Recently, Air-Connection of Canada, published a completely NEW version of one of the most respected works on the T-34. The subject of the review is the new edition - T-34 Mythical Weapon. The sheer size of the book alone made reviewing it a major undertaking - judge for yourselves here:

T-34 Mythical Weapon Review

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Oh oh. When I started to read the review I thought you would slag the book but you represented good arguements why a model builder, historian and T34 fan might be interested in the book.

I do have a passing interest in the T34 and do own a T34 kit and collect military history books. Three good resons to buy the book. What is stopping me is price and the fact I can't get it at Amazon or Chapters/Indigo. So, I will wait and see if I get Hunnicut's Sherman reprint. If not I will take that money and pick up this book directly from Air Connection...

Thanks for the review!

Michael

The problem with the book is that the author is highly biased. (It was mentioned somehow in the review but I think not nearly enough ). I guess the author let personal feelings against anything Russian affect the way he wrote the historical parts of the book. (I can't help to mention, but many of the photos are German photos of burned-out vehicles... very few factory-finished or Russian photos of the T-34 in service.)
I can understand the negative feelings: in my part an uprising crushed (actually two in two hundred years), 60 years of occupation does that to you. But it does not mean that the T-34 wasn't probably the best ever tank design (once they put in a radio and a decent gun with a decent sight, that is).
Otherwise, the book is excellent.

Andras, if I had been reviewing the book for a military history 'site, I would have been rather more critical of some of the 'assumptions' made by the author. There again, if I was Polish, I rather doubt i'd be too sympathetic either to the Soviet Union.

No, the problem, was looking at the book and reviewing it for its value and utility for the modeller. In this aspect, I believe the book is WELL worth the investment. There are gaps, but as I said in the review, the problem is researching 'at source' i.e. within the Russian Archives. Some people have been FAR too dismissive of the book. At the present moment, it's the best (bar NONE) available on the T34.

Michael, if you're making one BIG book investment, personally i'd suggest this more than the Hunnicut reprint. Very simple, this is more designed for the modeller than Hunnicut ever was. On the other hand, if you're going to build more M4s than T-34s...

I did wonder why the Polish version had such a large section on the figthing around Mtsensk. Frankly, the Polish version was worth the price for the photos and drawings alone (specially the second volume), even if you can't do anything more than decipher the captions to the illustrations.

I'll be buying the translated version too.

David

I didn't say it wasn't worth to buy it. I merely said that the negative aspects of the book were not really emphasized. As a modeler, I think, historical accuracy is a very important issue.

I can attest that this book is a worthy investment too, someone brought one to our last model club meeting and I was amazed at the depth of the book. The amount of pictures is astounding, ignoring the text alone and just going with the pictures this is a solid book. Also agree with another poster though that it would be nice to pick it up via Amazon, you know you'll get a lower price than the asking one now. Just picked up both FAQ books, Mig's and the figure one for $50 total thanks to a new Amazon credit card and their low prices. lol Price is the biggest hurdle for this book, it's an otherwise solid book for the modeler.

Jim, (or anyone else who has this book)
Does the book contain any info and or pics of the late war T-34/85 with the "bedspring" armor added on?

Mike

To be honest, the author makes no bones about his desire to cut the T-34's reputation "down to size" as it were. After reading most (though admittedly not all) of the book I have to say he does a pretty good job of it too.
I've been researching the T-34-76 for a few years and have to say that very little of what the book puts forward can be easily or completely refuted. The fact of the matter is the tank was badly flawed suffering from an archaic suspension, a less than stellar engine, bad transmission, poor workmanship, questionable armor quality, (none of this entirely unique to the T-34 of course), on and on, as the book notes in fair detail.

With that said there are a number of things about Mythical Weapon that are annoying; the translation seems very uneven (mistaking APDS ammunition for HEAT for instance) and in such a way in a number of cases as to confuse the reader (the section on the "hex" turrets are bound to cause some to believe these turrets were made up of separate sections which were then welded together which would only be true of the Uralmash "pressed" turret, all others being single piece castings to my knowledge).
Also a little disappointing is that the book continues a few myths regarding the T-34. For instance the idea that "Model '43's" were modified to carry "97 to 100" main gun rounds is very hard to believe given that, in order to make the changes mentioned in the book, the 9 ready rounds would have to be eliminated which, with the 20 added rounds in wooden boxes, would allow for at most 88 rounds. Though this change may have been suggested, or even carried out at some factory or repair shop, it seems unlikely to me to have been a common modification (but who knows for sure? I've been wrong before!).
Another 'myth' is the smooth faced cast track (the book ID's these as "550mm" on pg. 474). Much as I've tried to confirm these, on close inspection all the potential candidates in photos turn out to be standard ”waffle pattern” tracks packed with clay.
Lastly, many of the drawings, though generally OK, suffer from one level or another of “inaccuracy” (missing or miss drawn details on the suspensions are a just two of several nit-picks I have concerning them).

BUT with all that said, and if you can afford the steep price tag, Mythical Weapon is no doubt the best “single source” reference on the T-34 available to date. It contains a really great collection of wartime photos and dozens of very useful detail shots from preserved tanks.

Mark