Hilary Louis Doyle (1943- )

Hilary initially trained as a Civil Engineering draughtsman with the Irish Railways but later achieved Chartered Engineer status. In 1967 he was the pioneer in technical desktop computing in Ireland. From 1973 his professional career was in management in the computer industry. He was awarded a Fellowship of the Irish Computer Society. Hilary lives with his wife near Dublin and has eight grandchildren.

Thomas L. Jentz (1946-2012)

From Indiana, Tom attended Purdue University for one year before entering military service with the US Army. He then served with an Armored Unit of the U.S. Army in Germany for 2 years and later obtained Nuclear Training with the US Army. Returning to civilian life, he was a Nuclear Health physicist and consultant to the nuclear industry. Tom lived with his wife and two children near the U.S. National Archives in Washington DC.

A great inspiration for Tom was the history told by his Uncle Ed who had been taken prisoner by the Wehrmacht during World War II after a calamitous action in North Africa in which 100 Sherman tanks were destroyed by German forces.

Hilary Louis Doyle published his first AFV article, with scale drawings, in 1964. By 1965, he and a group of enthusiasts had founded Bellona Publications, one of the first companies to specialise in AFV publications. Bellona booklets were published until 1973.

Walter J. Spielberger, the well-known German Panzer historian, became a friend in 1966. Hilary then produced most of the scale drawings used in Spielberger’s Motorbuch Verlag series and in the books published for Krauss-Maffei.

In 1972, while researching primary sources for the ‘Encyclopaedia of German Tanks’ at the Bundesarchiv, Hilary met Tom Jentz. Tom was invited to join Hilary and Peter Chamberlain in preparing the encyclopaedia, which was published in 1975.

Tom and Hilary continued to help Spielberger with many of his books. When illness forced Spielberger to stop work in the early 1990s, Jentz and Doyle produced a major series on the Tiger, Panther, and Panzertruppen for Schiffer Publications, and also wrote several popular Osprey titles during this period.

Before 1997, Tom Jentz had written several specialist books for Darlington Publications. After retiring from the nuclear industry, he was able to take over the relevant Darlington titles and created a new imprint called ‘Panzer Tracts’.

The Panzer Tracts format allowed Hilary and Tom to share their years of original research with enthusiasts. Early volumes gave broad overviews of vehicle families, while later titles focused on detailed research into specific subjects. Several volumes were published each year. After 2008, Hilary took on increasing responsibility for the content. A total of 58 Panzer Tracts have been published to date.

In 2023, Lee Archer of Panzerwrecks purchased Panzer Tracts’ sales and distribution business from Tom’s widow. Panzerwrecks is currently reprinting the most sought-after titles, keeping this important information available for the growing number of new enthusiasts.