Customer Reviews:
 Doesn't Answer the Mail... May 15, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II, written by Richard Doherty and No. 152 in Osprey's Elite series, attempts to cover the role of Britain's division-level recon units in the European, African and Asian theaters. This is an ambitious effort for this short format and unfortunately, the result is likely to disappoint many readers. Given the size limitations, the author chose to focus on capsule summaries of each of the 32 recon-related units in the war. Indeed, there is considerably more "history" in this volume than many other Osprey Elite titles, but it came at the price of sacrificing information on training, tactics and doctrine. Lacking the background on what Britain's recon units were supposed to be capable of doing, it will be difficult for readers to assess their performance in actual combat. This volume is great if you are looking for a synopsis history of British Recon units or a sense of some noteworthy Recon soldiers, but fails to examine or discuss doctrine, tactics or organization in any kind of detail. The actual functioning of British Recon units is left murky and ambiguous.
After little more than a page of background on the requirement to form the Reconnaissance Corps in 1940-41, the author provides a couple pages on initial training of recruits and selection of early vehicles. The bulk of the rest of this volume covers the activities of Recon units in combat, divided into sections on North Africa, the Mediterranean, Northwest Europe and the Far East. The author provides several tables showing the organization of British Recon units in 1941 and 1942, but fails to discuss the make-up or role of critical sub-units. For example, what was the role of the regimental assault troop (or why should a Recon unit HAVE an assault troop?)? Nor does he explain how the carrier and Recce section worked together; based upon the table of organization provided, the carrier section appeared to have almost no troops or weapons assigned. Critical sub-units such as anti-aircraft, anti-tank and mortars are barely discussed - how were they used? Finally, the critical element for any recon unit - communications - is never addressed. What types of radios did the British Recon units use and how far could they communicate? A scout that cannot report what he sees might as well not be there.
The author's descriptions of Recon units in combat are quite good, with a genuine effort to give a feel for "the action," but unfortunately provide little insight into these units' primary mission: intelligence collection. Scouts are send forward to attempt to answer a commander's intelligence requirements (e.g. where is the enemy's main line of resistance?) in order to make tactical decisions based upon the best picture of enemy dispositions. However, this volume tends to emphasize combat roles - such as Recon troops used as infantry, for mine clearing or even portering duties - that makes it difficult to assess their role of intelligence collectors. I don't think there was a single instance in the volume where the author cited an example where British Recon units gathered information that gave a British division an advantage in its mission accomplishment. Indeed, I came away with the impression that the British Army badly mis-used its Recon units as substitute motorized infantry rather than as dedicated tactical intelligence collectors.
The lack of doctrinal information is also a serious omission. Critical information, such as how far forward recon units would conduct route patrols or how many routes a regiment could simultaneously patrol are simply not here. The basic meat and potatoes of recon work - area, zone and route recon plus screening and guard missions - is only mentioned in passing, at best. Although the author mentions a few occasions where British Recon units did dismounted patrolling, I was struck by how `glued' to their armored cars British units were. In one instance, the author sites how dangerous it was to go around a blind corner in a town while mounted, which made me wonder why the troops were not trained to dismount scouts in urban areas. Realizing the size limit was probably a major factor in this volume's short-comings, readers should still be aware that this volume does not `answer the mail' if one is looking for a concise but detailed discussion of British Recon units in the Second World War.
|
