The Factory Publishing

Hermann Goring Panzer Division in Sicily

by  Claude Gillono

Reviewed By  Andrew Birkbeck, IPMS# 27087

MSRP: Australian Dollars 27.95 (US$18.50) ISBN 13: 978-0-9804631-3-2 Review Book Supplied by Dragon Models USA - Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com Publisher Website: www.thefactorypublishing.com This is the second title in The Factory Publishing's "Campaign Series", following the earlier issue of the "Panzers of Kasserine", which I previously reviewed. Like the first title, the Hermann Goring PD book measures 11.75 by 8 inches in size, and consists of 32 pages enclosed in a soft card cover. Of the 32 pages, three consist of a brief written "history" covering Axis military operations from 10th July 1943, when Allied forces invaded Sicily, to 17th August 1943, when Axis forces surrendered the island. The rest are crammed with black and white period photos, along with four pages of color and marking artwork. As I said with the earlier publication, this then is a picture book, and definitely not in any way a detailed written history of this Division on Sicily in 1943. Concerning the written text, it appears to have been either translated from another language (Italian, given the author's name?), or written by an author with English as their second language. Either way, it reads in a rather choppy manner. It also assumes the reader is familiar with the battles for Sicily, leaping about without giving (in my estimation anyway) important background information that puts events in context. The photographs consist of 47 black and white pictures, most captioned "NARA", which I presume means they are from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, that were mostly taken by a series of German war correspondents. Featured vehicles include an Sdkfz 138/1 "Grille", lots of StuG III Ausf. F8's, and a series of captured or destroyed British military hardware, together with some destroyed or abandoned Tiger 1s and Panzer IVs. As for the color artwork, this depicts three different Panzer III ausf M's, three Panzer IV ausf G's, four StuG III ausf. F/8's and four Tiger 1's. Most interesting to this reviewer is the coverage of the Hermann Goring Divisional markings, in particular the Kompanie markings, which are a series of stylized "clocks": a white circle with a black surround, within which is an "hour hand". For say the First Kompanie of each unit, the hand is at the 1 o'clock position, for the Sixth Kompanie, it is at the 6 o'clock position. The full inside rear cover of the book is devoted to all the various unit tactical markings of the Division, including Feldpost, artillery, Panzer regiment, Panzer grenadier, Panzer Pionier, and the Medical units. This book will be very useful to any modeler interested in this theater of German WW2 operations. The photographs are reproduced in large format (mainly two to a page) and show to good effect the way the vehicles looked kitted out for military action. I feel the book offers good value for the money, and recommend it unreservedly to anyone interested in the "Italian" campaigns of WW2. My thanks to IPMS/USA for allowing me the opportunity to review this title and to DragonUSA for supplying the review sample. Check out this and other very interesting titles at the publisher's website: www.thefactorypublishing.com