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book Panzerwrecks 6
German Armour 1944-45
Lee Archer and William Auerbach
Published by Panzerwrecks
ISBN 978-095559403-8
http://www.panzerwrecks.com
96 pages soft cover

Review by Terry Ashley


This sixth volume in the Panzerwrecks series continues the excellent quality of the previous volumes and is devoted to images of destroyed or disabled German armour in the last years of WWII with a number of photo series which tell a story better than a single image.

The format of the book has mostly large images, many being just one to a page with the text confined to image captions to maximise the space for the images and this results in images large enough to show details that would be hard to see in smaller as well as a few pages with 3 or 4 images per page with close-up shots.

Many of the images are previously unpublished while some others have been seen before and give an excellent insight into the final years of the war and the fate of the majority of German kit around that time.

The first 31 pages have numerous unrelated photos of destroyed or disabled German vehicles that again offer some excellent details of the vehicles but also endless diorama posibilities, the vehicles featured include:
Panther Ausf.D (1 photo)
StuG Ausf. D (3 photos)
Panzerjager I (3 photos)
Panther Ausf G (1 photo)
Marder III 7.62cm Pak36 (1 photo)
Jadgpanther (3 photos)
Assorted vehciles in vehicle dump with Jadgpanzer IV and Panzer IV/70, assorted s.W.S and assorted Sd.kfz.7/1 and 10/5.
Mobelwagen (1 photo)
Panther Ausf A backfitted with Flammenvernichter mufflers (3 photos)
Panzer IV Ausf.H (1 photo)
StuG M42 mit 75/18 850(i) (1 photo)
StuG IV (2 photos)
Tiger I (4 photos taken on British firing range)
King Tiger (2 photos)
Jadgtiger (2 photos)
Assorted destriyed gear on railway flatcars (4 photos)

The next 8 pages have an assortment of StuG III photos with the vehicles in various states of disrepair as well as a coupe of shots of an intack Sturmhsubitze 42 10.5cm taken from both sides to give a good overall view of the Zimmerit finish and other details.

Next comes a single shot of a dilapidated Sd.Kfz.7/1 being used a play ride by some local boys followed by 5 pages of assorted Sd.Kfz.251 wrecks (and 1 Sd.Kfz.234/3 interloper) that again offer some excellent detail as well as showing the cam schemes quite well, those featured are a 251/21 'drilling' on the late hull with one piece engine bay door, a couple of 251/22s from the same unit and a very interesting shot of a 2cm Flak 38 auf Selbstfahrlafette Zgkw.3t (Sd.Kfz.11) which is the 3t flak vehicle with the front armoured section resembling that of the 251 Ausf.D (no, this is not a 251 variant but a 3t half track Sd.Kfz.11 variant).
The 2cm Flak gun is missing showing interesting details of the rear ammo box racks and flak mounting that should prove quite useful for anyone wanting to build this particular model?

This is followed by two pages with a RSO/01 with early rounded steel cab and the later RSO/03 with flat panel cab, both are still intake and being used by their new US Army owners and a couple of shots of disabled Hetzers and 3 shots of Panther Ausf.Gs, one wearing the unusual diagonal band cam scheme added to some M.N.H. produced vehicles later in the war.

The next five pages have 3 shots of a StuG Ausf.D that survived all the way to this later stage of the war being inspected by its US captors followed by 2 shots of a abandoned Panzer IV/70(A) amongst the rubble with some local inhabitants showing little interest in the vehicle as they pass, clearly they are not modellers?

The next 13 pages are devoted to shots of abandoned Flammpanzer 38s with 5 external over shots followed by 7 pages of extreme close-up interior shots showing the driver's controls and seat, flamethower operator's position as well as the flame oil tank and pump and other details that should prove extremely interesting and finally 4 smaller shots showing the flamethrower unit it pieces for more interesting detail views.

We then have 3 shots of the Karl-Gerat Nr.V "Loki" captured by US forces in German while still on it's rail transporter for some interesting views in these new photos of "Loki", well to me anyway and this again is followed by an assortment of disabled vehicles including Panzer III, IVs and a Sd.Kfz.234/2.

The final 16 pages of the book is sort of a photo essay on the conversion by US personal of 5 captured 251 S.P.Ws to mount the 4.5" Rocket Launcher T34 ('Calliope') with shots of the 251s during conversion while having their side armour cut about to take the T34 mount facing sideways, one vehicle being a 251/22 with the 7.5cm Pak40 modified to mount the T34 allowing some elevation of the launcher.

There are some excellent in-progress shots of the vehicle conversions taking place as well as some detailed views of the T34 mounting, even more so on the 251/22 with the T34 mounted above the Pak40 with the barrel used for elevation as mentioned above, this will make for one very interesting kit conversion.

This is followed by 3 shots taken from both sides of the completed vehicle as well as more overall shots while the vehicle is being prepared for test firing of the rockets with one close-up front 3/4 view showing the cut away armour from the driver's position that again should provide just about every detail needed for the kit conversion.

Conclusion:
As with previous issues this is another excellent collection of photos that offer many diorama possibilities as well as conveying the intensity of wartime actions with a good cross section of destroyed and intact vehicles showing the markings of the time.

The extended sections on the Flammpanzer 38 and Sd.Kfz.251/T34 ('Calliope') add further interest and value to this volume with the 251 series in particular sort of demanding to be built.

The size of the photos allows good details to be shown not only of the vehicles but of the cam schemes including where not obliterated by fire and the the insightful and informative captions also add to the value of the photos and this series continues to be an invaluable reference for the modeller of late war German equipment.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Panzerwrecks for the review book.




Page created August 25, 2008