Military Model Scene

Title: German Reconnaissance and Support Vehicles 1939-1945

Author: Paul Thomas

Publisher: Pen and Sword

ISBN: 978-1-52672-089-4

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For the armoured vehicle modeller and history enthusiast, Images of War is the series that keeps on giving.  This new addition to the series is another which takes on the subject of German AFVs of WW2.  We are not seeing the Tigers, Panthers and other panzers but the lighter and varied equipment used by Reconnaissance units over the period of the war.

After a brief Introduction, the rest is split across 3 chapters, covering the periods 1939-1940; 1941-1942; and 1943-1945.  Each has a short element of text to explain the background and then a series of appropriate archive photos that illustrate the period concerned.  Added to this are two appendices, one detailing the various Heavy Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicles and the other the organisation of a Typical Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion.

The photos all have additional information within their captions.  They also show the changes that evolved in the equipment over the course of the war.  In the early years it includes heavy 5-wheel armoured cars, lighter 4-wheel armoured cars and the widespread use of motorcycle combinations.  Once embroiled within the vast expanse of Russia so the conditions change and weapons they encountered necessitated changes in equipment as well.  In the final years of the war we see more variants of the heavier 8-wheel armoured cars, along with the widespread use of light and medium half-tracks and even the small and agile Kettenrad.  Throughout we see the widespread use of radio vehicles with their distinctive frame aerials.  There are lots of details to be gleaned from this collection of images for the military modeller, with camouflage and markings over the course of the war, detail on stowage, uniforms, weathering as well as useful diorama ideas.

 

Thanks to Pen and Sword for this review copy.

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Robin