Introduction

The following introduction is as supplied by Tankograd Publishing.
As early as 1957 the modern German Army, the Bundeswehr, began to receive the American M 48 main battle tank. Over the coming 35 years this MBT would be one of the backbones of the Panzertruppe and serve with pride. This publication describes the active service period of the German M 48 MBT and its variants on photographs taken during Cold War exercises thus adding to the technical history of the M 48 already described in Tankograd Special 5011.

Review

This offering from Tankograd Publishing is one of their duel language offerings, German on the left and English on the right. The book consists of 64 pages with a glossy finish and printed in portrait format, the pages are protected by a glossy card cover with further relevant printed information on the insides faces. The text in this offering is split over several areas of the title. The text begins by covering the Bundeswehr and their upgrade from the M47 to the M48; it was however common to see both tank types serving in the same units. The Germans very nearly purchased the British Centurion due to the Americans needing M48 production to equip their own forces.

The first exercise in which German M48 A1’s took part in had an unacceptable rate of attrition with 10 of the 54 M48’s tanks breaking down in 220km, the Bundeswehr then equipped their next panzer units with the M48A2. The M48A2 was continually updated until completely phased out and replaced with the Leopard tank in the mid 1980’s in front line service. The M48 last went on exercise with the Bundeswehr in 1991 with the reserve unit Panzerbatallion 523.

This title covers 16 exercises either as individual units or as part of a multi-national force. The time period covers 1960 all the way through to 1991 and so the photographs in the book are a mix of black & white and colour. The quality of the images is again good throughout the title and they are accompanied by duel language captions that provide plenty of information.

Conclusion

The M48 and M60 has become a popular subject of late, and with Revell of Germany having released 2 M48 Bundeswehr variants in the not too distant past this could be just the title you are looking for. I am at the stage where I like that Tankograd Publishing keep the written information down to what is necessary as that leaves the maximum amount of space for the photographs. For me it is the photographs that sell this title, as they are hard to beat for photographic reference where you can be sure that what you looking at is what the caption tells you it is.