothing about this topic, I can't suggest an alternative publication, but I'm in no doubt that this one just doesn't pass muster.

I myself have just got into precision shooting and was interested for many years on the "mystic" topic of the Sniper. So for someone that did not have experience as a Sniper, I found this book a great educational tool. It gave me a real feel for what it would be like and what it would take. Now maybe for someone with years of experience, this book would seem basic and trivial. But for most reader's that have not been in the Military or Law Enforcement, this book gives a well rounded view and description on what it IS to be a Sniper. So if you are a novice like me and want to learn or are just curious on what it takes to be a Sniper then this book is for you. Because when you are finished the book you will find yourself wanting to read it again...and to me that what it takes to be a good book.