The Author

Alan Ranger was educated mostly in the UK, He started his carrier in the Royal Engineer's Regiment of the British Army. Since then specializing in turbines from the early 1980's on he has been involved in various engineering projects around the world for a number of major global companies.

He has had a number of books and articles published over the years mostly industry related but has also has been published before in this field with books published by Model Art of Japan. He is a collector of World War II Militaria and has also accumulated a large collection of original period photographs on this subject matter. His interests are centered around World War II history in general, specializing in the vehicles both soft skin and armoured as used by the German and Japanese armed forces during the conflict.

For those of us who attended the IPMS Nationals in 2017, we were able to see the 1/48 scale M1A2 that Tamiya would soon be releasing. I built the original 1/35 Tamiya offering in the 1980’s as the tank was just entering service, and I knew that I would need this new release in a smaller scale. The folks at Hauler have released a photoetch set to improve detail on some items and add more/missing details in other areas. I would highly recommend this set to modelers building this Abrams tank, but also recommend that you have experience with some rather small detail parts.

The book goes into great detail German Campaign on the Eastern front 1941 to 1942.

It covers Germans path from Moscow to Stalingrad which was full of successes and failures for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.

I found this book very interesting and fascinating. It was full of such a lot of information and some fantastic photographs that I had never seen before. This whole period of World War two was full of problems created by Hitler’s obsession that he knew better that his high command. occasions.

There are lot of pictures and illustrations that make the book even more interesting.

I recommend this book to everyone with a deep interest the war. The only downside was it could have had a little insight into the actions it fought from an eyewitness perspective to give it more feeling.

Thanks go to Casemate Publishing for providing this book to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.

Introduction

Without giving a lengthy history of the M60 Patton the following is a short summary of the M60A2. The M60A2 nicknamed the “Starship” grew out of the development of the M60A1 with a CVWS (Combat Vehicle Weapons System) turret firing a 152mm conventional round. Planning began in the late 1950s. These were initially named the M60A1E2 then later standardized to the designation M60A2. Production was ended in 1975 with a total production run of 526 vehicles.

In the advertising literature AFV Club states this new kit features:

Pen and Sword has started a new series of publications related to Armored Fighting Vehicles (TankCraft Series) and this book is the fifth installment in the series. It covers one of the best WWII-era tanks: The Soviet T-34.

The book is broken down in the following chapters.

• Introduction
• Development and Design
• The T-34 in detail
• Camouflage and Markings
• Model Showcase
• Modelling Products
• Into Service and into Action
• Enter the T-34/85
• The T-34 in Action after the Second World War

The first 3 chapters tell the story of the T-34, going back to the origins of the design in the Christie Tank and its design evolution, culminating on the 3rd chapter where the tank is described from the mechanical, defensive, offensive and even living conditions point of view.