French Army, Vol. 1: 1914 (Officers and Soldiers)

This is a fantastic and exhaustive uniform reference work on the French Army of 1914. The plates are not photo-realist style or in plates like the Osprey series - put in a setting. They are like the cover illustrated - stiff but very detailed and covering all arms of the French army of the day.Be forewarned this is a uniform book only. The text comprises two very short, exceptionally limited summary pages. If you wanted to read more detail about the Spahis or Mountain Artillery....even a paragraph summary of the operations they participated in during the 1914 campaign - you are out of luck. Further if you were looking for deeper text on the uniforms themselves - you get only the most basic sentence on the uniform plate page themselves.So in short - this will give you color pictoral plate details on just about every uniform worn by the French Army of 1914 from dress to service wear. It is well worth the price - but for text covering the uniforms and especially the campaigns or unit participation you will need to look elesewhere.Recommended for uniform enthusiasts. Just know what you are getting...it's uniform plates - and that is essentially it.

This book was written for the uniform specialist. Every uniform from every branch of the 1914 French Military is gloriously laid out in full detail. You want to know how the uniform of an NCO from the Tirailleur Algerien differs from the uniform of an enlisted Tirailleur, this is your book. The only way this book could be better would be to replace the color illustrations with modern uniform reproductions.

This was an excellent book for miniaturists and display makers but also very useful in understanding the uniform ranking charactoristics. Hard to beat the sharpness and variety of the French uniforms.

I bought this book to help me collect miniatures for 1914. It goes into great detail about every type of French (and French colonial) soldier as they entered the Great War.

great book just what I needed

I have this vol 1 which covers the initial phase of the war as well as vol II which covers the latter part of the war. Uniforms on the French Army of the Great War are hard to come by in English, not to mention the fact that, generally, the French text books on this subject are very pricey.Thus these two volumes are very reasonably priced and offer an excellent survey of the eclectic uniforms of the French Army. These two books can be used to further research into fantaissin costumes when non-regulation items were worn as is often depicted in period photos. The schematic illustrations by Joineau are excellent and I shall be certainly dipping into these two books for continuous inspiration.

An interesting series of books showing the clothes, headgear, equipamnets and other stuff that compouse the soldier in the war, this series is interesting to show the personel of the rear lines and the evolution of the uniforms.The first pages show the organization in the time of the matter of the book and a brief description of the itens that all soldier carrie to the battle.

A very well constructed book hiving you accurate detail of the French army in the early part of the war. I enjoyed it and can recommend it.

Excellent clear depictions of the uniforms, though little actual text describing them

A great set of books in the tradition of A H Bowling; just the thing for Francophile uniformologists..got everyone so far

Excellent in every regard

If you want uniforms for France in this period there is no better book .