For the fighting man in time of war, the crucible that proves or disproves his training and his theories is combat with the enemy. So it is too with those whose milieu is not the drill field but the drawing board, not the staff college but the proving ground, those who design, develop, and maintain the weapons, munitions, and vehicles of war. The crucible for the Ordnance Department, like the individual fighting man, is the battlefield. In previous volumes in the Ordnance Department subseries of The Technical Services in the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, historians have told the preliminary stories, the complex, often frustrating saga of planning munitions for war and of procuring and getting them to the troops who use them. This, the third and final volume in the subseries, tells the climax of the Ordnance role in World War II, the story of how the vast armory and its administrators fared in combat. In presenting this story of Ordnance in the overseas theaters, Mrs. Mayo has concentrated logically on Ordnance at the level of the army headquarters, for from this level munitions and fighting equipment flowed directly to the user. While giving some attention to all theaters involved in the global story of Ordnance administration, she has concentrated on the three main theaters as representative of the problems, the improvisations, the shortcomings, the achievements worldwide.

British Tank Production and the War Economy, 1934-1945 explores the under-researched experiences of the British tank industry in the context of the pressures of war. Benjamin Coombs explores the various demands placed on British industry during the Second World War, looking at the political, military and strategy pressures involved. By comparing the British tank programme with the Canadian, American, Russian and Australian equivalents, this study offers an international perspective on this aspect of the war economy. Topics covered include the premature contraction of the tank programme and dependence on American armour, the supply of the Valentine tank to the Russian authorities and the ongoing employment of the tank in the postwar peacetime markets.

The GIs who struggled ashore through the surf of Omaha and Utah Beaches on 6 June 1944 were members of the best-equipped army ever assembled up to that date. It was in the NW Europe campaign of June 1944-May 1945 that the US Army was finally able to show its full potential for fluent mechanised warfare. This title describes both combat and service uniforms worn in the ETO, from the assault troops on the D-Day beaches to bemedalled veterans celebrating VE-Day; other subjects covered include artillery, tanks, anti-tank weapons, the engineers, the replacement system; and the insignia of the divisions committed to this front. Men-at-Arms 342, 347 and 350 are also available as a single volume special edition as 'The US Army in World War II'.