Panzerkampfwagen 38tReviewed by Glen Porter
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Publisher and Title | Panzerkampfwagen 38t by Terry J. Gander. Tanks & Armour. Ian Allan Publishing. |
ISBN: | 0-7110-3091-X |
Media and Contents: | 96 pages plus card cover in A4 format, many black and white photos and colour artwork, 1 three view 1/35 scale line drawing of the original TNH tank. |
Price: | £16.99 available online from Ian Allan Publishing |
Review Type: | First Read |
Advantages: | Interesting and easy read, links all the vehicles that used the 38t chassis together. |
Disadvantages: | Dose not fully explain or show modifications to vehicles as is done in other publications, colour artwork some-what devoid of colour. |
Recommendation: | Recommended |
FirstRead
This
is the second in a new series from Ian Allan Publishing called Tanks
& Armour, the first having been on the Panzer I and II. Because this
one is concentrating on one basic vehicle only, the PzKpfw 38t, it
covers a greater range of variants such as the Marder III (ausf H &
M), Flakpanzer 38t, Flammpanzer 38t, Hetzer, Grille, etc. Plus, like
the first volume, it has an English Auther and Publisher so it is
very easy to read, unlike some of the Europeans.
There are five chapters headed
Development, PzKpfw 38t Description, Armament, In Service and
Variants. The last, Variants, is almost half the entire book as you
would expect. There are many high quality B&W photos although some
of them I've seen before plus some colour art-work. This brings me
to my first grumble. Like the first volume, the art-work has very
little colour in it. Consider if you will, the Hetzer in an ambush
scheme. German Armour does not come any more colourfull than this,
large areas of lush green, red-brown and sand (dark yellow) with the
dark colour dotted with the light and vice versa. The art-work of
this vehicle has all of these colours but its still very drab and
the rest of the colour art is the same. Maybe it's the printing
process thats at fault, I don't know, but it has spoilt what is
other-wise a very good volume.
These books don't tell or show you the differences between each Mark
but in fairness to the publisher, they produce other volumes on
specific vehicles and it is probably covered there.
The above whinges aside, these are still very good books, easy to
read and with many good photos.
Recommended.
Thanks to Simon DLS Publishing for the review sample