Book Review: Pictorial History of the US 3rd Armored Division in WWII, Darren Neely

Having just read a text based account of the 12th SS Hitlerjugend in Normandy, this pictorial history from the Allied side of the same Western European theatre was a welcome change of pace.

The US 3rd Armrd Div arrived in Europe about a fortnight after D-Day, and from then onwards was at the sharp end - as befits a unit also named ‘Spearhead’ - from France to Belgium and in into Germany and wars end. 

The huge number of black and white photographs gathered together here are a terrifically rich and evocative resource, perfect for the history buff, modeller or wargamer. Split into four chapters, each begins with a short summary of the operations the Div took part in during a given period, and then fleshes this out with loads of captioned photos. 

Some of the darker photos could perhaps have been filtered and tweaked a bit for better clarity. And, a pet peeve of mine, it’s deuced hard to relate numerous ‘note such and such’ textual admonitions to the corresponding images, due to them being smaller, cropped, insufficiently clear, or whatever. Hence docking half a star. 

Most of the pics depict US troops and materiel, naturally. But there’s also a lot of imagery showing knocked out German stuff. So, all in all a fascinating and useful resource, bringing to life this units crucial part in the post-Normandy Western Front campaign. 

Book Review: Napoleon & the Invasion of England, Wheeler & Broadley

NB - Another of my forays into archival material. I read this book a number of years ago, and wrote and posted a review on Amazon’s UK website, also some years back. This is a slightly amended version of that. I was prompted to revisit it as I’m currently reading the superb Coastal Defences of the British Empire, by Daniel MacCannell.

Napoleon's mooted invasion of England - actually a task set for him by the Directory that he didn't seem to have his heart in (the fact that he hoped initially he might be allowed to live out his exile in England is interesting and revealing) - is a fascinating subject, and I'm quite surprised there aren't a lot more books on the subject than there appear to be.

This book is a reprint of a work written in the early years of the 20th century, and it's age does show a little in two respects: the tone of the writing can occasionally feel a tad dated, and the level of detail reflects an obsessiveness that seems almost Victorian in its zeal. I'm writing this not quite having finished the book, which I started several years ago, and eventually lost impetus with.

This said, the first two thirds of the book were, I felt, fascinating and engaging. Although Boney never seemed to quite believe in it, as a project, yet he threw himself into it with what was to become known as his trademark vigour, endlessly commissioning huge lists of highly detailed jobs for his subordinates, always demanding the next to impossible. As well as a decent if occasionally stodgy and perhaps over long text, there's an abundance of illustrative material, much of which is quite charming, such as the images of invasion via tunnels, floating castles, or even a fleet of dirigibles!

No source is left unvisited, so we are treated to commemorative medals, songs and poems, cartoons, pamphlets, extracts from personal letters, public announcements and military correspondence. No proverbial stone is left unturned. Given that almost every aspect of Napoleon's career is exhaustively written about, it's a little odd to me that, and especially what with our penchant for an overly Anglocentric reading of the era bearing the name of the man many here liked to call the 'Corsican upstart', we're not more interested in his plans to invade our shores.

So, for all that this isn't perfect, at least it's a solid and comprehensive treatment of a fascinating subject. Even though I’m still yet to finish it, I did (and still do) like it. But this is certainly more a book for the devoted Napoleonic history buff than the casual reader.

Book Review: Hitlerjugend, 12th SS Pz Div, Normandy, Saunders/Hone.

Superb! A thoroughly gripping account of the role of the SS Hitlerjugend’s role in the  Normandy ‘44 campaign. From the units creation, to its deployment and combat, opposite British and Canadian forces in the battle for Caen and beyond. Well illustrated with maps and photographs, and enlivened with firsthand accounts, I found this a terrifically engaging and informative read. Highly recommended.

Book Review: SdKfz 251/9 & 22, Kanonenwagen, Dennis Oliver (Land Craft)

 

Another excellent instalment in the ever-growing Dennis Oliver section of the WWII German Tank/Land Cradt series. This time on kanonenwagen variants of the German half-track workhorse that was the SdKfz 251.

All the usual elements are in place: a brief history of the design and manufacture; unit histories; the ever inspiring colour profiles segment; model showcase/products; unit composition (under the official German 'kreigsstarkenweisung' heading!): technical details, etc. 

Terrifically illustrated on all fronts, from contemporary black and white photos to the colour profiles and beautifully built models. One of the nicest builds, by Juanjo Domingez, is in my favourite/chosen 1/72, and, despite its tiny size, is the chosen and favoured 'cover girl', so to speak. 

Perusing this inspires me to possibly try converting one of my extant 251s into a long-barrelled kanonenwagen! And I would, unhesitatingly, recommend this to those interested in the AFVs and suchlike of this fascinating era. Excellent!

Book Review: Strabokran, Volker Ruff

Got myself this for Xmas, 2020. I have a yen to scratch-build one or two of these cranes, in 1/72. The few kits of the Strabokran I found in 1/72 seem to be about £30-40+. I managed to get my copy of this book for a little over £20. That seemed, to me, better use of my limited funds; this way I can build my own models, for the cost of a few bits of plastic profile, plus I get this plush reference work, for about the same cost, or poss’ even less, as buying an off the shelf kit.

Of the several similar format books I've bought in the last few years, this isn't the best, or my favourite. The minimal bi-lingual text (in English and German) isn't terrific, and the quality of the images is quite patchy. But, nevertheless, overall it's still excellent reference, gathering together plentiful contemporary photographic imagery - albeit of very mixed quality - and supplemented by numerous line diagrams. 

The latter include 1/35 scale plans, which will be very useful for me, once all the dimensions are halved. Another of my minor gripes, however, relates to the overall clarity of all the info', both textual and graphic. I'm well past my third, fourth and now even fifth perusal of the book, and I still find it all very confusing, what with all the differing variants, and issues around the quality of the translation from German, and clarity of images, etc.

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Still, despite these several caveats, I'd like to add my 'amen' to the 'hallelujah chorus' of approval that this book has received elsewhere online. 

Momentarily returning to the translation from the author's German into English, it almost feels like it’s been arrived at by simply running the German text through Google Translate, or something of that ilk. The resulting combo of strangely Germanic lumpen prose and editorial slips make the text heavier going than I'd like.  

And, despite the huge number of illustrations, which are - unusually for books in this line on similar subjects - split between mostly WWII archival photographs, and more recent line diagrams, I don't feel that there's as great a degree of visual clarity here as one might wish for. 

I bought this book partly simply because I'm a WWII/Panzer nut, and partly because, following on from the former, I wish to build models of these cranes. Repeated intensive perusal of the masses of material presented here still leaves me uncertain on several details of these fascinating machines.

However, having returned throughout this review to certain critical points, I'll end by conceding that it'd be pretty churlish to score this much less than five kreuz stars. As, after all, it does indeed gather together an immense amount of reference on its subject. 

The following short recitation of certain section headings (and contents) gives an idea of the level of detail:

After a brief intro, there's a potted history of the company that made the cranes.

Then we have info on the 15t, 16t, 20t variants, plus other stuff (inc. postwar production).

Parts of an Allied report, Operation Backfire, are reproduced, which includes illustrated descriptions of deployment.

'Strabokran in Action' shows them in use with Tigers, Panthers, Elefant and V2 rockets.

Further sections on rarities (other cranes used when Strabokran weren't available), survivors, patent applications (!), and unit formations/allocations add detail.

But best of all, for the modeller like me, there’s both a detailed photographic 'walk around’, and lots of 1/35 scale drawings.

And, whilst not perfectly rendered, nearly all the textual content is presented in both English and German. 

All in all, then, whilst admittedly not perfect, this certainly is a fascinatingly interesting and very useful resource, if - like me - you're a dedicated 'beyond hope' Panzer nut.

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Volker Ruff's strabokran website

https://www.strabokran.de/index.php?seite=strabokran

Book Review: The Ghettos of Nazi-Occupied Poland, Ian Baxter (Images of War)

As someone who literally loves the uniforms, equipment, materiel, and quite often even the combatants and their stories, the whole racist/fascist aspects of the Nazi regime are anathema to me. It would be beyond churlish, in my view, to even attempt to downplay, ignore or worse still deny or support those aspects of what was an appalling ideology.

Having said that, for the most part I do separate the two aspects: the fascinating military machine/history, and the contemptible visions it was employed in furthering. In the same way I could happily assemble both sides of American Civil War forces, or, for that matter, English Civil War armies, without declaring allegiance to any of the views espoused (or not) by the combatants.*

With those thoughts in mind, what of this book? Well, thus far I haven't read much of the textual content. Instead I've just studied the many interesting images and read the captions for them, and occasional parts of the text, like the short intro/aftermath segments. In some ways, whilst the underlying segregationist concept is, to me, awful - if not as unusual historically as some might suggest - what strikes one most, at first glance, is the ordinary everyday banality of much of it, street scenes and people milling about, even markets, policemen, firemen, postal workers, people working in factories, etc.

Ghetto residents working in a shoe-factory, Lodz.

But this disguises, now as it did for the Germans back then, including perhaps those who took most of these photos, who might've look at some of these images and fooled themselves they weren't being all that bad, several key things: first and foremost these weren't ghettos 'naturally' formed, so to speak, by ethnic groups choosing to congregate, as many around the world to this day remain. They were government enforced relocations, and part of the more sinister so called 'cleansing', i.e. institutionalised genocide. Aka the infamous 'final solution' to 'the Jewish problem'. 

And whilst the Germans, lovers of bureaucracy and form filling, list-making and so on, did create the semblance of normal institutions within ghettos, these were token gestures, beneath which racist contempt saw them utilise the Jewish population as a disposable low-maintenance workforce. Those who weren't dying of starvation, or diseases like cholera, typhus, and so on, would be working in German industries, mostly towards the war effort

This photographic study concentrates mainly on the ghettos as photographed, on the whole, by a number of German servicemen. Some of these collections of photos only surfaced in fairly recent years.  And, unusually for a WWII Images of war title they include a segment of colour photographs. 

One of a number of colour images. Biebow visits Lodz.

The main chapter headings convey the content:

Ghettoisation - Jews** are removed from their homes and relocated, mostly by train, but also on foot. This section also has numerous pictures of german 'brass' and functionaries, like Hans Biebow, a businessman turned Ghetto administrator.

Life in the Ghettos - This is, at first glance, the most apparently humdrum chapter. But the banality belies the underlying brutality, as the casual littering of corpses occasionally reminds the viewer

Liquidation of the Ghettos - as ominous as it sounds; this is the segment that, inevitably, depicts - even if only in a few shocking images - the most brutal part of the Nazi war crimes process, the wholesale butchery of unarmed non-combatants.

The Warsaw Uprising - Another brutally bleak chapter in this sad story sees the largest of the ghettos rise up, only to be mercilessly crushed.

The book ends with The Aftermath and two appendices. The first lists major Polish ghettos (but by no means all of them), many illustrated by single photos, and the second and last says a brief word on the infamous Reserve Police Battalion 101, who were instrumental in facilitating Nazi policy in these tragic times.

Personally I think it's very salutory to remind oneself of the reality and the enormity of these crimes against humanity. Their scale beggars belief, and their proximity in time should be a warning against complacency. On a European tour with a band I was once in, our Dutch tour bus driver took us to a transit camp in, I think, Belgium. To stand in a place of that type - not even an extermination camp - and think how whole categories of humans were treated as disposable trash, was a very powerful experience.

Note on photos: the two colour photos I've used here - so washed out they almost look black and white - are, like a number in the book, from the USHMM, or United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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* It's worth remembering that many soldiers are not primarily fighting for the causes their leaders say they stand for. Many just fight for their nation, homes and families, each other, or simply to stay alive.

** And, let's not forget, other so called 'undesirables', such as leftists, gypsys, homosexuals, and so on. But obviously, as per the title, this book concentrates on the Jewish aspect of Nazi persecution, it being the largest and primary 'out group'.

Book Reviews: The French at Waterloo; Eyewitness Accounts, vols I & II, Andrew Field

One might be forgiven for wondering why, instead of two fairly slim volumes, at £20 each, these two books weren't instead published as a single fatter book, at say £25-30. But setting aside that brief attack of penny-pinching cynicism, the actual content of these two books, both reviewed here, is superb. 

Vol I - Napoleon, Imperial HQ & Ist Corps

"I cannot get over our defeat. We were manoeuvred like so many pumpkins." Col. Marbot.

After an opening chapter on the usage/reliability of eyewitness accounts, volume one begins with three descriptions from Napoleon: the official post battle report, as dictated to Fleury de Chabalon, which appeared soon after the battle in le Moniteur, then Gorgaud's and Bertrand's accounts. All three are widely accepted as being Napoleon's own versions of events, and each one is a successively larger and more detailed reiteration of the same basic themes.

The accounts that follow, from Napleon's Household and then the Imperial HQ, unsurprisingly perhaps, largely follow their leaders' version of events. Except that is where his subordinates have incurred his blame, and then they might seek to excuse of justify themselves. All of this makes the first half or two thirds of this first volume somewhat repetitive, especially as the numerous accounts frequently recapitulate the same lists of unit dispositions and the major sequences of events.

Marcellin Marbot, in his 7th Hussar togs, c. 1815.*

Where volume one really comes to life, for me at any rate - and what makes it five bicornes, not four, or four and a half - is in the Ist Corps accounts. Especially so in those from the middling and lower ranks, whose colourful and lively narratives generally focus more closely on events the individuals concerned actually witnessed or took part in. The 'big hats', with eyes on posterity (and higher social standing to fall from) tend to give overviews coloured by hindsight, later/wider reading, and post-war politicking. 

Napoleon's own influence on the French readings of events, unsurprisingly, casts a long shadow. And yet despite this, the natural 'fog of war', and the blame games - around Ney and Grouchy in particular, but also bearing on the actions of others, like d'Erlon, Marcognet, etc. - reveal how widely the same events can be perceived or understood, not just by the antagonist nations, but within the same nation's own armies.

An excellent and fascinating collection. Essential reading for the Napoleonic/Waterloo enthusiast.

* Acc. to Wikipedia!

Vol II - IInd & VIth Corps, Cavalry, Artillery, Imperial Guard & Medical Services

"(T)his immortal slaughter." Larreguy de Civrieux.

The same standard of excellence is observed here as elsewhere in Field's terrific work on the whole French experience of the Waterloo campaign. 

A brief introduction recapitulates things he said in volume one, in particular addressing the reliability of the types of material that make up these fascinating books. He then moves through the various military bodies already listed above, citing numerous extracts from the memoirs of participants, mostly from the upper echelons - i.e. officers - with, as per volume one, brief biographical notes about the person concerned followed by their recollections of these momentous events and their parts in them.

First of all it's terrific that we are gradually getting access to more of this French material, after two centuries in which the English tradition of Waterloo historiography has been pretty one sided. There is something of an irony in this respect, re the fate of Capt. Siborne and his researches, which occurred so soon after the battle, and which sought to include accounts from all sides. There are several interesting books on Siborne, his dioramas, and the research he undertook in order to build them, as well as Siborne's own writings (which I have, but as yet haven't read; they're reputedly rather tough going!). [1]

Sylvain Larreguy, c. 1828.

But returning to the accounts in hand themselves, they are great, adding a lot of colour and interest to this much written about (most written about?) of epoch-ending/making battles. I won't go into great detail about any specific accounts contained herein. But it is interesting to note how they differ from traditional Anglo-centric accounts, on things ranging from relatively minor actions that don't appear in English histories, to more controversial claims, such as the frequently repeated claim that the French took and even held Hougoumont for a while at some point.

But in the end, whatever the veracity of some of these interesting claims/differences, it all adds up to more interesting and useful reference on this most compelling of battles. I'd even go so far as to say that Field's entire oeuvre on this subject is all essential to the genuine Napoleonic/Waterloo buff. In a word, brilliant.

The author (found this pic in an online Wilts news article!).

[1] In both volumes Siborne is, if my memory serves, only mentioned the once: on p. 106 of vol II Field laments how the French Guard officers, unlike Siborne's English correspondents, only told of their own local experiences. I think the mention he gets in volume I is on a similar theme, re sources and their limitations, but I can't pinpoint it (no indexes!?).

Book Review: Wellington in 100 Objects, Gareth Glover

In the venerable tradition started - as far as I know? - by the British Museum's exemplary History of the World in 100 Objects, the book I'm reviewing here today joins an ever growing assortment of similarly themed books on numerous historical subjects. Prolific Napoleonic author Gareth Glover notches up yet more titles, annexing ever more shelf-space, authoring several such books on Napoleonic matters himself, including this one. And there are also titles by other authors, on the Third Reich, and all sorts.

In this book the objects themselves range from the tiny - a looted silver fork - to the massive - castles, stately homes, even whole villages, towns or cities, that Arthur Wellesley had some connection with. From the obvious, like his boots or campaign cape, to the more obscure, like dentures, or the saw used to amputate Lord Uxbridge's leg. 

From the humourous... [1]

And in the process of examining this wealth of material, which is frequently supplemented by other related stuff, we learn masses about not just the famed and celebrated victor of Waterloo, but his family, the times in which he lived, and the many and varied places his life story connects together. From the Congress of Vienna, to Napoleon's lonely and remote exile on St. Helena. From ancestral roots in Ireland, to nepotistic postings in India. And with his activities and interests connecting him with everywhere from the far-flung, such as to the Americas, to such near neighbours as Portugal, Spain and Northwest Europe.

Wellington doesn't have quite the same the mercurial mythological magnetism that Boney had, and continues to have. At the time of posting this review this book is listed as 'currently unavailable' on Amazon's UK website, unlike the pendant title, also by Glover, on Napoleon in 100 Objects. But, and especially so for the English, he is, and ought to be, someone we want to know more about. And this book does an admirable job of facilitating that.

... to the more macabre. [2]

NOTES:

[1] Wellington infamously duelled Lord Winchelsea, in 1829, whilst he (the former) was P.M!

[2] The saw and a bloodied surgeon's glove, from National Army Museum's collections, allegedly used to remove Uxbridge's shattered leg, at or just after Waterloo.

Book Review: Artillery Warfare, '39-'45, Simon & Jonathan Forty

This excellent single volume packs an awful lot into a pretty small space. 

Over 400 black and white photos illustrate the massive range of materiel covered, taking in all the main (and many minor) combatant nations and theatres*. As well as the plentiful imagery, extracts from wartime records are used to show how the various artillery branches of the armed forces operated. 

A remarkable range of artillery is covered, even if - give the enormity of the subject - only in relatively quick or short form; from the brief mention of hand-held anti-tank weapons, to individual entries on such weaponry as the Long Tom, or those crazily huge Nazi rail-super-guns, including towed artillery, SP guns, rockets, AA and fixed batteries (like the Maginot and Westwall), and so on. 

From pocket-sized pea shooters, like the Pak 37...

The roots of modern artillery developments in WWI, their rapid evolution during WWII, and even hints of the postwar legacy - many guns of WWII remained in use long after '45, and many technologies evolved by quantum leaps during the Second World War, to create a new era (guided missiles/rocketry) - are all here. 

Appendices add info on observation and gun siting, etc. All in all a very impressive work, covering exactly what the title suggests. I'd say this is a pretty essential reference work for the seriously interested WWII history buff. But obviously being a brief and wide ranging picture based survey, more in depth detail is to be sought/found in more specialist publications.

... to huge monsters like this, there's a lot here.

Further to this last point, this book might also, as it has for me, stimulate a desire to delve further into certain sub-categories; for example, I recently got into the famed German 88mm gun, and I'm prompted now, having read this, to pick up a book from my pending pile about Germany's West Wall...

* The only notable omission theatre/combatant wise that struck me being China.

Book review: A G.I. In The Ardennes, Denis Hambucken

I love this book!

It accomplishes what I think a lot of Dorling Kindersley style 'survey' type books attempt but, for me, usually fail to achieve, i.e. a colourful yet comprehensive synthesis of a vast amount of information, conveyed in an interesting, exciting yet easy to digest form.

Not only does this book tell the story of the Ardennes campaign, albeit in an admittedly very light and basic manner - from a primarily American perspective as the title makes clear - with numerous firsthand accounts, but it also covers a huge array of more general stuff. There are brief articles on everything from uniforms and equipment to more general American wartime institutions such as the USO (United Service Organizations) and PX (Post Exchange), and the ways in which the homeland and the 'sharp end' interacted.

Aside from the incredible richness and variety of the subject itself, perhaps the greatest strength of the book is the absolutely superb collection of photographic illustrations. These run the gamut from contemporary black and white photos to colour imagery, depicting everything from surviving veterans to a huge array of GI kit/weapons, from such small and humble items as socks, via back-packs and small arms, right up to various tanks, or such monster materiel as the mighty Long Tom 155mm gun.

Amongst this embarrassment of riches I think it's the ragtag yet colourful pictorial smorgasbord of ephemera that I find so evocative and exciting; the many beautifully designed things, from matchbooks (often also quite humorous) and food packaging, to the plethora of items of clothing and weaponry, all of which mix utility with a minimalist military aesthetic - in a range of colours, greys and browns and greens, that I happen to love - it's all just fantastic.

If you're interested in this theatre of the war, I'd highly recommended this thoroughly fascinating and incredibly beautifully put together book.

Book Review: I Somehow Survived, Ed. Klaus Förg

This is an English translation of a recent book originally published in Germany, which collects the testimonies of five Bavarian survivors of WWII. All were over 90 at the time their tales were collected, the oldest being 106! Four are military personnel, whilst the fifth is a Norwegian woman, who - depsite her socialist father being forced into hiding, and her mother winding up in a camp - married a young German in the Kriegsmarine.

In the foreward Roger Moorhouse notes that this is part of a trend of recent years of allowing the voices of Germans into the pool of English language recollections, and as such a useful balance to years of largely one-sided history. I would qualify that a bit by saying that, whereas whilst most postwar German testimonies came from the bigwigs, or their friends and families - from Albert Speer's famous 'struggle with the truth' to the memoirs of people like Doenitz or von Ribbentrop, the latter's son writing his father's memoir - there have indeed, more recently, been concerted efforts to hear the voices of the 'everyman' (and woman) participants.*

My favourite of these is the first and longest, in which Georg Weiss recounts his arduous and colourful Ostfront service. Other stories include the long peregrinations of Sepp  Heinrichsberger, who, serving in France, winds up a POW in America, before undergoing a postwar oddysey in his quest to get home. Franz Blattenberger, an artilleryman, has a similar tale about his lengthy flight to ultimate postwar freedom, in which a keynote is the randomness and luck of survival. And Siegfried Schugman was a frustrated Luftwaffe man, who never got his wings, but wound up glad of it.

All in all, an interesting and very easy read. I read the entire thing in just one day, and that whilst also doing numerous other things. There are no truly mind-blowing or even very shocking revelations, to be truthful. Especially not if you've read a lot on WWII, as I have. But it is always refreshing to hear the German side of the story. The recollections seem pretty open and candid, and the supporting photos help reassure one. But - and no disrespect to the researchers or contributors - this is verbal or anecdotal history, and must therefore be treated with a certain amount of caution and circumspection.

Still, fascinating stuff.

* In respect of the latter, Tim Heath's several books on women's experiences in the Third Reich spring to mind.

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.

Book Reviews: Tank Craft, various WWII German armour, Dennis Oliver

In this post I'm looking at a batch of four Pen & Sword Tank Craft titles, all on WWII German armour, and all by Dennis Oliver. I've reviewed numerous other titles by Oliver here before, and I've grown to really enjoy them. Indeed, to love them. Textually they can be a little heavy going; not due to poor writing, thankfully [1], but simply because there's just so much factual detail. If you're a proper Panzer Nut, however, you soon get a taste for that. 

Obviously these are aimed at modellers, so the 'camouflage and markings' sections, what used to be termed the 'colour plates', are a particular attraction. And in the Dennis Oliver titles the illustrations - for which I can find no credits, which is a pity - are of an excellent quality [2]. The model showcase sections also give the reader ideas and inspiration, re what can be done. A minor quibble here, and I've said this before, is that 1/35 dominates. I'd like to see a greater variety of scales represented, including the 1/76 and most especially 1/72 that are my favoured scales.

Panther 222, or the Overloon Panther, featured in Tank Craft 24.

Oliver has a particular m.o. which means frequently his titles follow or share a series of familiar paths, in terms of structure adopted and info given. This said, there are exceptions, the Panther Tanks book in this batch being a particularly good example, in that - apart from the ever present parts (colour plates, model showcase, modelling products, etc.) - it's mostly structured around the consecutive generations of brigades.

Several of the recurring features that give Oliver's contributions to this series their particular flavour, and which you'll find in some of these titles, are such things as timelines, unit histories, schematic diagrams illustrating unit composition, and more generally a sense of thoroughness and detail that is equal parts awe-inspiring and intimidating, to the more laid back buff such as me. But as I said above, the more I study this stuff, the more I too become addicted to the detail of it all.

A different but very similar picture to this graces p. 57 of the Tiger book.

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Panzer III, German Army Light Tank, Operation Barbarossa, 1941 (Tank Craft 27) - Dennis Oliver 

Focussing on the Pz III, a key piece of the German armoured thrust into Mother Russia, this excellent addition to this ever-growing series is chock-full of great reference material for the modeller.

It's kind of ironic that in the Tank Craft series as a whole there are already, so far, three titles on the Tigers I and II, and only one apiece on the Panzers III and IV. In truth the latter far outnumbered the former. But popular interest has generally favoured the later and larger tanks, and the coverage in this series, so far, conspicuously confirms that.

This very evocative photo appears, albeit small and cropped.

Many of Oliver's trademark features are here: timelines, unit compositions with diagrams, unit histories, and info on technical details and modifications. Then there are the showcase, model products, and colour profiles. Re the latter, these are of the usual high standard found in Oliver's titles. But as they're almost all in the earlier war German dark grey, they might not be the most exciting.

Not a tank that generates the same buzz as the 'big cats', the Panzer III is still an interesting weapon/vehicle. It'd have been nice to see a few more and perhaps more interesting period photos. And similarly, it's a bit of a shame that all the showcase models, as impressive as they may be, are 1/35, except a lone 1/48 example. Surely rather than having four 1/35 models, they could've had at least one in 1/72?

An excellent and highly useful book, but not quite as good as the other three under review here.

JagdPanzer IV, German Army & Waffen-SS Tank Destroyers, Western Front, 1944-5 (Tank Craft 26) - Dennis Oliver 

I only have one JagdPanzer IV in my German WWII arsenal, at present. Thanks to this book I now know that mine is a IV/70(V), as opposed to a IV/70(A). In all honesty I hadn't realised there were two such similar yet different looking variants. I definitely prefer the lower-profiled A type. And this book has given me a fabulous example - well, numerous, actually - of camouflage and markings to use as a basis for finally painting and finishing a tank model that I built aeons ago.

Another view of this vehicle appears on p. 59.

I don't quite know exactly why, but I love this vehicle, and I love this book. Maybe in part it's because it's a great example of how the German war machine of WWII took a tank that'd become obsolete in its original role, and successfully repurposed it? I like the Pz IV, and it's kind of nice [3] that instead of binning it, it got a new lease of life [4] as a tank destroyer. But I think it's simpler than that: it just looks so damn cool! As a friend of mine (not a modeller) likes to joke; the Germans may have lost WWII morally and militarily, but aesthetically? No question, they won.

A fabulous 1/76 Matchbox Jagdpanzer IV, by Theodoros Kalamatas.*

I also love that this book features a smaller scale model in the showcase section. And not only is it smaller - it's a Matchbox 1/76 kit - but it's also simply built 'out of the box'. None of your intimidatingly good/unaffordably expensive 1/35 trickery or wizardry, with after-market parts, conversions, and whatnot. Anyway, a great book. Love it. Highly recommended. 

* View more of Kalamatas' superb work here.

Tiger I & II Tanks, German Army & Waffen-SS, Normandy Campaign, 1944 (Tank Craft 25)

- Dennis Oliver 

Another quality instalment in this growing library of highly useful publications. This one I love not just for all the usual excellent info and illuminating imagery, but for featuring not just one, but two 1/72 models, in the showcase section. Bravo! There's also a 1/48 example as well. Amongst many other things, one inspiration this particular volume has determined me on is adding more zimmerit to my Tiger models, both the Is and IIs. 

Patrick Lapalu's impressive 1/72 Tiger II

One of the themes developed in the text is very interesting, re the small number of Tigers vs their perceived advantage/threat. The Germans making much of what really was, as a percentage of their materiel, a little, and the Allies fearing that behind every bocage hedge a dreaded Tiger lay in wait, ready to pounce. Taken alone or in conjunction with Oliver's other Tiger titles in this series, this is a very useful book. One I'm very chuffed to have.

Panther Tanks, German Army Panzer Brigades, Western & Eastern Fronts, 1944-5 (Tank Craft 24) - Dennis Oliver 

Initially when I read these books, I'll actually be surfing through the images, and only actually reading some of the picture captions. The text itself, being so densely packed with info', is something I generally get into later. But I feel it's worth noting that Dennis Oliver's contributions to this highly useful and ever-growing series are of a uniformly high, nay, superb quality, in all areas. 

The level of detail is on the cusp of mind-numbing. But, if you're anything like me, you'll find yourself strangely excited by all the minutiae. And as its mercifully well-written, as hard work as it might be to digest (never mind retain) such a great deal of info', it is at least pleasingly clear and concise.

That Overloon Panther again!

In this instance Oliver gives over the bulk of his text to brief histories of the numerous Panzer 'Brigades' equipped with Panthers, noting that in the latter half of WWII Germany excelled at this kind of near ad hoc firefighting type m.o. Then there's all the usual stuff: colour profiles, model showcase and products, etc. In conjunction with the other Panther titles in the series this all adds up to some seriously useful stuff.

The colour profiles are terrific, as ever. And the quality of the showcase models is jaw-dropping. But there are only three, all 1/35. I'm docking half a star on account of this, as it'd have been nice to have had one or two more showcase examples, preferably in other scales.

In conclusion, all of these books are excellent, and well worth having. And I look forward to more useful titles as the series continues to grow.

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NOTES:

[1] I won't mention names, but I have struggled with some P&S modeller's titles where the writing itself has left rather a lot to be desired.

[2] As good as the illustrations are. And I love them. I do have one quibble: the dunkelgelb and rotbraun seem fine to me. But the Olivgrun seems a little odd, perhaps a bit too lime-ish? Kind of too zingy, for my tastes. But the images are so good overall this isn't a deal-breaker at all.

[3] Hardly an appropriate term, I know.

[4] Dealing out death, see above note!