Customer Reviews

Special Panzer Variants: Development - Production - Operations (The Spielberger German Armor and Military Vehicle Series)

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Schiffer Publishing has been putting out a supurb series on German World War II armor. This one is on the non-production designs that were being worked on in Germany. It includes a large number of vehicles that have very rarely, if ever, been shown in the traditional books.

It is well known that the British (particularily) were highly effective at modifying the Sherman tank for special roles. Here instead are the German equivalents. Here are bridge layers and mine sweepers mounted on Panzer IV's. There are German attempts at armored ammunition vehicles and personnel carriers.

A specialty that I've not seen used by any other organization is the number of explosive charge carier vehicles. These vehiches have a large and powerful charge usually mounted outside the vehicle and the idea was to drive them up close to a fortification and either drop the charge for later detonation, or in the case of some small vehicles; just drive them up and set them off.

Finally there is a very good discussion on some of the really giant tanks that Hitler wanted built. This especially included the Porsche 'Maus' tank of which two were actually built. Only after the Eastern block broke up did the public learn that one example of the Maus is in the Russian Tank Museum in Kubinka.

This book has a wealth of pictures not seen anywhere else and with the other Schiffer books provides a complete description of German WW II Armor.

An excellent collection of hard to find information on the German WW2 'funnies': adaptations of existing chassis, and designs for tanks that never made it into production. A must for the advanced modeler just for the photos.