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To be accurate this book should have been titled 'Handbook of the Soviet Army', though the contents page refers to 'The Red Army.' It begins with a short historical sketch covering the Great War, the Revolution and the construction and development of the post-revolution army, the Soviet or Red Army. There is a detailed treatment of the 1940 army in which the combat arms (infantry, cavalry, artillery, armour and engineers) and the services (transport, supply, medical etc) are described with organization, strength and equipment details in each case. Chemical Warfare is also discussed and, of course, the ever-pervading internal security troops, the police, Frontier Guards, Partisan units, women's and youth organizations. The supplement provides an update on tactics and organization as well as illustrations of uniforms, badges of rank, service emblems and orders and medals. There are also pictures of guns, tanks and other equipment. There is a glossary of military terms and abbreviations (brush up your cyrillic alphabet) and a list of conventional signs. Even the Navy features in this book of the Red Army.
