Introduction

The following portion of the introduction is from Pen and Sword:
Four years of armoured battle on the Eastern Front in the Second World War littered the battlefields with the wrecks of destroyed and disabled tanks, and Anthony Tucker-Jones’s photographic history is a fascinating guide to them. It provides a graphic record of the various types of tank deployed by the Red Army and the Wehrmacht during the largest and most destructive confrontation between mechanized armies in military history.

During the opening stages of the war the German victors regularly photographed and posed with destroyed Soviet armour. Operation Barbarossa left 17,000 smashed Soviet tanks in its wake, and the heavy and medium tanks such as the T-28, T-35, KV-1 and the T-34 proved to be a source of endless interest. Once the tide turned the wrecked and burnt-out panzers – the Mk IVs, Tigers and Panthers – were photographed by the victorious Red Army.

As well as tracing the entire course of the war on the Eastern Front through the trail of broken armour, the photographs provide a wide-ranging visual archive of the tank types of the period that will appeal to everyone who is interested in tank warfare and to modellers and wargamers in particular.

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 ‘Tank Wrecks on the Eastern Front 1941 - 1945’ has been authored by Anthony Tucker-Jones. This title from Anthony Tucker-Jones is one of 51 offerings covering armour during World War 2 for the most, but he has also authored titles looking at conflict in the Middle East, the 51 books I mention is only counting the titles available from Pen and Sword. The contents of this title are provided over 141 pages of good quality semi gloss paper.

The contents are presented in the following sections:
Introduction – To the Victor the Spoils
Chapter 1 – T-26
Chapter 2 – BT-7
Chapter 3 – T-28 and T-35
Chapter 4 – KV-1
Chapter 5 – KV-2
Chapter 6 – T-34
Chapter 7 – Panzer III
Chapter 8 – Panzer IV
Chapter 9 - Tiger
Chapter 10 - Panther

This offering from Pen and Sword is part of the Images of War series and is laid out in the format that I approve strongly of. The book starts with a short introduction which also covers while images of certain vehicles become harder to find as the war progressed. I will say that I found a spelling mistake here which is a disappointment in a book with so little text. The chapters listed above each have their own written introductions which for the most part covers their development and use; while this text is short it is well worth a read as there are snippets worth reading.

Destroyed vehicles and in particular armoured vehicles has begun to have greater appeal with modellers of late with many taking a stab at it from the simple shell punched hole in the vehicle to all out destruction; This offering does provide a host of material that will guide the modeller on how something should look after various forms of destruction. The photographs are various qualities depending on source, but all are of a quality that they offer good reference. One thing you should be aware of is that death features heavily in these images in all of its gory detail, and that it is also possible that living relations who knew the dead will still be with us; so if images of the dead offend this is not a title for you.

The photographs in the book do the most as regards making this a title to have on your shelf as there are a very good number of stunning images that show the brutality of war, but it is usually the captions that provide the bones for the image and I am sorry but I could have written most of them myself with being an author. One of the strengths of this book series are the well researched and very informative captions which in this case are often not up to my expected and usual standards of the series.

Conclusion

This offering from Pen and Sword is a great title where its primary purpose is concerned, the photographs. The images are mixed as regards quality but all offer something for the viewer. Death is presented widely in the photographs and so if offended by such this is not a title for you despite its reference value. The opinion I came to is that this book offers excellent value for money where visual reference is concerned.