Book Review: Hitlerjugend, 12th SS Pz Div, Normandy, Saunders/Hone.

Superb! A thoroughly gripping account of the role of the SS Hitlerjugend’s role in the  Normandy ‘44 campaign. From the units creation, to its deployment and combat, opposite British and Canadian forces in the battle for Caen and beyond. Well illustrated with maps and photographs, and enlivened with firsthand accounts, I found this a terrifically engaging and informative read. Highly recommended.

Book Reviews: Anthony Tucker Jones

Today’s post is another of my occasional ‘trinity’ or trilogy reviews. On this occasion under review we have three titles, all on WWII armour, by author Anthony Tucker-Jones: Allied Armour, Stalin’s Armour and Hitler’s Armour. 

Allied Armour, 1939-45

Whilst well enough written, Allied Armour - and by Allied what’s really meant is British and American - is, to a very great extent, rather cloyingly data-rich and dry, mostly comprising recitations of the many campaigns in which its subject was involved, with a lot of commander’s names, unit numbers and place names, but - unusually and, it must be said, unhelpfully - no maps. 

I can see why some might be critical of such books, as they are neither deep dives into the tanks themselves, nor any of the particular campaigns. Rather what we have is a series of succinct synopses of the various campaigns as a whole, with a focus on the armoured warfare aspects. Still, I think having works of this type provides a kind of mid-level matrix, knowledge of which is very useful. This can then be deepened by works of more detail on specific armour or actions. 

From Matildas at Arras, via Faliase to the Rhine, 16 chapters cover not only the entire war in the west - including the North African and Mediterranean campaigns - but also the Australasian and Pacific theatres. And in the final 17th chapter, Industrial Muscle, we learn the true scale of armour production for each of the various combatant powers. For example, British and German tank production was roughly equal in quantity, if not quality. But against the combined industrial output of Uncles Sam and Joe, the Axis were doomed. Sherman tank production alone being more or less equal to all British and German tank manufacture combined!

Two appendices list all the Allied armoured divisions and, crucially, there's an alphabetical list of tank types. This last section is as important to the book as the foregoing chapters, as it's where a lot of the more specific vehicle related info' is. Despite the text veering, in places, perilously close to being rather dry and info-heavy, and in danger of falling between the stools of detail and generality, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Enough to read it all the way through, with enthusiasm, and still look forward to following it up with the Russian companion. 

Stalin’s Armour, 1941-45

Having just read the Allied Armour volume of what one might regard as a ‘tank trilogy’, and thoroughly enjoyed it, I’ve dived straight into Stalin’s Armour, 1941-1945. Thank goodness Anthony Tucker-Jones is a good writer! In less capable hands the data-rich material could induce a coma. 

Fortunately the maelstrom of commander’s names, unit titles, and place names is leavened somewhat by, on the one hand, more general descriptive history, such as on the development of Soviet armour - Kotin’s KVs or Koshkin’s T-34? - and on the other, more specific anecdotal reminiscences.

The total absence of maps is an issue with all the volumes in this tank series, leading me to dock a star/kreuz. And it is, for me, even more of an issue in this particular volume, given the scale of operations on the Ostfront. 

Anyone familiar with Hitler’s costly misadventures on the Eastern Front will almost certainly already know that, as a German talking head (ex-soldier) says in, the superb ITV series, The World At War... eventually millions of ant will overcomne even the elepohant (or words to that effect!*). Echoing this, Tucker-Jones concludes ‘Faced by this crude arithmetic the T-34 carried all before it.’

* I've been unable to locate the exact quote!

As with the other companion volumes, there’s a section of black and white photos. Rather oddly most the images in this volume are of damaged, destroyed or captured Soviet materiel, often being inspected by German troops. There are also two appendices, the first listing the many ‘Red Army Tank Units 1941-45’, the second comprising brief descriptions of ‘Soviet Tanks and Tracked AFVs 1941-45’.

For me, with each volume I read, it seems the three titles in this little trilogy are forming a useful ‘matrix’; the more one reads on these subject and campaigns the better and more detailed a picture one develops. The material here does occasionally veer towards the info-heavy side. But all told this a compelling enough read for me to happily and heartily recommend it.

Hitler’s Armour, ...

And so I come last to the one of these three books that most excites my interest, Hitler’s Panzers, The Complete History, 1933-45. This third title in the AFV trilogy by AT-J is organised somewhat differently from the others. Split into four sections, and with larger appendices, 18 chapters tell the fascinating story of Germany’s legendary WWII Panzerwaffe.

Part I, ‘Designing Tractors’ looks at the development of the various main tank types, from the Versailles-busting but otherwise fairly innocuous Pz I through to the awesome but over-engineered and under-produced Tiger II. This is one of the best and most interesting parts of the trilogy, for my money. 

Parts II, III and IV - Off To War, Sturmgeschütz Not Panzers and Wasted Opportunities - cover the war itself. The balance of bigger picture, and close-up detail, is better here, for my money, than in the Allied or Russian titles, in both of which the maelstrom of campaign info’ can be overwhelming (and without maps hard to make sense of). 

Guderian is referred to more than any other Panzer enthusiast, the theme of his tug of war with Hitler - the latter obsessed with both his idea of the ‘triumph of the will’ and size (big guns, big tanks!) - being something of a theme throughout the book. There are those who feel Guderian overstates his own role and importance in all of this. ATJ doesn't raise this issue.

Whereas the Allied volume ranges across Europe, bridging to North Africa via the Med’, and even the conflict with Japan in the further flung Pacific theatre, and the Russian volume has an early Eastern episode in the Russo-Japanese conflict on the edges of Northern China, this German themed volume kind of ties them all together, via the two Eastern and Western Fronts on which all three of these combatant powers fought.  

David Willey's terrific Tank Chat on the Pz IV.

To those familiar with WWII, Germany’s issues of over-engineering, too much diversity, and insufficient levels of production will all be familiar themes. And, as in other areas, these issues bedevilled tank and AFV development and deployment. But these are also amongst the things that make WWII German tanks the most fascinating. And it doesn’t hurt that they also looked so damn cool! 

Anthony Tucker-Jones ultimately concludes that of all the Panzers Germany produced and fielded during WWII, the best, in terms of efficacy, reliability and sheer weight of numbers, was the Pz IV. Germany built approx’ 8,500 Pz IV, according to T-J, whilst Russia’s factories churned out 55,000 T-34s. And Sherman output totalled about 50,000, all told. The more celebrated Panthers and Tigers are critiqued for being rushed into service (and therefore plagues with technical issues), and their impact dissipated, never being built or deployed in large enough numbers to have a decisive impact. 

Hitler’s Panzers also benefits from more picture sections, and more extensive appendices. The latter include production figures, Panzer and Panzergrenadier Division lists, and individual appendices for each of the Pz I-VI, listing and describing variants. Rather oddly these go I, II III IV, and then VI (Tigers) precedes V (Panthers). A bit odd!? There are, regrettably, no maps or glossary. 

CONCLUSIONS

I’d say that, together or separately, these books are a worthwhile additions to the library of any self-respecting WWII history enthusiast. I read them all, one after another, without losing enthusiasm. In fact the interest and excitement mounted with each new volume. I also think they get better progressively (I don’t know what order the author wrote them in?), the Allied book being pretty good, the Russian one a little better, and the German one the best of the three. 

Their best points are that they cover all the major theatres of war, and do so in a readable manner, albeit occasionally being somewhat dizzyingly data-rich. There are one of two things that might be improved on future editions, such as remedying the complete absence of maps. The picture selections could also be better and more diverse. Maps would help the reader follow the actions described, and the picture segments could do a better job of covering the many AFVs mentioned in the text. 

I can see why for some, these might in places fall between the stools of generality and detail. Taken as a whole, however, I think they form an excellent core of information on the development and combat histories of these mighty brutal metal beasts of war. All told, I really enjoyed reading them, and would definitely recommend them. 

Book Review: SdKfz 251/9 & 22, Kanonenwagen, Dennis Oliver (Land Craft)

 

Another excellent instalment in the ever-growing Dennis Oliver section of the WWII German Tank/Land Cradt series. This time on kanonenwagen variants of the German half-track workhorse that was the SdKfz 251.

All the usual elements are in place: a brief history of the design and manufacture; unit histories; the ever inspiring colour profiles segment; model showcase/products; unit composition (under the official German 'kreigsstarkenweisung' heading!): technical details, etc. 

Terrifically illustrated on all fronts, from contemporary black and white photos to the colour profiles and beautifully built models. One of the nicest builds, by Juanjo Domingez, is in my favourite/chosen 1/72, and, despite its tiny size, is the chosen and favoured 'cover girl', so to speak. 

Perusing this inspires me to possibly try converting one of my extant 251s into a long-barrelled kanonenwagen! And I would, unhesitatingly, recommend this to those interested in the AFVs and suchlike of this fascinating era. Excellent!

Book Review: Strabokran, Volker Ruff

Got myself this for Xmas, 2020. I have a yen to scratch-build one or two of these cranes, in 1/72. The few kits of the Strabokran I found in 1/72 seem to be about £30-40+. I managed to get my copy of this book for a little over £20. That seemed, to me, better use of my limited funds; this way I can build my own models, for the cost of a few bits of plastic profile, plus I get this plush reference work, for about the same cost, or poss’ even less, as buying an off the shelf kit.

Of the several similar format books I've bought in the last few years, this isn't the best, or my favourite. The minimal bi-lingual text (in English and German) isn't terrific, and the quality of the images is quite patchy. But, nevertheless, overall it's still excellent reference, gathering together plentiful contemporary photographic imagery - albeit of very mixed quality - and supplemented by numerous line diagrams. 

The latter include 1/35 scale plans, which will be very useful for me, once all the dimensions are halved. Another of my minor gripes, however, relates to the overall clarity of all the info', both textual and graphic. I'm well past my third, fourth and now even fifth perusal of the book, and I still find it all very confusing, what with all the differing variants, and issues around the quality of the translation from German, and clarity of images, etc.

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Still, despite these several caveats, I'd like to add my 'amen' to the 'hallelujah chorus' of approval that this book has received elsewhere online. 

Momentarily returning to the translation from the author's German into English, it almost feels like it’s been arrived at by simply running the German text through Google Translate, or something of that ilk. The resulting combo of strangely Germanic lumpen prose and editorial slips make the text heavier going than I'd like.  

And, despite the huge number of illustrations, which are - unusually for books in this line on similar subjects - split between mostly WWII archival photographs, and more recent line diagrams, I don't feel that there's as great a degree of visual clarity here as one might wish for. 

I bought this book partly simply because I'm a WWII/Panzer nut, and partly because, following on from the former, I wish to build models of these cranes. Repeated intensive perusal of the masses of material presented here still leaves me uncertain on several details of these fascinating machines.

However, having returned throughout this review to certain critical points, I'll end by conceding that it'd be pretty churlish to score this much less than five kreuz stars. As, after all, it does indeed gather together an immense amount of reference on its subject. 

The following short recitation of certain section headings (and contents) gives an idea of the level of detail:

After a brief intro, there's a potted history of the company that made the cranes.

Then we have info on the 15t, 16t, 20t variants, plus other stuff (inc. postwar production).

Parts of an Allied report, Operation Backfire, are reproduced, which includes illustrated descriptions of deployment.

'Strabokran in Action' shows them in use with Tigers, Panthers, Elefant and V2 rockets.

Further sections on rarities (other cranes used when Strabokran weren't available), survivors, patent applications (!), and unit formations/allocations add detail.

But best of all, for the modeller like me, there’s both a detailed photographic 'walk around’, and lots of 1/35 scale drawings.

And, whilst not perfectly rendered, nearly all the textual content is presented in both English and German. 

All in all, then, whilst admittedly not perfect, this certainly is a fascinatingly interesting and very useful resource, if - like me - you're a dedicated 'beyond hope' Panzer nut.

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Volker Ruff's strabokran website

https://www.strabokran.de/index.php?seite=strabokran

Kit Build/Review: Airfix 1/76 Panther #2

White Milliput zimmerit goes on to the hull.

On this second build of an Airfix 1/76 Panther I haven't bothered detailing the box contents or initial build. Instead I've just jumped in at the point where things get more interesting (to me, at any rate!), with detailing the kit. This is part of a current series of 'panzer wrecks' for the battlefields of my putative 20mm WWII wargaming collection.

Rear turret access hatch open.

Chipped zimm...

Zimmerit on the turret as well.

After applying the white Milliput zimmerit to the major areas, I decided to detail a number of other aspects of the kit. Mostly this meant opening a number of hatches; in addition to the easy commander's cupola hatch. In fact nearly all the crew hatches are open. I suspect they all baled out - and sharp-ish, as they haven't destroyed the tank, as per reg's - after hitting a mine and coming under fire once immobilised. The driver's vision hatch and the rear turret hatch (is this the 'loader's hatch'?) both required rather more effort! But I think the results are worth it. 

Both main turret hatches are open.

Driver's hatch also open, as are the two upper hull hatches.

Note different zimm' patterns on turret and hull.

Zooming in on the turret a bit.

Hull glacis up close.

Keen observers might spot that the turret and hull zimm' patterns are different. I've seen this often enough on photos of actual WWII German tanks. But I didn't follow specific reference. I also removed the turret lifting eyes and replaced them with bent stretched sprue, which I think looks a helluva lot better. In addition I scratch-built towing clevises (clevii???), a tow-cable, and added some tools and spare track.

Note missing rear road wheel.

I've scored the kit itself just two and a half 'kreuz this time. Maybe that's a bit harsh? But it is pretty poor. The tracks, for example, are so bad as to be unusable, f-f-f-frankly. Still, it does make a usable base kit for having fun like this with, albeit in the slightly smaller 1/76 scale, as opposed to my preferred 1/72.

Added details: tools, tow-cable, turret lifting eyes, etc.

Am I therefore wasting my time polishing a turd? Perhaps... I've even ordered several OKB Grigorov 1/72 resin Panther track sets. They look amazing online. I want the tracks on this to look nicer than is possible using the awful rubber band jobs that come with the kit. I also took the trouble to make sure the wheels went on without recourse to the oversized 'cap' type doodads that Airfix supply. 

I'm quite keen to add a jack and maybe a bucket at rear. And I may well add the rear stowage bins. Or perhaps jus one? And have the other 'missing in action', with no zimm' where it was... hmmm!?

Book Review: I Somehow Survived, Ed. Klaus Förg

This is an English translation of a recent book originally published in Germany, which collects the testimonies of five Bavarian survivors of WWII. All were over 90 at the time their tales were collected, the oldest being 106! Four are military personnel, whilst the fifth is a Norwegian woman, who - depsite her socialist father being forced into hiding, and her mother winding up in a camp - married a young German in the Kriegsmarine.

In the foreward Roger Moorhouse notes that this is part of a trend of recent years of allowing the voices of Germans into the pool of English language recollections, and as such a useful balance to years of largely one-sided history. I would qualify that a bit by saying that, whereas whilst most postwar German testimonies came from the bigwigs, or their friends and families - from Albert Speer's famous 'struggle with the truth' to the memoirs of people like Doenitz or von Ribbentrop, the latter's son writing his father's memoir - there have indeed, more recently, been concerted efforts to hear the voices of the 'everyman' (and woman) participants.*

My favourite of these is the first and longest, in which Georg Weiss recounts his arduous and colourful Ostfront service. Other stories include the long peregrinations of Sepp  Heinrichsberger, who, serving in France, winds up a POW in America, before undergoing a postwar oddysey in his quest to get home. Franz Blattenberger, an artilleryman, has a similar tale about his lengthy flight to ultimate postwar freedom, in which a keynote is the randomness and luck of survival. And Siegfried Schugman was a frustrated Luftwaffe man, who never got his wings, but wound up glad of it.

All in all, an interesting and very easy read. I read the entire thing in just one day, and that whilst also doing numerous other things. There are no truly mind-blowing or even very shocking revelations, to be truthful. Especially not if you've read a lot on WWII, as I have. But it is always refreshing to hear the German side of the story. The recollections seem pretty open and candid, and the supporting photos help reassure one. But - and no disrespect to the researchers or contributors - this is verbal or anecdotal history, and must therefore be treated with a certain amount of caution and circumspection.

Still, fascinating stuff.

* In respect of the latter, Tim Heath's several books on women's experiences in the Third Reich spring to mind.

Book Review: The Einheits-Diesel, Alan Ranger

My love affair with WWII German trucks continues. I love the excellent Nuts & Bolts book I recently reviewed (find that here), but wanted more. So I ordered The 'Einheits-Diesel', by Alan Ranger.

Lots of great atmospheric pictures...

This is a somewhat different proposition to the super-detailed Nuts & Bolts treatment, and instead focuses on picture's from the author's own collection. This is great, as it means these are not the same old pictures one sometimes encounters in military reference works.

With around 130 or more black and white photographs, after a brief intro' to the subject, the text is purely the captions to the images. The bulk of the images are of the open backed 'standard' varieties, with the last quarter of the book moving over to closed box body versions.

... that you won't find elsewhere...

The Einheits-Diesel was originally an attempt to standardise German military track production, but as Ranger notes, 'in the end it only added one more to the number', rather ironically. And as the wartime evolution of technology took off, it was quickly superseded and left it behind. The consequence was that by war's end, most had been run to death.

... mostly of a very decent quality, like this one.

I'm intending to build lots of German rear-echelon trucks and trailers and whatnot. I'm gradually amassing a number of kits of this and similar types. This book is a great addition to my growing library on this fascianting subject. The text is clear, concise, and whilst short sand basic, nonetheless informative, and the pictures - whilst of varied quality - are great, chiefly because they're not images one is likely to find elsewhere.

Highly recommended.

The back cover.

Kit Build/Review: B&P Sturmtiger, pt 2

The image above conveys how much larger the 1/72 Build & Play Sturmtiger is than the 1/72 ICM model. Not a deal-breaker for me. But it's almost the same degree of difference as you get between 1/76 and 1/72. I've decided to detail the B&P kit a bit. And I've started with zimmerit, the transportation hooks on the casemate, and a little judicious filling here and there.

I need to find a better way of doing zimm than my current m.o. Which is fiddly and frustrating. I'm using superfine Milliput. In this instance I even sanded the super smpoth styrene surface a bit, to try and improve adhesion. But it's a real bugger getting the Milliput both thin enough and covering all the required areas. As you'll see here, I've left a good deal of 'oh, the zimm's been knocked off' areas. Especially on the sides; working round the imtergrated tool detailing was just too much of a headache!

I used the Milliput to fill in the welding lines on the slopes of the casemate front, where the way it's been rendered by B&P is wrong. I'll be going back in to score crevices at the correct angles soon. I also scratched in some weld/plate irregularities, such as you see on these behemoths in museums. I'm hoping all this white Milliput stuff is going to look much better when the monster gets painted.

I also intend to remove the current wedge like grab handles and replace them all with wire, so they look a bit less clunky. The ammo crane, I'm undecided about. An orgy of poring over the actual vehicles, via reference photos, is definitely in order. What I'd love above all else, is for a cache of factory assembly photos to be unearthed and made available. I'd love to see these monsters being build! If anyone knows of such a resource, please direct me to it!

Kit Build/Review: 1/72 Build & Play Sturmtiger

A few days ago I mentioned this kit in another post, and today it arrived, from the Tank Museum, Bovington, in Dorset. I also got their Dorling Kindersely Tank Book. I love both. In fact, I was so excited about this strange but very affordable kit I built it straight away! the brand, A to Z Build & Play is new to me. I'm only aware of a few 1/72 models by them, almost all of which are german WWII AFVs.

Just looking at the sprues you can see it's not your ordinary Airfix or Revell or whatever style of model. It's more like a kind of mutant Lego. The gray sprues, which seem to be good quality styrene, are lightly sprayed with some white paint, almost mimicking a camo' scheme. Hardly any, to be honest, thankfully! 

The plastic itself feels great, and the quality of the casting is superb. Almost no flash, very few ejector pin marks, and cleaning off when cut from the sprues really cleanly and easily. Many seemingly nicer looking kits, with lots more parts and detail, can actually be a real arse-ache in that they require aeons of time and way too much energy spent cleaning up.

The first bummer is that the rubber band tracks are pretty crappy. But if this is destined for tabletop gaming, and not the model showcase or a museum quality diorama, one the model's finished, they could be used perfectly serviceably. But they would require cleaning up a little. Unlike the rest of the kit, there's some flash along the edges in places.

The instructions are verging on clear enough, but contain some hilarious gaffes. Some linguistic, some just plain silly, such as the picture of the Stug model being labelled with the name of the font! Obviously someone had simply forgotten to type in the title for that particular image. For a fraction of a nanosecond I thought, 'Wow, I never knew there was a tank called the 'Name Of Typeface'... it looks just like a Stug!'

Unlike most kits in this scale, which will have a mainly hollow interior, and weigh next to nothing, this is a solid and even relatively weighty affair, that builds up like a hybrid between Jenga and a mutant form of Lego bricks. No glue is required. But I slathered some Tamiya liquid cement on to various surfaces anyway, as I want the model to remain a cohesive unit.

Once the core of the body is assembled, the 'cladding' elements turn it from a nonentity, into one of my favourite looking German AFVs, all squat and mean, with that fat snub nose. And this kit is the best I've built in a while for the containment and functioning of the gun elevation. And unlike the AMC Models 1/72 Sturmtiger kit I built many moons ago - that one wound up having the gun glued in place, allowing no movement at all - this also has the cooling channel detailing in the end of the muzzle. How cool, literally, is that?

In next to no time, the kit is build. I found it tremendously fun, largely on account of how quick and easy it was. I do love the more detailed convoluted builds. But sometimes they can be pretty draining. And if they're involved enough, they may see one going through hills of joy and valleys of despair. this was pure unadulterated fun from start to rapid finish.

I think the following pictures - and the sheer number of them is a testament to how much I like this model - show the Sturmtiger in a pretty durn good light. If one so desired, and I might, one could have their way with this, and get in like Flynn on upgrading and detailing, etc. I think I'll do a few bits in that line. I might add some zimmerit, and there are one or two other minor details that could easily be improved. I don't think I'll bother with the ammo crane. Or, if I do add it, I'll probably have it in a stowed/out of the way manner.

Is this Sturmtiger pleased to see us, or has it just got a high-elevation gun in it's pocket? And check also the cooling vent holes around the muzzle. If I'm able to see clearly enough, I might drill those out a little deeper. I might also upgrade the machine gun, as the integrally moulded one is, per'aps a touch too basic. The rear engine deck detailing, and some of the welding seams are a bit overstated. But I actually like this, as I think at this scale, if that sort of detail were rendered in perfect scale, it'd practically disappear.

The tracks and running gear are the only area where this kit falls somewhat shorter. Viewed at a glance, or from distance, the crisply moulded side-view detail of the wheels is actually magnificent. But closer inspection reveals that the outer wheel surfaces are purely smooth tubular affairs, as is the inner face of the tracks.

These final two shots are taken in lower light... obviously! I think the model looked even more atmospheric, so I continued snapping away! I reckon I'll buy and build a few more kits from this range. Some of them are stooopid cheap, at £2.99 a pop! (At the Tank Museum's online shop, at any rate.) They may not be showcase quality models if simply built out of the box. But they suit wargaming, being chunky and very solid. And with a little finessing they will undoubtedly scrub up even better.

If I manage to find the time tomorrow, I'll do a bit of detailing, and maybe even get to painting and decaling... that'd be a first for me, in absolutely ages, turning a kit around in just two days. Hmmm!? We shall see...