Volume IV: Infantry and Armoured Divisional Field Artillery and Engineers
ISBN 978-0-85420-394-9
viii + 115 pages

Volume V: Infantry and Armoured Divisional Anti-Tank and Light Anti-Aircraft Regiments
ISBN 978-0-85420-968-2
viii + 146 pages

Volume VI: Infantry and Armoured Divisional and Tank Brigade Service Units
ISBN 978-0-85420-801-2
viii + 154 pages

   The Military Press of Milton Keynes is well known for its many publications covering orders of battle and tables of organization and equipment, many directly related to the Second World War. These include sets of books by, among others, Lee Sharp, J.J. Hays, Leo Niehorster, and Chris Kempton.
   Not the least of those authors, Gary Kennedy has been releasing books in his British Army of World War Two War Establishment Tables series since 2005. When last we reviewed his work, volume one had just been published and we were quite pleased with the extensive, detailed TOE data unearthed and made available by Kennedy. In the meantime, the series has been moving steadily forward and here we take a look at three volumes released this year.
   War Establishment tables, as Kennedy explains in his Introductions, specified the number and ranks of men, models of vehicles, and types of weapons in British ground units during WWII. Volume four presents ten tables for artillery formations and four for engineers. Many of the tables have multiple iterations, and they are identified by the British Army's wartime WE volume number, the table ID for the specific unit covered by the table, and a version number incremented as the table was updated.
   For example, "A regiment, RHA, or a field regiment, RA" includes II/190B/1 (from the second volume of wartime WE tables, covering unit table 190B, the first version, effective 22 December 1943) and II/190B/2 (the second version, effective 5 April 1945). Each of these iterations runs about nine pages, followed by three pages of notes by Kennedy. The layout for each is for the most part tabular, and all the TOE data mostly follows the same pattern. II/190B/2 begins with personnel, columns and rows showing the number of officers, warrant officers, and other ranks assigned to each headquarters, battery, troop, and section. In this case, two subalterns served in each troop, an additional two in each battery HQ, two more in the regimental HQ, for a total of 20 subalterns in the regiment. Similarly, two serjeants (Kennedy uses contemporary spelling) served in each section, for a total of four in each troop, eight in each battery, and 24 in the regiment. In sum, War Establishment table II/190B/2 calls for 673 officers, warrant officers, and men in the regiment, plus 388 tradesmen (including clerks, mechanics, batmen, sanitary dutymen, storemen, and dutymen), listed separately.
   For transport, WE table II/190B/2 continues to break down the numbers by sections, troops, and batteries, showing 26 motorcycles, 24 3-ton 4x4 lorries, and 36 4x4 tractors per regiment, along with allowances of 4-seater cars, 15-cwt 4x4 trucks, water trucks, trailers, etc.
   Weapons allotted include the following:

Light machine guns, .303-inch: 25
Projectors, infantry, anti-tank: 13
Pistols, signal: 9
Guns, 25-pdr: 24

   Personal weapons include varying numbers of pistols, stens, and rifles.
   Following all that tabular data, II/190B/2 lays out the organization of the regimental HQ, the battery HQs, the troops, and the sections in terms of exactly who would be carried in which transport. The regimental CO (a lieutenant colonel) rode in a 4-seater 4x4 car with a subaltern and a driver while the second-in-command (a major) rod in another 4-seater 4x4 car with a driver.
   The same kind of approach to personnel, transport, and weapons applies to all the TOE data in this volume, which concludes with several appendices. The first describes the British 25-pounder gun-howitzer Mark II, the self-propelled 25-pounder RAM (Sexton), and the self-propelled 105mm M7 (Priest), the second lists British artillery regiments equipped with self-propelled arty in Northwest Europe during 1944-1945, and the third lists the "revised tables for the amended organization" used by British 3rd Infantry Division in Europe due to its role as an assault division.
   Volume five covers the same kind of material in the same manner for divisional anti-tank units and divisional light AA units while volume six deals with service units such as transport platoons, "relief driver increment," workshop platoons, field ambulance units, field dressing stations, field hygiene stations, field security sections (Intelligence Corps), and postal units.
   These aren't unit histories or memoirs or operational accounts. Outside of some notes and a few pages of additional information, practically every page is covered with tabular data, with scarcely a complete sentence to be found.
   For anyone with a hankering to understand the TOEs of Montgomery's forces in Europe during 1944-1945, this is the series to study. About the only approach that could provide more precision and detail would be actual soldier-by-soldier rosters with the names and ranks and birthdays and weapons carried by all the men of all the units in the field. Until then, go for Kennedy's books.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from the Military Press.
   Thanks to Military Press for providing these review copies.