Introduction

The following introduction is as provided by Tankograd Publishing:
The 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team 'Iron Brigade' of the 4th Infantry Division was the first heavy brigade of the US Army earmarked for service in Europe under the Regionally Allocated Forces concept. The formation was to deploy to Europe with its full range of equipment in order to conduct exercises with America's European allies for the tasks of improvement of deterrence, the ability to respond to crises and the defence of allies and partners within the European Union. The brigade's heavy equipment includes 87 M1A2 Abrams MBTs, 144 M2A3 and M3A3 Bradley IFVs/CFVs, 18 M109A6 Paladin SPHs and 450 light tracked vehicles. This publication shows the vehicles used by the seven battalions of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team 'Iron Brigade' during their rotation in Germany in 2017.

Review

This review takes a look at one of the latest releases from Tankograd Publishing and covering the Iron Brigade during their time in Germany during 2017. The author of this particular release is Walter Böhm who is a regular contributor to Tankograd Publishing. This offering is part of Tankograd Publishing American Special series and with the Number 3034. This is one of the duel language titles common to Tankograd Publishing and so has German on the left and English on the right side of each page. This is soft backed book with a good glossy card cover and 64 pages of good quality paper on the inside.

This offering from Tankograd Publishing begins with seven pages of text. Tankograd Publishing has become very good at getting the information across to the reader while keeping the text concise. The text has been broken down as follows:
Preparations for deployment in Europe
Aims of the deployment to Europe
Units of the Iron Brigade
The Iron Brigade during Operation Atlantic Resolve
Arrival in Germany
Exercise structure
Strong Europe tank challenge 2017
Deployment of the Iron Brigade across Europe
The Iron Brigade during Exercise Combined Resolve VIII between 19th April and 16th June 2017
Highlights of the rotation
Basing of units of the Iron Brigade in Germany and Europe

The title then moves onto the pictorial elements of the title and takes a closer look at eight of the specific units involved. These units are:
1st Battalion 66th Armor Regiment Iron Knights
1st Battalion 68th Armor Regiment Silver Lions
1st Battalion 8th Infantry Regiment Fighting Eagles
4th Squadron 10th Cavalry Regiment Black Jack
3rd Battalion 29th Field Artillery Regiment Pacesetters
588th Brigade Engineer Battalion Lone Star
64th Brigade Support Battalion Mountaineers
Brigade Headquarters 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team Iron Brigade

The photographs are something that Tankograd Publishing has done exceptionally well with in this title. All of the photographs are colour with the exception of one that has been included as a sort of blast from the past. One of the reasons that Tankograd Publishing manages to keep the text light is that each and every photograph is accompanied by a thorough caption in both German and English that provides plenty of detail on what you are looking at, this results in a well informed reader who is not left with half of the story. One of the things I liked seeing covered in this publication is the crew applied details that add that nice touch when applied to a model.

Conclusion

Tankograd Publishing continues to be one of the great and affordable publishers of military vehicles. The high quality of the photographs enables the modeller to pick out details that enables them to produce models of very specific vehicles with a high degree of accuracy. The captions provided with every photograph takes the guess work out of what you are looking at and results in better informed readers. All told another great addition to the range.