Minitracks Editions du Barbotin

Century Tracks No. 3 German Antitank Guns and Tractors 1933-45

by  Loic Charpentier

Reviewed By  Andrew Birkbeck, IPMS# 27087

MSRP: €14.50 ($19.00 US) ISBN 13: 978-2-917661-04-8 Website: www.minitracks.fr Antitank guns are by their very nature "reactionary" weapons, in that they are developed in reaction to changes in tank design that make earlier antitank guns obsolete. First came the tank, then the early antitank guns. As armor plate increased in thickness or general effectiveness (say by sloping the armor plate), so earlier antitank guns became ineffective against the new thicker or sloped armor, so new antitank guns with better penetrating power were required to defeat the new tank designs. This new book by Editions du Barbotin as the title suggests, covers German antitank guns and Flak guns used in the antitank role, along with their primer movers, wheeled and tracked. The book is not a detailed development history, but more a primer for the novice interested in the subject at hand. The book consists of 62 pages, 9.75" by 7" in size, contained between a card cover. Each gun or vehicle covered in the book has at most a couple of photos, and there are no scale drawings whatsoever. There are 6 pages of color profiles, but they only cover the left side profile of each vehicle concerned, but they are very well rendered, and to a uniform 1/35th scale. The book lists the text as being in both French and English, but the latter is really "Fringlish". For this reviewer it was for the most part comprehensible, but some passages did require reading twice to fully understand what the author was trying to say. And each gun or primer mover gets only a brief history, as within the 51 pages of text/photos, fully twenty guns and a dozen prime movers are covered, and more than half the text is in French. I say "more than half" because each gun covered has a statistical section, giving basic gun dimensions, ammunition types, weights, penetrating power at various distances etc. None of this is translated into English. The black and white photos contained within the book are well produced, but from a modeling perspective do not look for "up close and personal" detail shots here. Many of the photos are just little "snap shots" measuring 3" x 2", or smaller. As mentioned earlier, this is a basic primer for the novice who knows nothing or next to nothing about German antitank guns and their prime movers. Someone exactly like this reviewer, and I came away happy that I had the opportunity to read this book and study its photos and artwork. Thus I recommend it with these reservations in mind. My sincere thanks to Editions du Barbotin for supplying IPMS USA with this review copy.