Bottom Line Up Front

This is the most comprehensive collection of German vehicles in the Spanish Civil War. None of the photos, to the best of my knowledge, have ever been published before. The pages contain photos of tracked AFVs, armored cars, soft-skins and towed ordinance as well as detailed order of battle information.

Chapters

• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Rebellion in Spain and German Support
• Chapter 2 Panzergruppe Drohne
• Chapter 3 German Tanks in Spain
• Chapter 4 Special Training by Panzergruppe Drohne
• Chapter 5 Wheeled Vehicles of Panzergruppe Drohne
• Chapter 6 The Airforce Contingent

Contents

This book fills a void in AFV on the body of knowledge on WW2 era vehicles. Many scholarly references make note of how Germany made a proving ground out of Spain during its bloody civil war, but there are precious few comprehensive visual references of this intervention.

This book is a treasure throve of pictures of the vehicles Germany fielded in the Spanish Civil War. The 500+ photographs come from a private collection, so these are not recycled photographs you will see in a Google search or time after time on video documentaries. The book contains minimal text, but it does provide background information on the negotiations with the Germans, the number of vehicles and men fielded, and where they were deployed.

There are eight pages of color photos of insignia, unit markings and artist’s renderings of armored vehicles. The rest of the photos are all black and white. There are even several terrific interior reference photos of the Panzer I that you will NOT find on the internet.

I wish the book provided an index and bibliography. The photos are from a private collection, but the authors have quite a bit of text that begs notes and reference citations. The scholarship of the book suffers from this. I also wish there were color profile plates showing more markings and camouflage patterns.

Conclusion

This book is a terrific addition to any modeler or researcher interested in Spanish Civil War vehicles or pre-WW2 German armor.

Many thanks to Casemate for the review copy.