Introduction

Pen and Sword have a good number of books and series of books for both the modeller and the modeller who just wants to know more about the history behind their latest purchase or build. This offering from Pen and Sword aims to meet both of those needs in a single title as part of the Tank Craft series and covering the Achilles and M10 tank destroyers.

Review

This offering from Pen and Sword is authored by Dennis Olivier an author who has authored quite a few books I have and so I have a good idea of what to expect here. This offering as part of the tank craft series is a soft backed offering with 64 pages. The book is written in English only and printed in portrait style.

The book begins with a brief history of Anti-tank artillery during the Second World War and covers the use of trucks with guns on the beds during the North African Campaign. I did not know that the practice was started due to the 2pdr gun suffering excessive damage when towed. This section goes onto the birth of the dedicated self propelled anti-tank vehicles.

Next up we are presented with a list of operations and actions that took place in Western Europe from D-Day to the end of the war in Europe. For the modeller the next section will prove very interesting as it lists British Artillery units that were equipped with the self propelled anti-tank vehicles and provides a brief history. All of the previous sections are accompanied with good quality black and white period photographs.

The book now moves onto an offering of full colour profiles of the M10 from the sides and the rear. also included within this area of the book is a breakdown of the insignia of the units equipped with these vehicles and this will be a big plus for the modeller when it comes to finishing a model with an accurate finish.

The models of the M10 are next up with a number of finished models in 1/35th and 1/48th scale. This is a section I was a little disappointed in as no aspects of the model build are entered into, but we are offered some insights into the painting and finishing of the models. There is a nice element covering after-market producers and their products aimed at the M10.

This title then continues to expand on the British Units equipped with the M10 during the war. This section then takes a look a specific aspects of the vehicle and helps the viewer to notice some very specific details closing with the painting specifics of the vehicles. The very end of this title covers areas such as the tracks utilised and so this should settle a lot of arguments on the subject.

Conclusion

This book is well written and an informative title on the M10. I only found one spelling mistake which is good in my book. The contents cover a broad spectrum for the modeller to get their teeth into from the units that used the M10 to the where and when, and also the models available to the details on the M10 that you may wish to check or replicate. The period photographs provided are good quality and have very good captions with them.