Introduction

MMP Books is a Polish publisher best known for their titles looking at various aircraft; however they also have a good number of titles covering armour and land conflict. One of the latest offerings looks at World War Two and how it is considered to be the first truly mechanised war, but while this can be considered as accurate for front line units especially as the war progressed horse power was still king when keeping the front supplied and functional. This new offering from MMP Books looks at the horse and its uses during the Second World War by offering us a rich selection of images covering leg power over engine power.

Review

This offering is I believe part of a new series of books from MMP under the scope of ‘Camera On’. This title is listed as Number 4 in the series and is a soft backed book of 80 pages in a card cover. The card cover has a nice gloss finish and is this enough to provide a reasonable level of protection to the contents. The matt stock power used inside is of a good quality and displays the contents positively to the viewer.

The book starts with a couple of pages covering the use of beasts over engines and how they were utilised. Most uses were confined to getting supplies to the front line and the towing of artillery pieces to their placements. Due to the limited amount of text in this book it is an excellent visual reference for the modeller rather than a written tome for the history buff.

Moving on to the main focus of this title, the photographs. The photographs in this title mostly look to be pictures taken by crews and people for their personal belongings; as such they provide a great reference of not just the horse drawn vehicles but also the men that used them. Each of the photographs has a good caption to inform the viewer if what’s what or drawing your attention to specific attributes.

Of particular interest to me where images showing horse power coming to the rescue of vehicles that are stuck in the mud and need to be towed out. While visual reference is the goal of this title in my opinion it is also a fantastic reference for those who want to create accurate and interesting dioramas; I think of a member on the network by the name of Jerry Rutman when I look at photographs showing a motorcycle and side car being towed out of the mud by a horse. Another image that I particularly liked was of two horses towing a wagon and their fowl walking un-tethered alongside them.

Conclusion

This offering from MMP Books can be considered a great example of the intention of the Camera On series. The photographs that take up most of the book very richly displaying how the horse and in some cases cow kept the German Army going. The photographs not being promotional images give the book a very natural look, which due to the subject matter are excellent choices.