Military Model Scene

Title: Allied Armoured Fighting Vehicles of World War 2

Author: Michael Green

Publisher: Pen and Sword Books

ISBN: 978-1-47387-237-0

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More in the Images of War series with this recent release from Pen and Sword, another by author Michael Green.  It makes an excellent companion volume to one of his earlier titles, on Allied Tanks of WW2.  A softcover book in the standard Images of War style, with 194 pages mixing informative text and a selection of photos to illustrate each chapter.  Slightly different from many books in this series for having a greater percentage of modern, colour images of preserved vehicles alongside the black and white archive shots.

Chapter 1 deals with Reconnaissance Vehicles, and covers wheeled armoured cars and half-tracks from the USA, the UK, France, Russia and assorted Commonwealth designs.  These include well known types such as the Rolls Royce armoured car, Dingo and Humber scout cars, Staghound, M8, BA-64, Marmon Herrington and many others.  Chapter 2 deals with Tank Destroyers, which includes a fair number of US designs, a few of which are illustrated even though they didn't get into production, so one or two you may be unfamiliar with.  The Archer is included as a UK example and an Australian 2-pounder anti-tank gun Carrier.  The number of modern colour images in this section give a good illustration of how many remain on display and in action as privately owned and restored machines. For the Russians, both the SU-85 and SU-100 are included at this point.

Chapter 3 takes us into the second half of the book, and deals with Self-Propelled Artillery.  The first 14 pages of this chapter is text, broken down into sub-sections that provide a good grounding for the topic.  Photos then illustrate infantry support weapons, heavier artillery, anti-aircraft mountings.  There are plenty of examples, showing all sorts of designs from the US, UK and Russia, and including some experimental equipment as well as those that went into production.  The final section, chapter 4, deals with Miscellaneous Vehicles. Most used existing chassis which were converted for specialist uses, but also some specially designed ones such as the various versions of the Alligator amphibian, the Assault vehicles such as the Churchill AVRE and Sherman Crab flail tanks and many others.  It is a good illustration of the ingenuity displayed in adapting AFVs for specialist purposes, and which were made good use of during the war.  Even the conversion of obsolete Ram tanks to the troop carrying Kangaroo used by 79th Armoured Division.  All four chapters together make for an interesting mix.

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Robin