Introduction

Tankograd Publishing has reached a special time in their history with a 20th anniversary release of their Militär fahrzeug publication. This offering has an increased page count amongst other special features. The cover is particularly eye catching having silver text that makes the title really jump out at you.

Review

Tankograd Publishing adds another great release to their Militär Fahrzeug series with a 20th anniversary special. This offering has 80 pages as opposed to the more usual 50 page offerings in this series. Militär fahrzeug is printed in the German language only, but this does not detract majorly from its appeal to armour fans.

The contents of the books are as listed below:
• Weapon systems of the Bundeswehr: Main battle tank Leopard 2 in the Bundeswehr
• Panzertechnik International: The first tank?
• Vehicle History of the Wehrmacht: Hanomag SS 100 LN
• British Army: British by birth BOXER
• US Army: M60 Tow Tank
• Weapon systems of the Bundeswehr: New Unimog U5023
• WW1: Hedi and the other Free Corps A7V
• Vehicle History of the Wehrmacht: A Brief History of the Panther
• Vehicle History of the Wehrmacht: Panther in Foreign Service
• German military vehicles abroad: Mercedes Benz G280 CDI Terre Car
• Weapon systems of the Bundeswehr: field rocket launcher HONEST JOHN
• Vehicle history of the Wehrmacht: Tiger day
• Vehicle History of the Wehrmacht: Tiger Himmel
• Weapon systems of the German Armed Forces: Passenger car, light VW KÄFER
• Manoeuvre 'Good old days': M103 - Tomb near Poppenricht
• National People's Army: Panzerzugmaschine T 55T
• Weapon systems of the Bundeswehr: The smallest (manned) tracked vehicle of the Bundeswehr

The text in the book being German does make life difficult for those of us who cannot read it, but one of the beauties of German is that if you look at the words many of them look or sound similar to the English word, so you may not be able to understand everything written but you can get the gist of the content. The presentation of the book is good due to a card cover that will do a good job of protecting the pages. The pages themselves are a glossy paper and this presents both image and text to the reader in a good and clear way.

The mix in this title should mean there is something for everyone regardless of age period concerned. This offering starts with a look at the Leopard 2 in German service, a tank that is arguably the best tank in the world today that has a long life ahead of it. The title then jumps back a long way in history by looking at the vehicles envisaged as weapons of warfare far back as the 1500’s. Interestingly for those who live or are visiting the UK, Bovington Tank Museum has a very large representation in model form of these designs from the past.

Moving on, the Hanomag SS 100 LN truck comes into view, a large German truck designed for towing rather than having a bed as part of the vehicle. This is one of those vehicles that if a fish plate was on the rear it could pass for a modern truck in the way it looks. I will say that I found this part very interesting to look over and it will make a great model one day. A very British Boxer is covered in a very short section that has a paint scheme I expect to see a many shows in the near future. The scheme is a Union Jack that covers the entire vehicle and is very eye catching.

Continuing on and the M60 tank as used for towing makes an appearance. This is obviously not a gun tank, but for us modellers the topic provides a great series of photographs that should enable an accurate representation if so desired. I know it will never be the most eye appealing M60, but its unusual look does attract the eye. I am not going to write about every section in this offering, but I will add that my favourite gets covered, the Panther and there is a printed catalogue included with this publication.

Conclusion

The contents cover a nice selection of vehicles and time periods and so should provide interesting subjects for every reader. The cost make this worth purchasing at just €9.90, a price that means not being able to read German is no good reason for not buying the offering, the photographs alone making this offering more than value for money.