We announced this book from Panzerwrecks in On Parade Vol.40 No.12 and now it has arrived for review. Unlike previous Panzerwrecks titles this is the first hard cover book to come from that stable and although touching some 'wrecks' along the way it, however, concentrates on German AFV and wheeled vehicle recovery and repair during the Second World War. A subject that has been touched upon in magazine articles and books about panzers, but this is the first large and detailed effort on the subject between its own two covers that we've seen to date. There are 256 pages and approximately 300 photos in the book and Volume 2 is to come!

The history and operation of the German recovery system covers seven chapters and the illustrations form the greater part of the book and why modellers will buy it. For those who take a direct interest in such things, the majority of the photos in this, the first volume will not have been seen before, let alone published. (Except perhaps the photos of a captured Bergepanther from the Tank Museum Bovington photo library will be familiar to a wider audience.)

The Overview and Background section illustrates the specialist vehicles used by the maintenance companies. This and the subsequent studies benefit from the superb photographic content supporting the text. Most of the recovery and maintenance photos concern German vehicles, but there's the odd captured Russian creeping in here and there showing the German interest in recovering and sending back examples of T-34s they acquired.

Unfortunately there isn't much on the French campaign, the book more or less kicks off at the time of Operation Barbarossa, especially when recently discovered photos from 1940 show the recovery of French and British AFVs in France, and some actually using captured British vehicles with Coles cranes in some collection points - before shipping off selected captured trophies to Germany. But there is a picture on page 9 of an unusual ‘jury’ rig supported on two PzKpfw IV used in the Polish campaign in 1939 to remove a engine from a third, which more or less indicates that the Wehrmacht did not envisage much tank recovery by units of their Instandsetzung on any grand scale at that stage of the Second World War.

It is an excellent production, well thought-out, well presented and highly recommended. Anyone interested in German armour 1939-45 will love it! Ken Jones

Reproduced by kind permission of Military Modelling (opens in a new window)