As the title states, this is Volume 2 of History Facts’ two part history of the Sturmgestchutz III. Volume One, according to the publisher’s web site, covers the history of the vehicle in both written text and photographs/drawings, the bulk of the pages devoted though to written text. This volume has already been reviewed here on the IPMS/USA web site. Volume Two, the subject of this review, “provides the means with which to precisely identify specific vehicles”, and is almost exclusively photographs and line drawings.

In the last several years, Kagero Publishing of Lublin, Poland has rapidly expanded, providing a host of publications for modelers. Its newest series is War Camera Photobooks. As the series suggests, it uses photographs from World War Two to illustrate, in this case, German Heavy Cruisers. With the recent release by Trumpeter of the Prinz Eugen and Admiral Hipper in 1/350 and 1/700 scales, this book is a timely release.

This bi-monthly publication provides an excellent resource for WWI aviation enthusiasts. The publication is an 8x12 softbound magazine and usually averages about 30 to 34 pages. Each issue features a particular aircraft modeling project. In this issue there are two featured articles.

Lance Krieg’s “Modelling Master Class”. Part 3 covers detailing the “Cockpit”. The text is accompanied with excellent images that illustrate the techniques discussed within the article. This series of articles will cover additional topics in the next few issues providing a very valuable resource to the modeler.

The second of the two featured articles is entitled, “Rolands in Russia”. Author Marat Khairulin, translated by Sergey Vlasenko. Accompanied by a large number of original images, this article provides a brief history of some captured Rolands and their use and eventual fate while in Russian hands.

This is the first of a two-volume set detailing the history, tactical development, and use of the various marks of the Sturmgeschutz III, commonly referred to as the StuG III. Volume 1 is predominately text. Volume 2 is mostly photographic in content.

This book offers a wealth of data for modelers, as well as those more interested in the technical aspects of this weapons system. Chapters include: background, technical development, series production, design variants A thru G, the factories involved in production, and combat records and troop reports.

There is a full developmental section, where the evolution of tactics is examined. Due to the requirements of the conflict, a weapon developed to support the infantry with mobile heavy firepower, evolved into a premier tank killer and improvised tank replacement. A howitzer-armed version, the Sturmhaubitze, was introduced to remedy this, with limited success mostly due to the limited numbers produced.

This hard cover 160 page book covers the Grumman “Bridge and Iron Works” first Jet Cat from the inception through its final days as drones or 2 place trainers. Text takes you from the early days with an interesting read accompanied by over 300 illustrations, including color, black and white and line drawings. It contains complete dates on the F9F production numbers including carrier deployments and squadron histories. This historic aircraft was to become the forerunner of the fantastic F-14 Tomcat, the last of a great line of aircraft from the good folks in Bethpage.

If the author's name seems familiar to you, it’s because he has specialized in Naval topics since the 1990’s. In addition to individual books on the A-4, F/A-18, and F-4 Phantom versus Mig engagements in Vietnam, he is a regular writer for International Aircraft Review. I’ve found his work to be enjoyable and this release is no different.