“The 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Formed in 1941 from Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) volunteers and conscripts from the Banat, Independent State of Croatia (NDH), Hungary and Romania, it fought a counter-insurgency campaign against communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance forces in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia, NDH and Montenegro. It was given the title Prinz Eugen after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an outstanding military leader of the Habsburg Empire who liberated the Banat and Belgrade from the Ottoman Empire in the Austro-Turkish War of 1716 1718. It was initially named the SS-Freiwilligen-Division Prinz Eugen (SS-Volunteer Division Prinz Eugen). This lavishly illustrated book tells the story of this unit and its operations. Many previously unpublished photos are included, and maps of the operational areas. Essential reading for armor enthusiasts, WW2 military enthusiasts and modelers.”

This is the description form the back cover of the book and boy is it a mouthful of German words. But it gets your ready to read the rest of the book with many German words describing the 7^th SS Volunteer Mountain Division and the officer’s ranks who served it. This hardbound book is 208 pages with 375 photos, many never published. Plus there are many full-color profiles of the armor, airplanes and soft-skin vehicles the division used. These wonderful color drawings are a great reference for any modeler interested in build some captured French armor used by the Germans in the Balkans.

The chapters are layout out covering the formation of the division in Croatia, Partisan tactics and the 19 major operations it undertook again the Partisans and later the Russian Red Army. The last chapter is the war crimes the division committed. I found this chapter is briefer then I expected, since this was an SS unit fight partisans. One war crime of interested was the division killing civilians in retaliation of a partisan attack. It turns out the civilians where relatives of soldiers in another SS division that was serving in France. Himmler had to get involved to calm that firestorm. He also had to get involved when about 150 of the drafted soldiers mutinied.

The division had a war correspondent section and they took a lot of photos. Many of the photos have continuity to them like three or four in a row of Himmler exiting a plane for an inspection, then getting into a staff car. Quite a few do not relate to the theme of the chapter they are included with.

Overall, this is a very factual read of the 7th SS division and modelers will find the color profiles and photos very helpful to accurately represent this division.

I would like to thank Mushroom Model Publications and IPMS for the change to read and review this wonderful book.