Military Model Scene

Title: Allied Tanks of the Second World War

Author: Michael Green

Publisher: Pen and Sword Books

ISBN: 978-1-47386-676-8

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American author Michael Green has done a number of earlier titles in the Images of War series and his knowledgeable text that adds to the fine selection of photos is as good as ever.  The 202 pages of this softcover book divide the story into 4 logical sections.  These are simply Light Tanks, Early War Medium Tanks, Late War Medium Tanks and Heavy Tanks.  Each of these chapters is started with a section of text that gives the background and some detail about the various tanks of the different nationalities, including America, Britain, France and Russia.  It highlights many of the pros and cons of the various designs, as tank design developed throughout the course of the war.

What is a little more unusual in this one though is that the photo selection includes a mixture of both wartime archive pictures, but many modern colour images of surviving tanks that can be found today in various museum collections, or as individual memorials found around Europe.  Among these it is also good to see a few interior images which will be very helpful to modellers, especially with colours.  The variety of tanks featured in the book are not only the well known ones which saw extensive combat service, but also a number of the experimental types, built as prototypes or in very small numbers but still interesting to see included.  The museum examples are spread around various countries, from the USA, the UK, Belgium, France, Finland and Russia.  One of the elements I found particularly interesting were the 'Dead Ends' of the Heavy Tanks section, when various designs got no further than prototype builds.  These include things like the American T28 and the British Tortoise, TOG 1 and 2.  I liked the inclusion of the modern colour images that show the wide variety of WW2 tank types that have been kept in museums and are therefore accessible for us to see today.

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Robin