Customer Reviews

Tigers in Combat, Vol. 2

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When the Allies invaded France in 1944, virtually every tank sighted and reported by the front line infantry was called a Tiger. In reality, there weren't that many Tigers produced (most of the German tanks in Normandy were Mark IV's). But the size, strength, and overall awesomeness of the Tiger transcended the actuality.

In this book the second on Tigers, Colonel Schneider must have found every photograph remaining of the Tigers. Both the regular Tiger I, and the King Tiger (which the Germans called Tiger II) are covered. I don't know just how many pictures are included in the book. Some pages, of course, don't have any, but most have two or three. These are not the pretty professionally made pictures, these are pictures taken in the field, probably by crewmen.

The book is broken down by the units that used the Tigers. In general the history of the unit, in so far of their Tigers, is given. For instance on 5 March 1943 the SS Panzer Regiment 1 lost a Tiger, leaving them with 9 on hand. They reached their maximum number of 25 Tigers on hand on the 15th of November. By April 1944 they had received 42 Tigers and lost 42 Tigers and had zero on hand. Regiment 2 received 31, lost 31.

You can't imagine the details that is given here. Note that this is not technical detail, this is the story of these tanks in action.

Colonel Schneider is currently the chief development officer for the next generation of German main battle tanks.

The second volume of "Tigers in Combat" covers the named units of the German Army (Grossduetschland Division, and the various independent Tiger companies), as well as the Tigers assigned to the Waffen SS. Author Wolfgang Schneider has solicited help from veterans and their families to produce an unparalleled work which combines information from wartime unit diaries, delivery records, and strength reports as well as the veterans' personal journals to create a day to day history of every Tiger unit. But the real treat of this book is the illustrations. He uses very few of the official photos which have been published to death over the last six decades. As it happens, German troops were avid shutterbugs despite wartime regulations, and the veterans and their families have shared thousands of personal snapshots which have never been published before. The photos are well-reproduced in large format on glossy paper, and the captions give specific details as to the location, unit and date of every picture. There are also numerous color drawings by famed military artist Jean Restayn. Combine this with Thomas Jentz's excellent technical history of the Tiger and you have an ideal library on the beast.

This edition makes the english translation available to all those unable to bear the far higher cost of the limited edition. Stackpole continue making these seminal works on German armor available to all. I recomend this title and the series to the amateur WW2 historian.

First and foremost, this is a great book. Large 9"x12" format and printed on 70lb. high gloss acid-free paper. Like all other J.J. Fedorowicz published books, very high quality in the printing and binding. This book is not one about the technical aspects of the Tiger tanks, but rather a photo collection/unit diary of the named Heer units and Waffen-SS units that had Tiger tanks.

The strength of the photo collection is that it mainly originates from German soldiers' private collections and means that most of the photos are previously unpublished. Each chapter is devoted to one unit with a wide array of photograph situations, like combat, repair, transportation, behind the lines, etc. The author gives us an almost day-by-day account or unit diary of the units from when they were activated to when they were either disbanded, changed designations, or the war ended. The unit diaries contain the information of where the units were involved, number of Tiger tanks lost or gained, battle results, or some nice other tid bits of information. In addition each unit has organizational chart(s) showing not only the number of tanks in each platoon, but how the tanks were designated with numbers.

There are 30 pages of artwork done by Jean Restayn which is excellent and depicts the various camouflage schemes used by the units covered in the book. The artwork also highlights some of the special unit ingsignias. On the inside covers there are two maps, one the Western and Eastern Front, that show where the Tiger units were deployed over their operational lifetime. The maps were a nice addition.

Overall this book is a must for Tiger tank enthusiasts. It also provides a wealth of information within the photographs for modelers, reenacters, and the like.

The book is the second of the Tigers in Comabt series namely the units of the Waffen SS and Specialist Army units that used some Tigers in their inventory. The photographs alone are worth the price of what is an expensive book.
The combat history of these units is covered in some detail by the use of the units war diary which I found fascinating. It showed that the Tiger was not invincible if handled badly but fully supplied and in the hands of a good crew may have been a war winner.
All round a great book full of interseting photos, text and great colour pictures. This book is a must for avid Tiger Tank fans .

A continual coverage of remaining German units using the Tiger tanks that is left out from the first book, namely the GD "Grobdeutschland" and the Waffen-SS. Lots of photographs of individual units as well as including a summary of the unit's history. A day by day account of events was also included.

Bear in mind, this review is for the original JJ Fedorowicz publication. The JJF Pub version is printed on high quality glossy paper and is sturdily bound.

Very nice selection of Tiger photos, many not seen before. Let's face it: how many absolutely new photos can there be with only 1300-some Tiger Is and 490 or so Tigger IIs? These are nicely reproduced and the color/markings section is complete and very interesting.

If you like the Tiger, this book is a must.

Quite a good reference to the SS and GD heavy tank battalions . I would prefer to see a few more color renditions and a more descriptive text. Other than that, it is a good value for money reference for anyone interested in the deployment of Tiger units. It has more value as part of the two volume set rather than as a single volume
I would recommend for modellers as a good reference work

Great book. Large amount of detail on each unit includes camouflage, markings, history etc. Pictures are the real deal, taken by the crews of the tanks. Really good. The colour illustrations are very good reference material as well. Huge irritation though is the continual focus on turret numbering. Picture captions at least should have rather had more information on the happenings of the crew, tank, location or war in general. Instead the captions focus on how big, red/black, unique or whatever the particular numbering is.

A very good follow up to the first edition. Lots of pictures for you tank model guys and a great reference for all those interested in the tiger 2's history.