PMMS

bookThe Tanks M 41 and M 47 in German Army Service

By Stefan Marx

Tankograd Militarfahrzeug Special No 5012.
Soft cover, A4 size, 64 pages

Review by Peter Brown


When the West German Army or Bundeswehr was formed in 1956, German companies were not able to supply it with tanks. Their first ones were American, the M41 commonly known as "Walker Bulldog" becoming the Leichter Kampfpanzer M 41 and the M47 "General Patton I" was adopted as Mittlerer Kamfpanzer M 47. Both types were soon delivered and put into service very quickly. M 41 served as a reconnaissance vehicle and M 47 with heavy armoured units with both also acting as Tank Destroyers before being replaced by more modern German-produced designs at the end of the 1960s.

Stefan Marx provides us with brief histories of the development of both tanks with specifications, then detailed accounts of how each was used including how German tank and reconnaissance formations were organised at this period. Much of the book is a photo study with over 120 black and white and two colour images. The photos show both series in service and on exercise, there are also extracts from the original American manuals including shots of the vehicles from various angles and views of engines, engine compartments and interiors. These tanks were not extensively modified apart from multi-barrelled smoke grenade launchers on the turret sides and minor changes to headlights which are clearly shown for those wanting to correctly produce a model of either in German hands.

Photo reproduction and layout is to the same high standard we have come to expect from Tankograd. Text and captions are in both German and English, some phrases in the English translation might make the reader stop and look again but these do not spoil the final result. Both as part of a wider study of Bundeswehr AFVs or coverage of one aspect of the use of these two tanks, a wealth of detail included and the high quality of the photos and manual extracts makes this a useful book for those interested in M41 or M47 serving with other forces. Recommended highly.

Available from Tankograd distributors, for more details contact the publishers Verlag Jochen Vollert on jochenvollert@tankograd.com My thanks to Justin Gainham at Bookworld for the review copy.



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