Introduction

Most of you will be familiar with this publication of Batailles Blindes by Caraktere, it is a glossy magazine which is written in French. It covers various different topics from World War 1 through to the current day.

Contents

En Bref.... In Short
Les 100 Ans Du Char Au Bovington Tank Museum 100 years of the Bovington Tank Museum
Perou 1936 to 1945 Peru 1936 to 1945
Fauves dans l'enfer de Hongrie Beasts in the hell of Hungary
Chars & Debarquements Tanks and Landings
Les Galets de la Mort The wheels of death
Contre-attaquer les tetes de pont Amphibies Avec les Panzer :Mission impossible
Amphibious attack against the bridge heads with the panzers : Mission Impossible
Touche-Coule sur Omaha Beach The Plight of the Sherman on Bloody Omaha
Guerre dan la Bush Hardly in the bush
Le chasseur des Balkans Hunters in the Balkans

Review

The very first thing you notice about this magazine is just how well they tackle the subjects and give some quite in depth information with each subject being given quite a lot of coverage.

Starting with Short pieces of various bits of information regarding different Snippets of news from around the world. With information about the increase in Chinese arms exports being up 88% on former years, it also goes on to tell you what countries have increased their buying of arms from China Like Sudan there are a couple of nice pictures of the type 96 MBT.

Mali’s first operational deployment of the unit multi rocket launcher (MLRS) in 2014 this goes on in some detail for a further few pages again having good quality photographs.

100 Years of the Tank at the Bovington museum a nice two page spread of the world war 1 tanks for the celebration of a hundred years some great pictures of the world war 1 tanks.

Peru is another two page spread on military vehicles used by Peru. This goes on to talk about the Peruvian army and how they were the first to parachute jump in South America, some colour profiles.

Beasts in the hell of Hungary is about the fierce fighting in Hungary particularly Budapest in the winter of 1944. It tells of the SS- Division of the Totenkopf transferred in to Budapest to stop the Red Army in a series of pincer moves. It goes on to give some excellent detail and accurate accounts of the results of the fighting in Budapest it includes a lot of pictures and map giving you a real insight. This is spread out over nine pages.

The tanks and landings is a three part, with part one being the Canadian this goes into detail the role played by the 14th Army Tank Regiment (the Calgary Regiment) that were thrown into the battle using the Churchill tank. Their mission was to support the Canadian 2nd infantry division that were pushing in to the city centre. Yet again you have some fantastic pictures here showing the Canadian tanks on the beach.

Sie Kommen is a large article about preparing attack against the Allied bridgehead in Normandy but found itself defending the fortress Europe as further allies made landings. This article is over twenty pages and has some amazing detail and brilliant photos and some colour profiles of different panzers.

Touche - Coule sur Omaha Beach is an article about the Sherman and the landings on Omaha beach the bloodiest combat ! Over 13 pages it gives you not only great photos but also charts and maps showing the fighting the different Sherman tanks excellent reference material.

Hardly in the bush goes on to talk about the decolonisation of Rhodesia, Zimbabwe and the ensuing violent armed conflict that took place from 1965 to 1980. This article is 12 pages and has some great colour profiles and photos.

Hunters in the Balkans goes into the detail of the aftermath of Bagration, and the Red Army being able to penetrate into the Balkans. This in turn destroys the alliances that the Germans set up during diplomacy talks in 1939 to 1942 and leads to the whole of the European front to be defended by the Wehrmacht. It is during this period that some of the most improbable units turning out some amazing aces, these include the SS PanzerJager Abeitlung 7 with an ace called Harry Paletta. This is the final article in this magazine.

Conclusion

Glossy well written articles that are full of information and some great photos.