Panzerkampfwagen 38t

Reviewed by Glen Porter

Summary

FirstRead

This is the second in a new series from Ian Allan Publishing called Tanks & Armour, the first having been on the Panzer I and II. Because this one is concentrating on one basic vehicle only, the PzKpfw 38t, it covers a greater range of variants such as the Marder III (ausf H & M), Flakpanzer 38t, Flammpanzer 38t, Hetzer, Grille, etc. Plus, like the first volume, it has an English Auther and Publisher so it is very easy to read, unlike some of the Europeans.

There are five chapters headed Development, PzKpfw 38t Description, Armament, In Service and Variants. The last, Variants, is almost half the entire book as you would expect. There are many high quality B&W photos although some of them I've seen before plus some colour art-work. This brings me to my first grumble. Like the first volume, the art-work has very little colour in it. Consider if you will, the Hetzer in an ambush scheme. German Armour does not come any more colourfull than this, large areas of lush green, red-brown and sand (dark yellow) with the dark colour dotted with the light and vice versa. The art-work of this vehicle has all of these colours but its still very drab and the rest of the colour art is the same. Maybe it's the printing process thats at fault, I don't know, but it has spoilt what is other-wise a very good volume.

These books don't tell or show you the differences between each Mark but in fairness to the publisher, they produce other volumes on specific vehicles and it is probably covered there.

The above whinges aside, these are still very good books, easy to read and with many good photos.

Recommended.
 

Thanks to Simon DLS Publishing for the review sample