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book Panzerwrecks 8
Normandy 1
Lee Archer and William Auerbach
Published by Panzerwrecks
ISBN US: 978-0-9754183-9-0
ISBN UK: 978-0-9555940-5-2
http://www.panzerwrecks.com
96 pages soft cover

Review by Terry Ashley


This eight volume in the Panzerwrecks series follow the format of volume 7 in concentrating on a single campaign, being the Normandy campaign following the D-Day landings in June 1944 but still follows the same theme with images of destroyed or disabled German armour.

The format of the soft cover book has mostly large images, many being just one to a page with the text confined to image captions to maximise the space for the images and this results in images large enough to show details that would be hard to see in smaller as well as a few pages with 3 or 4 images per page with close-up shots.

The book has feature sections with additional photos of the subject and these include German field guns on Lorraine Schlepper, 15cm Panzerwerfer 42 and Pz.Lehr wrecks during ‘Operation Cobra’. These give a good overview as well as providing plenty of inspiration for dioramas.

The remainder of the book has many photos of disabled vehicles following the usual format and again offer insight into details that may not normally be seen despite usually being in a state of disrepair. Also of interest is the large variety of vehicles used during this campaign from the earlier vehicles to the latest Tigers and Panthers.

The vehicles covered in the photos include;
Tiger I, Tiger II
Panther Ausf.A, Panther Ausf.G, Befehlspanzer Panther Ausf.A
Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.H, Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.J
Jagdpanzer IV, Hummel, Flakpanzer Möbelwagen
Sturmpanzer 43, Sturmgeschütz III Ausf.G
Wespe Pz.Jgr.II für 7.5cm Pak 40/2 (Sd.Kfz.131)
Flakpanzer 38
Lg.s.F.H.13(Sfl.) auf Lr.S
le.F.H.18/4 (Sfl.) auf Lr.S
Beob.Pz.Lr.S m.S.P.W. (Granatwerfer) (Sd. Kfz.251/2)
m.Pi.Pz.Wg. (Sd.Kfz.251/7)
le.S.P.W. (2cm) (Sd.Kfz.250/9) Ausf.A
le.Pz.Sp.Wg. (2cm) (Sd.Kfz.222) Ausf.B
s.Pz.Sp.Wg. (Fu) (Sd.Kfz.232)
2cm Flakvierling 38
auf Büssing-NAG 4500A Sd.Anh.116

Conclusion:
As with previous issues this is another excellent collection of photos that offer many diorama possibilities as well as conveying the intensity of wartime actions with a good cross section of destroyed vehicles showing the markings and finishes of the vehicles.

The range of vehicles included not only shows some good detail but also the cam schemes when not obliterated by fire and the informative captions also add to the value of the photos and this series continues to be an invaluable reference for the modeller of late war German equipment.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Panzerwrecks for the review book.


Page created August 31, 2009