Whether referred to as web gear, TE-21, TA50, LBE or LCE, the American soldier's individual combat equipment was seldom praised – except by its developers.

Nevertheless, it has always been, and will continue to be an essential part of the fighting man's burden. With the aid of plenty of contemporary photographs, diagrams, and eight full page colour plates by Osprey veteran Ron Volstad, Gordon Rottman's text unearths a wealth of information on the changing nature of US combat equipments from 1910-1988.