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Panzer Tracts No. 21-1, Staende
mit Pz.Kpfw. Tuermen (Panzer Turrets on Concrete and Wood Stands) Pz.Kpfw.-turm
I to F.Pz.D.T.4814
by Thomas L. Jentz and Hilary
Louis Doyle
Published by Panzer Tracts, ISBN 0-9744862-6-4, 48 pages,
US$16.95.
Most WW2 modellers know about the Panther turrets emplaced on steel or
concrete bases in Italy and on the Eastern Front, but there was a wide
range of other field fortifications with tank turrets. These are distinct
from the fixed fortifications of the Westwall or the Siegfreid Line, being
intended for use on stationary fronts and in fact reusable by simply detaching
the turret and its base plate from the simple wood or concrete emplacement
below it, though a lot of them did go to the Westwall so can probably
be classed as fixed fortifications.
The turrets used ranged from almost standard tank turrets to special
versions of them, and French, Czech and Italian turrets were used as well
as German ones. This book concentrates on the German ones other than Pantherturms,
which are to be covered in a second volume, and Czech turrets. It’s
not yet known whether a third book will deal with the other non-German
turrets, but we can hope that the team has found information on those
too.
In this volume we get text, photographs and1/35 scale multi-views plans
of the turrets themselves and of the guideline plans for their bases –
they were only guidelines because the bases were intended to be varied
to meet local conditions. Each turret has a note of known areas of use,
with most going to the Eastern Front though many were used in Western
Europe. The list includes standard and modified Pz I, II, Flamingo, 35(t).
38(t) turrets and unmodified Pz III, VK 901, VK 3001and Italian P40 tank
turrets and here’s enough information to allow you to scratchbuild
any of them if you don’t have a suitable spare turret.
This book will give you quite a few ideas for diorama bases as well
as separate models of the turrets. Recommended.
John Prigent
Panzer Tracts are available from most good military bookshops or direct
from Panzer Tracts, P.O. Box 334, Boyds, MD 2041, USA, panzertracts@aol.com.
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