The Elite Group

30 Years Of Military Vehicles In Lebanon Part 1

by Samer Kassis

Reviewed By Mark Aldrich, IPMS #39295

MSRP: $115.00 ISBN: 9953-0-0705-5 Website: www.elitegrp.com.lb Have I got a deal for you! Actually I don't but Samer Kassis and Elite Group does. This book retails for $115.00 but Elite Group is offering a special price of $70.00 to IPMS members. That price does include airmail shipping. Now that is a DEAL! 30 Years of Military Vehicles in Lebanon is an extensive photographic journal of the many and varied vehicles that were present and used in those countries numerous conflicts. The book (actually two) is designed similar in shape to the Squadron "In Action" and the WWP production tomes. This means that the book is wider than taller. The meat-n-tatoes of this volume is the 195 page thick book that contains over 680 black and white and color photographs. The other book is a picture-by-picture explanation of the photograph. It is written in both French and English. The book is broken down into seven basic chapters with several having sub-chapters as well. These chapters are broken down as follows: The Lebanese Army with pictures of M113s, M48s, T-55s, ZSU-23/4s, and some Charioteers and Staghounds as well. The Christian Militias with photographs of numerous wheeled and tracked vehicles used by these groups. Most notable are the snow cats; ex-Israeli 120mm mortar halftracks, M-50s and Tirans. The Druze and Muslim Militias that again have numerous pictures of the varied wheeled and tracked vehicles used by these groups with two color photos of oddly painted T-34/85s. The Palestinians contains mostly wheeled vehicles and personal weapons used by the PLO during their operations. The South Lebanese Army is the second largest section of the book. Most are of heavily and oddly modified M-3 halftracks and M113s. There are 11 pages dedicated to T-55/Tirans and this also includes three interior shots as well. The Occupation Armies is the largest section and is broken into the Israeli and Syrian arm sections. There is a large collection of both armies wheeled and tracked vehicles. This had to been my favorite section of the whole book. The Peace Forces finishes of the book with a collection of vehicles used by UNIFIL, Multinational, and Arab Deterring Forces.

From a model building perspective, this is a MUST HAVE addition to your photo reference library. The number of different frames that these different forces mounted the Russian 23mm and 14mm guns on is just astounding. They basically installed these gun platforms on anything with wheels or tracks. Now we need to get SKIF and Eastern Express to release their gun kits separately and some other manufacturers to produce some 1/35 Chevys, GMCs, and Fords. Yeah I know….wishful thinking. Anyone that is into modeling the Middle East Conflicts will love this book. My sincere thanks goes out to Mr. Samer Kassis, Elite Group for compiling and publishing this great book and providing this special purchase offer to IPMS members and to IPMS/USA for a place to post this review and offer.