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This entry in the Images of War series looks at the armoured vehicles that fought on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. We start with two chapters looking the German and Soviet armoured forces of 1941, just before Operation Barbarossa. This gives an interesting view of the variety of armoured vehicles in Soviet service, from tiny amphibious tanks to the massive T-35 multi-turreted heavy tank and the first few T-34s. There is also a wider variety on the German side than one might expect. The familiar Panzer III and IV and early StuGs are joined by captured French vehicles, Czech tanks produced for the Germans and a range of lightly armoured half-tracks.
The source of the pictures rather neatly demonstrates the changing fortunes of war. At first most come from German sources, so we see intact German tanks and abandoned Soviet vehicles. As the tide turns that changes and German pictures become increasingly rare. By the end we see intact Soviet tanks and other vehicles and damaged or abandoned German ones. We also see fewer German tanks and more StuGs and other armoured self-propelled guns.
Each chapter includes a useful introduction and the pictures each come with an accurate and informative caption, describing the item in the picture and placing it in context, comparing it to its opponents at the time or looking at production numbers. This is a high quality piece of work, and a useful photographic guide to the armoured vehicles of the Eastern Front.
Chapters
1 - Stalin's Armoured Fist
2 - Hitler's Axis Armour
3 - Barbarossa - The Red Army Smashed
4 - Zhukov's Moscow Miracle
5 - Timoshenko's Kharkov Riposte
6 - Disaster at Stalingrad
7 - Manstein's Kharkov Comeback
8 - Clash of the Titans - Kursk
9 - Stalin's Steamroller - Bagration
10 - T-34s on the Oder
Author: Anthony Tucker-Jones
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 134
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
Year: 2011