George Nafziger collection...

I'm slightly perplexed as to why more people haven't mentioned this, but there was an announcement on the The Miniatures Page ("other hobby related forums are available"..) the other day, that the George Nafziger collection has been made available for free at the US Army's Command and General Staff College's Combined Arms Research Library website!

Now I know Rafa mentioned it on his blog [click here] but I've not really seen it mentioned anywhere else... I'm amazed.... this must be one of the worlds best known sources for orders of battle, and it's now available for free....!

The announcement can be found here:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=191881

The actual orders of battle can be found here:

http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/nafziger/index.asp

...and to help you identify which one you want there is an index here:

http://home.fuse.net/nafziger/OBS.HTML

...or try this one:

http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/p4013coll11&CISOPTR=1277&filename=1278.pdf

Someone has counted them and there are approximately 7000 documents there dating from the 1600's to the end of WWII.... astonishing...

As the website says

"The Nafziger Collection contains a compilation of orders of battle from 1600 to 1945 with over 7000 individual pdf files. It began with the author's interest in Napoleonic Wars, and steadily grew to other areas because of the gaming public's interest in these highly detailed historical orders of battle. Sources range from published works to actual archival documents, which represent the largest single source. Nearly all orders of battle break down to the regimental level. The availability of strength figures and artillery equipment varies from period to period.

This collection was provided through the generous donation of George Nafziger to the Combined Arms Research Library."

As one of my fellow gamers said on the The Miniatures Page, Nafziger deserves a sainthood! Now go and fill yer boots...