Introduction

The following introduction is as supplied by Tankograd:
REFORGER 77 Carbon Edge was conducted as a free-running corps-level FTX. It involved 51,800 troops with 4,000 tracked vehicles, 7,500 wheeled vehicles, 500 helicopters and 90 combat aircraft. The aim of Carbon Edge was to test the capability of NATO to slow down, intercept and stop a major conventional attack of the Warsaw Pact in order to gain enough time to assemble sufficient forces for a counter offensive and, by so doing, regain the initiative on the battlefield.
This publication uses impressive and large-format action photos to illustrate the offensives and counter offensives of the exercise. A special chapter is devoted to the famous "Tank Grave at Pless".

Review

This book released by Tankograd publishing has a 64 page count using a good quality glossy paper for the presentation of the contents; these are protected by a card cover that does a pretty good job as long as the books are not abused by liquids and the like. The pages are held in place with staples and one of the few areas I am not a fan of. This particular offering is authored by Walter Bohm who is a regular author in the Tankograd line up. This title is one of the duel language offerings in German and English; German on the left of the page and English on the right giving the title a wider appeal. The content in this book is presented as follows:

REFORGER 77 Carbon Edge Forward Defence at the Iron Curtain
Exercise Area
Exercise Phases
Autumn Forge 1977
Aims of the Exercise
Participating Forces
Deployment 09 - 12 September 1977
Attack of Orange Forces 13 - 18 September 1977
Counter Attack of Blue 19 - 21 September 1977
Live Fire Training and Deployment

This book is one of the latest releases from Tankograd and it needs to be remembered that all of their offerings are limited print runs and so if you want one don’t hang about. This offering covers one of the many exercises conducted by NATO Forces in West Germany. This title covers American and Canadian Forces for the most part and does a job of it in both written and photographic presentation. The text lays the ground at the start of the title and the photographs finish the offering. The text breaks the text down in logical bite sized pieces that makes for easy reading.

I always get concerned when books of this period with colour photographs are released as a fuzzy image is often what you get, not in this offering from Tankograd where every image is well chosen and presented. Obviously colour photographs from the 1970’a are not as sharp or crisp as you get today, but the offerings here more than meet my expectations and I am impressed with the large size format provided in most cases. The captions with the photographs are well written and provided again in both German and English.

The pictures in this offering cover a wide variety of subjects, but perhaps should be titled ‘Do Not Hold an Exercise Here’. that is because of the large number of accidents that occured during this exercise. One such situation referred to as the ‘Tank Grave at Pleb’ is a prime example and a modellers dream. Four M60A2 tanks got bogged down, one was recovered at the cost of 2 M88A1 getting bogged down and a crane being broken. This resulted in the vehicles spending the entire exercise stuck in the mud; at least one of them all the way up to its track guards.

Conclusion

This offering from Tankograd is limited to 999 copies and I have one of those. The titles covering exercises have a mixed appeal to me with some dragging me along and others making me want to continue turning the pages; this offering is a page turner in my humble opinion and there is nothing about what is provided that I can critique.