Photo albums from Eastern European publishers have been popular in recent years with many modelers.  In many cases they allow modelers access to photos that have been hidden in government archives or private collections for many decades.  However as these books are often sold mail order, purchase can often be a bit of a gamble.

“Tanks of WWII: Wehrmacht Tanks” is a 60 page collection of photos and colour profiles printed on glossy magazine grade paper.   The book’s text and caption are entirely in Russian and the titles English translation varies between retailers.  The book has a photo of an early StuG III in the center of a charcoal cover with red and white text.

The photos provide a good overview of the different armored vehicles used by the German’s in WWII and are clearly printed and typically postcard sized which makes it easy to see the detail. The majority of the photos are from WWII although some are of vehicles in museums.  Some of the wartime photos were new to me, including one of a sIG 33 B auf Panzer III captured at Stalingrad, however most were familiar and often well known.

The artwork is competent and is a mix of side and ¾ profiles of a range of AFVs, which comprises over 1/3 of the book.  The plates appear to have been drawn by several different illustrators and there is some variance in the quality.  The subjects are based on vehicles seen in photos however the source photos have not always been included in the book and the captions are only in Russian.  Many, if not most, of the profiles have also been published in BroneCollekchiy magazine series.

SUMMARY

I expect this book would be very useful to many Russian readers in the same way I found “Panzer Colors I” useful when I started modeling the Panzertruppe.   However I feel for the English language readers it offers little in the way of valuable new material, while lacking the accessible commentary expected in a primer aimed a those who are starting their library.