10th moutain division (Military Power) - Softcover

Another title from the Military Power series, this 124-page large format cardback charts the Origins, History, Organization, Weapons, and Aircraft, plus commitment to the Global War on terror, of the US Army's nearing seventy years old specialist Arctic and Mountain Warfare formation. Written by Fred J Pushies, it is a colourful illustrated record of a unit that has never achieved the same status as the Paras or the Marines, despite it excelling in an at times equally arduous light infantry role. Mayby if John Wayne had starred in a major WWII heritage movie about them things might hve been different. Essentially formed as a reaction to the Russo-Finnish war and the successful German invasion fo Norway, it would be in the Alpine region of Northern Italy that the 10th Mountain Division really rose to prominence in WWII, thoguh it was disbanded soon after the war in Europe ended. Reformed three years later as an infantry training division, in 1954 it was sent to Germany as the Cold War headed toward deep freeze, only to be deactivated again in 1958. It would be 1985 before it was next reactivated, in New York State...The 10th Mountain had major parst to play in Somalia (1993/4), Haiti (1994/5) and Bosnia (1997-2000). However, it was to be Afghanistan, a country their specialist Mountain designation made them emminently suitable for, and then Iraq that saw the division really appear in the public eye. This is captured in the final chapter, thoguh the orgonizaion, weapons and equipment chapters all really deal with this 21st century era, too. --Combat and Survival magazine, September, 2009