M109 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer 1960-2005
Osprey New Vanguard 86
By Steven J Zaloga
Illustrated by Tony Bryan
Published by Osprey Publishing.

Soft cover, 48 pages
ISBN 1-84176-631-3

Review by Terry Ashley

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The M109 first entered service in the early 1960's and has been the mainstay of the US Army SP Artillery as well as many foreign users and has seen active service from Vietnam to the Middle East to operations in Iraq in 1991 and 2003.

Starting with a brief history and development of the M109 from early prototypes through the M108 105mm to the introduction into service of the M109 there is a technical rundown with specifications and table showing the M109 production numbers.

Following this is an account of the First Combat in Vietnam with brief but detailed descriptions of deployment and some actions accompanied with some photos of M108s and M109s most of which have been seen in previous publications.

The development of the M109A1 to increase range and lethality through the M109A3/A3 series is described with a few photos followed by accounts of the M109 used in the Middle East conflicts from the October 1973 war onwards with notes on some of the modifications on Israeli M109s.

A section on Precision Guided Munitions which describes the various short lived developments in this area is followed by a detailed account of the modernization programs leading to the M109A6 Paladin and ill fated XM2001 Crusader again with only a few photos to illustrate the text.

In the centre of the book is the usual 8 page colour plate spread with profiles of different M109s from a M109 of 1976 through to an A6 as used in the Gulf with a centre cutaway drawing of the M109A2.

Feeding the guns is the next section and deals with the development of the FAASV to replace the M548 supply vehicles as well as brief mentions of other developments such as the FDCV fire direction vehicle, XM975 Roland and XM-11S which was a mock-up of the Soviet SA-11 Gadfly designed for training purposes but as with the others apart from the FAASV never went anywhere.

Following this is a brief rundown on the M109 deployments during Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom with just two photos to accompany the text.

A rundown on International programs gives brief summaries of the ten main foreign users of the M109 with a chart listing all 30 counties that have used the M108/M109 in some form with types and numbers given.

Finally there is a Bibliography listing some available articles in books and magazines but notes that there is no book yet devoted entirely with the M109 in detail as well as the usual Colour plate commentary that gives a detailed description of each of the colour plates featured in the centre of the book.

Overall a good general account of the M108/M109 although the photo coverage is rather sparse and most having been seen before but the technical and descriptive text is as detailed and precise as we have come to expect from Steven Zaloga in a book of this size but if you were after an in-depth coverage or good detailed walkaround photos then the wait for a “definitive” book on the M109 is still on.

Recommended