Military Model Scene

Title: Hitler's Defeat on the Western Front, 1944-1945

Author: Hans Seidler

Publisher: Pen and Sword

ISBN: 978-1-52673-157-9

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The final stages of the defeat of the German army on the Western front in WW2 makes the subject of this recent Images of War title. A soft-cover book of 140-pages, the story is split over 4 chapters, each one introduced with a couple of pages of background text, followed by a selection of nicely captioned archive photos. Added to this are 6 appendices at the end, providing information on Weapons Composition 1944: Composition of an Infantry & Panzergrenadier Division; then Order of Battle for 6th June 1944, Holland in September 1944, the Ardennes in December 1944 and for the final stages, the Defence of the Western Front in March & April 1945.

With the photos, each selection are appropriate for their respective topics.  They include some which have been seen plenty of times before but many were new to me.  A good mix showing vehicles and troops.  While many have soldiers looking weary, there are equally other with broad smiles, even in the closing stages of the war. The two other observations on some of the photos were some subtle differences on the 88mm guns we see, with one or two little extras that modellers might like to add. Equally, the other big difference with pictures of German troops in the final months of the war, are the number of anti-tank weapons they are regularly carrying.  These may be Panzerfausts or the larger Panzerschrek, but the common distribution of these weapons shows just how important the anti-tank capability had become.

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Thanks to Pen and Sword for this review copy.

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Robin