Sunday 4 October 2020

Book Review: The Einheits-Diesel, Alan Ranger



My love affair with WWII German trucks continues. I love the excellent Nuts & Bolts book I recently reviewed (find that here), but wanted more. So I ordered The 'Einheits-Diesel', by Alan Ranger.

Lots of great atmospheric pictures...

This is a somewhat different proposition to the super-detailed Nuts & Bolts treatment, and instead focuses on picture's from the author's own collection. This is great, as it means these are not the same old pictures one sometimes encounters in military reference works.

With around 130 or more black and white photographs, after a brief intro' to the subject, the text is purely the captions to the images. The bulk of the images are of the open backed 'standard' varieties, with the last quarter of the book moving over to closed box body versions.

... that you won't find elsewhere...

The Einheits-Diesel was originally an attempt to standardise German military track production, but as Ranger notes, 'in the end it only added one more to the number', rather ironically. And as the wartime evolution of technology took off, it was quickly superseded and left it behind. The consequence was that by war's end, most had been run to death.

... mostly of a very decent quality, like this one.

I'm intending to build lots of German rear-echelon trucks and trailers and whatnot. I'm gradually amassing a number of kits of this and similar types. This book is a great addition to my growing library on this fascianting subject. The text is clear, concise, and whilst short sand basic, nonetheless informative, and the pictures - whilst of varied quality - are great, chiefly because they're not images one is likely to find elsewhere.

Highly recommended.

The back cover.


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