Osprey Publishing continues to expand its “Combat” Series, this time with a book on what is possibly the largest urban battle in military history: Stalingrad.

The book is organized as follows:

• Introduction
• The Opposing Sides
• The Tractor Factory (October 1942)
• The Barrikady Gun Factory (November 1942)
• The Komissarhaus (November 1942)
• Analysis
• Aftermath

The Introduction section covers the overall strategic situation at the time of the Battle of Stalingrad. The Opposing Sides chapter describes the equipment and general tactics of both the German Pioneer (Assault Troops) and the Soviet Rifleman (Infantry). These two types of soldiers had different training, tactics, and weapons.

Real Colors are AK-Interactive’s excellent new line of acrylic lacquer paints. These paints are new technically in the paint formula and new artistically with the statement on paint colors. These paint colors have been determined through scientific analysis of actual WWII paint samples to produce colors as accurate as possible. In addition to the paints, AK has published a book, Real Colors of WWII, that documents the historical research and analysis that went into determining the paint colors. The Real Colors paints and Real Colors of WWII book provide a historical benchmark of paint colors that will be a valuable resource for modelers to reproduce accurate vehicle colors. I anticipate lots of discussion about the colors presented.

History

As WWII progressed, British troops found that their 2-pounder and 6-pounder guns were being rendered obsolete by German armor, and planners decided to develop a vehicle using the powerful 17-pounder (76.2mm) gun. The vehicle chosen to mount the gun on was the Valentine with the turret removed and replaced with a fighting compartment. This new vehicle would be known as the Archer. Interestingly, as there was little time to re-organize the cramped layout, the 17-pounder had to be mounted pointing rearwards to fit it in. As a result, the Archer moved and fired in opposite directions. Designed and manufactured by Vickers’ Armstrong, 655 were produced by May 1945. It served with British and Commonwealth units from October 1944 until the end of WWII, and with the British using it until the early 1950s.