Franco-Prussian War 1870/71. Uniforms and Equipment of the German and French Armies

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Dr Bison

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This two-volume book from the Verlag Militaria, based in Vienna, is an absolute must-have for anyone even mildly interested in this conflict!

First of all, some facts:
The two volumes - vol 1 on the German armies, vol 2 on the French ones - come in a sturdy slipcase.
They are available in English (ISBN 978-3-903341-04-3), French (978-3-903341-05-0) and German (978-3-903341-03-6).
On altogether 800 pages you'll find more than 2,500 colour and black-and-white photographs.
The price is quite heavy at € 129.90, but so are the books, weighing 5 kgs...

Volume 1 was authored by Markus Stein & Gerhard Bauer, volume 2 by Louis Delpérier, Laurent Mirouze & Christophe Pommier.

Here, some official sample pages:
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I found the German side to be covered in a somewhat more methodical way than the French one, but the photos easily make up for that. You'll find original uniform items of nearly all the French troops, including some rare original pieces of equipment. For the German side, there are some minor gaps in the coverage, as far as tunics are concerned, e.g. no Saxon, Hesse and Baden ones. You will find some Brunswick Polröcke, though! But this is more than made up by the wealth of absolutely fantastic period photos, such as these, showing what German troops really looked like in the field:
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And this one's my favourite, a Prussian hussar. Talking of high heels...
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The French volume not only shows the flashy units - guards, zouaves, chasseurs d'Afrique -,
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but also mobile and national guards
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and even one of the few items that can be attributed to the fighters of the Parisian commune, i.e. this kepi:
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Like I said: More than just highly recommended.

Karl
 
I have a birthday coming up next month, so I will be dropping heavy hints to 'She who must be obeyed'. Mind you, the cost goes up a fair bit with postage to 150 + Euros,
but it is heavy at 5 kilos.
It does look beautifully researched and printed, though......;):happy:

Alan
 
Might be bringing my birthday forward by several months ....

I have the others from this publisher ...like this they are fantastic , excellent quality text and pictures

Thanks for the review

Making a space on my shelves .....

Nap
 
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