Jacek Zabielski’s new monograph arrives as a welcome addition to the literature on early-war light tanks. The LT vz. 35—better known in German service as the Panzerkampfwagen 35(t)—has long occupied an awkward middle ground: important enough to appear in most general accounts of the 1939–41 campaigns, yet rarely given sustained, dedicated treatment in English. This book sets out to correct that imbalance.

Scope and Approach

The work covers the tank’s full arc: its origins as a Škoda design for the interwar Czechoslovak Army, technical development, production, and subsequent use by Germany, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and other operators. Particular attention is paid to mobility, mechanical features, reliability, and the vehicle’s performance in the early Blitzkrieg campaigns in Poland and France, as well as its later service on the Eastern Front before obsolescence set in. The publisher notes roughly 260 black-and-white illustrations supporting the text.

Box Art / Packaging

The Tamiya RSO/01 German Tractor is a brand-new tooled release presented in Tamiya's typical rigid top opener with crisp artwork depicting a unit from the 1^st Skijager Division, Eastern Front, 1944.

This 100% newly tooled kit complements the existing 1/35 scale line up of German WWII vehicles in the Military Miniature Series and is also designed to be used with last year's release of the 50mm Pak38, kit # 35392.

The box contains a normal Tamiya instruction manual with clear construction steps, 37 in all, to complete this kit.

Also included is a glossy ‘background information’ leaflet which provides some history and details of the different designs and variants for the RSO through the WWII campaign.

It also contains details of the specifications of this Light Tank, including dimensions, crew capacity, engine (with speed and output) as well as range and armament.

During the latter part of World War 2, as it lost its iron grip on the skies, Germany began to rely more and more on antiaircraft guns and weapons as its first line of defense against marauding Allied aircraft. What this meant in practical terms is that they had to range far and wide to find suitable vehicles to create mobile mounts for all sorts of weaponry, putting them on virtually anything that could move and handle the weight. Of course, eventually this expedient rigging became unsustainable, but not without cost to the allies.

The Third US Army conquered the Brittany peninsula by August 1944, and isolated German forces into Lorient, Brest and St Nazaire. The strategic objective, stated above, was the capture of the ports and their harbors. The Third US Army’s role in the first phases of this battle were covered in a previous book in this series, The Battle for Brittany Then and Now, The Third US Army First Battle. On 5 September 1944, the Ninth US Army took command of the VIII Corps with the mission of taking Brest and, with it, Brittany.

Brest featured largely in the Allied plans for the capture of Normandy. Once the beachhead was secured, ports were necessary for the continuation of offensive operations to dislodge the Germans from France. From the introduction,

Tanks and Armor in the Battle for Moscow (Images of War series) by Ian Baxter is a photo-heavy illustrated history focused on German armored forces during the Battle of Moscow and related operations on the Eastern Front.

The book provides a visual account of the German Panzerwaffe’s advance toward Moscow, primarily covering Operation Typhoon (the 1941 offensive) and its aftermath. It draws on rare and unpublished photos with captions and a concise narrative.