Casemate Publishing

The Essential Vehicle Identification Guide: Soviet Tank Units 1939-45

by David Porter

Reviewed By Dennis Tennant, IPMS #41582

MSRP: $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-906626-31-0 192 pages, hardcover Website: www.casematepublishing.com My first thought as I opened this book was "Wow, nice profile drawings, I want more." After taking my good old sweet time reading this book, I'm impressed at the amount of information contained within its pages. This is a great primer on Soviet armored formations in World War II. It provides a concise history of the Soviet tank armies in service on both the Soviet Eastern and Western fronts. The description of the action is written from an operational point of view and the story suffers a bit due to the lack of maps to provide visual reference points to what happened. The book is arranged chronologically and is broken down into chapters dealing with different, pivotal periods in Soviet tank development. The six chapters cover: The Pre-war years. Stalin's bloody purges did no one any good. Defending the Motherland. The German Operation Barbarossa knocks Soviet Russia back on its heels. False-Dawn: Kharkov to Kursk. After taking a beating in the fighting around Kharkov, the Soviets deliver a smack-down at Kursk. The Destruction of the Wehrmacht. From the Korsun pocket to the Balkans, the Nazis are systematically cut off and eliminated. Victory in Europe. The road to Berlin and final victory. Blitzkrieg in reverse. Victory in the East. The Japanese discover the sharp end of Soviet armor. In addition to these chapters, there are interesting appendices covering pre-Barbarossa tank divisions, Soviet war time tank production, Lend-Lease support vehicles and Katyusha rocket launchers. Illustrating the book are excellent drawings of the vehicles that served these various Soviet armored formations. Unfortunately, the only view provided of these vehicles is a profile view...one profile view. The camouflage schemes shown in these drawings were more interesting than the usual all-green Soviet schemes I'm familiar with and left me wanting more than the single-view provided. For a modeler like myself, the addition of three-view drawings would have greatly increased the usefulness and value of this book. Accompanying the profiles are vehicle specifications and wartime photographs of a wide variety of vehicles. There's more here than just photos of T-34s! Seriously though, the photos are reprinted quite nicely and, for an armor modeler, will provide many diorama and weathering ideas. In addition, there are graphic representations of the makeup of the various Soviet armored companies, battalions, regiments and brigades that fought in WWII. A lot of space was devoted to these graphics and, personally, I'd rather see more photos or...wait for it...three-view drawings! When you factor all the pros and cons and toss in the fact that it's wonderfully printed on quality paper, this book is a definite keeper. Had I not received a review copy, I would probably have opened my wallet and added it for to collection. It's chock-full of information, has some excellent photos and provides some interesting painting and weathering ideas. Thanks to Casemate Publications for providing a review copy to the IPMS/USA.