Concord Publishing has continued its series of illustrated campaign histories. This volume focuses on the siege of Sevastopol from 1941-42. Dimitry Zgonnik has four full color illustrations that highlight the uniforms of German soldiers during this campaign.

Beginning in the fall of 1941, the 11th Army, under the command of Erich von Manstein, was given the objective of capturing the Crimean Peninsula, which, by default, meant neutralizing the Soviet fortress of Sevastopol. After several attempts in the fall of 1941, the Germans failed to capture Sevastopol. In the spring of 1942, Manstein was able to eject the Soviets from the Crimea and besiege Sevastopol. Many buffs remember the Crimean campaign because of the Germans use of the Super gun Gustav which was used to reduce the Soviet fortifications. After a bloody siege, the city fell. The book does not include a map of the campaign, so you will have to look elsewhere to follow along.

It appears that the photographs roughly follow the chronology of the campaign and have not seen the light of a day in a long time. They are beautifully reproduced and very crisp. The subject matter of the photographs is a mix of personnel and vehicles in the campaign to capture the Crimea. There are few of the reduction of Sevastopol. Modelers should find plenty of fodder for dioramas and weathering of vehicles. The book also includes four profiles which should be very helpful for figure modelers. For the history buffs, the captions are rather skimpy and there are some errors, but if you are familiar with German equipment, it should be fairly straightforward to identify vehicles, etc. Sevastopol is another yeoman effort from Concord Publishing.

My thanks to IPMS and Concord Publications for giving me the opportunity to review this publication.