Introduction

This book covering Hungarian Armoured Fighting Vehicles in the Second World War is part of a series of titles from Pen and Sword as part of their ‘Images at War’ series. These books cover the subject matter mostly in photographs and so offer a great visual reference for anyone interested in the subject matter regardless of the reason for that interest. For the modeller these books represent a horn of plenty when it comes to visual information.

Review

This offering from Pen and Sword is part of the ‘Images at War’ series. This series of books are soft backed offerings having a good card cover with a very good spine to the book that keeps the contents in good order. This book covering Hungarian Armoured Fighting Vehicles in the Second World War has been authored by Eduardo Manuel Gil Martinez. The contents of this title are provided over 111 pages of good quality semi gloss paper.

The contents are presented in the following sections:
Introduction
Chapter 1 – The Birth of Hungarian Armoured Forces
Chapter 2 – The Second World War Begins
Chapter 3 – Action in the Ukraine 1942
Chapter 4 – Reorganization after the Storm 1942
Chapter 5 – Defending Hungary 1944
Chapter 6 – The Swansong of the Hungarian Armoured Forces 1945
Conclusions
Bibliography

The dedicated text in this offering is minimal as that is not the purpose of these books as they are not designed to be read in the truest sense of the word. Having read all of the dedicated text in this title I strongly urge anyone buying the book to take the time to read the dedicated text rather than just skipping to the glorious photographs. The test is well written and informative, which while short does provide a grounding in what the images provided represent and provide in my opinion better understanding.

Once you move on from the introduction you reach the chapters; these all have a written introduction by the author and do a reasonable job of setting the scene as regards where the images are going to guide the reader. I do find that the text provided at the start of each chapter is very curtailed due to the main purpose of this book series, but Eduardo Manuel Gil Martinez has tackled this aspect in a different style to the one I am familiar with in this series and intermingles his writing with the images in a more conventional book style and manages not to detract from the style these books have created as a series.

This series of books excel’s in its main purpose and that is to provide the reader with visual information and when it comes to subjects such as this it starts to fill in a huge hole in the knowledge of what Germany’s Eastern Allies managed and were equipped with. In the case of this title the spotlight is on the Hungarian armoured and it is a good area to find reference on due to the armour that has started to be released. The photographs are of a very good standard considering how long ago World War 2 came to an end, plus of course we need to remember that the warriors regardless of side are very few and far between today and so their information is slipping from living memory. Due to the pressures on the German war machine and the limitations of the Hungarian war industry this book provides a great mix of visual delights covering a broad mix of armour, some of which is likely unknown to the reader.

They say that a photograph is worth a thousand words and that is true to some extent, but for me it is the captions that come with the images that make them so valuable as reference. The captions can tell you things such as where and when, but a really good caption not only supplies the information it also sets the scene and gives the image an atmosphere; in a sense brings life to a still. The captions provided here all appear to be informative, well researched and well written which I again urge the viewer to read rather than pass due to the eye candy on offer in this title.

Conclusion

This title as part of the Images at War series is another great title in the line up as the images have been well chosen and presented to the viewer. The dedicated text provides a nice background to those photographs and sets the scene in many cases. The stars of the show are the captions that accompany the photographs as they provide a great level of detail.