Wehrmacht Panzer Divisions 1939-45 (The Essential Tank Identification Guide) (Essential ID Guides)

Great book. Full of useful information and great for research. Covers all areas and theatres of war.

Just the job for modelers and enthusiasts alike.

Good information Guide

Great references to wh divisions vehicles and colour schemes for each period, fantastic references book for modelers.

A good looking publication - high quality paper, excellent illustrations and reproduction - and lots of information about the history of all the Panzer Divisions in the key campaigns. It does seem, however, to be organised in a rather idiosyncratic way - the key structure is built around the separate Divisions and their involvement - so we get a repetition of vehicles (in different camouflage sometimes), a return to each campaign (Fall of France, Desert etc) if the Division being discussed was present. There are some organisational drawing which seem unnecessary - for example, one page consists of a Nashorn the another 12 smaller versions to show organisation. A more logical - and useful - structure would seem to be: 1. A section on organisation - and examples of how the theory varied in practise - there is the first but not the second (apart from a small which conveys little) 2. A section on the fighting vehicles - by broad type and chronology (none fighting equipment - such as lorries, staff cars, artillery would have been useful too - if only selected examples) 3. A short section of illustrated text on camouflage development - there's no text in the book but the drawings do show the development - at the 'expense' of repeting the same vehicles several times. So - I certainly found this useful - but a little irritating too.

fantastic book for modeller and history buff. bit expensive but overall very good ref book.

I have most of the armour related books in this series and sadly they all seem to suffer from poor proof reading. I have the reprinted version of this book so the editor has had time to correct the more gearing errors but has spectacularly failed to do so. Examples of problems are, mislabelled pictures, totally incorrect pictures, bad grammar and typos. Not really forgivable in the first run but unthinkable in the reprint. That aside, the book does ok at giving a brief summary of the history of the panzer divisions. Where the book excels (and why I have most of them) is in the quality of the vehicle drawings. If you are a modeler and want inspiration for a colour scheme you can do a lot worse than looking at these books.

Excellent

I bought this for my eight-year-old son whose favourite subject is history - particularly military battles. This has became a well-used reference book for him.

I was surprised how detailed this book is when it shows the battles/campaigns that some of these tanks were in, and even when they were regrouped and taken out for refit, etc. Great detail for any wargamer. The colorful pages of these tanks would be great for any model enthusiast to see how to paint replicas of these tanks. In just a few days of peering at the pages of some of the german tanks I am able to recognize a few of the units insignia's now from old WWII footage. Gives units order of battle for the respective divisions and even the different names of the officers in that particular division and time period. I can't go on and explain how much I learned from this book but I was fascinated by all the information I found in this entire book. Lots of valuable information about the german tank divisions of WWII for any avid wargamer or WWII enthusiast.

I already have Waffen SS Panzer Divisions. Same author and format. As a modeler, I was looking for a book that would highlight the essentials of the various German units. This text gives the the essential information when deterining what unit to place my model project into. From there I could seek more detailed information on a particular German unit from other sources. I like the format and the summary of each unit from inception to final disposition at the end of the war. Included are commanders, main weapons used, formations, and each unit's history. It is a very usable book.

Visual guides to German divisions are scarce and this is the best to date. It is hard to get a sense of the inherent power of a WW 2 division with out charts showing actual vehicles etc. This book is highly recommended and now needs a companion volume for Waffen SS/LW Panzer units and a further volume on Panzergrenadier divisions. Bring them on!!

Great book on wehrmacht divisions, nice detail the time line and geographic locations where and when these units operated.