Jochen Vollert & Heinz Peters

Tankograd Militarfahrzeug Special No 5003.
Soft cover, A4 size, 88 pages

Review by Peter Brown

It has with a short introduction and each vehicle type is described, but the photos are what this book is all about. Starting at the beginning, we are shown each type in turn from the earliest US-supplied Diamond T and Rogers trailer, then the various German-produced tractors and trailers starting with the Sattelzugmaschine 25t FAUN L1212/45VSA and its Sattelanhanger Tieflader 50t Blumardt which are both shown in great detail mostly in black and white photos with some colour including shots of engines, suspension and cab interiors and extracts from the vehicle user manual, then the Schwerlasttransporter SLT 50-2 ELEFANT and Sattelanhanger 52t mil gt with similar coverage but in colour, the later SLT 50-3 ELEFANT and its SLT 50-3 MSA armoured version, then finally the Schwerlasttransporter schwer FS42.75/42 mil FRANZISKA (SLT-56) and its trailer the Sattelanhanger 56t Tieflader.

As well as these main types there are shorter sections on vehicles which were proposed but did not make it into service, including the German-US co-operative HET70/SLT 50-2 and a look ahead to the next generation of vehicles plus a small series of tractors supplied to Canadian forces in Germany.

Photos are a mix of factory record shots and vehicles in the field including close-ups of markings. Several sets of plans are included, some to small scale to fit such large items onto the page and some as large as possible.

To say more would not add much to this description, the photos speak for themselves ably helped by the captions and plans. Well-produced overall and ideal reference for those who have the Trumputer FAUN transporter who want more details or who want to model other variants or just know more about them.

Highly recommended, it is available from several distributors world-wide, for more details contact the publishers Verlag Jochen Vollert on jochenvollert@tankograd.com

Page created 17 January 2004