...........Tankograd Publishing should require little introduction to the enthusiast who is serious about their reference material. This German company has published an enormous amount of material over the years covering a wide variety of vehicles from a diverse range of countries........... Jim Rae

Introduction

The book: Royal Armoured Engineers is a 64 page A4, soft-backed book. It gives a well documented account of the make up and organisation of 32 Royal Engineer Regiment (The Assault Engineers) and contains page after page of full colour photographs. The book is written by Daniel Nowak, Simon Copley-Smith and Tim Matzold, Copyright Verlag Jochen Vollert – Tankogard Publishing 2006.

The Book

Of all the Tankograd publications I reviewed this weekend, this is by far the most interesting of the three. Page 2 and 3 give the reader a brief but useful introduction to the history of the Armoured Engineers to bring him/her up to date with the current regimental establishment of 21, 32 and 35 Royal Engineer Regiments (The Assault Engineers).

The focus then switches to a fairly in-depth look at the make up of 32 Engineer Regiment (pages 4 to 9),with a brief explanation of the various parts that make up the unit these being:

Headers Squadron

Regimental Headquarters

Squadron Headquarters

Reconnaissance Troop

Support Troop

The Vehicle Launcher Scatterable Mine System (Shielder)

General Support Bridging Section

Plant Section

HQ Squadron Echelon Resources Section

Design Cell

Armoured Engineer Squadron (AES)

Armoured Engineer Squadron Headquarters

Armoured Troop

Field Troop

Support Troop

A1 Echelon

REME Fitter Section

REME Light Aid Detachment (LAD)

REME LAD Main

So having got a good idea of the organisation and function of a modern assault engineer regiment the reader can sit back and enjoy the remainder of the book which contains excellent photographs of just about every type of vehicle the unit uses form its stylish Diesel Opel Vectra !! – through the Harley-Davidson MT 500, various types of Land Rovers, Bedford, Leyland and Volvo trucks (used for a variety of purposes and heavy duty hauling), then moving on to the heavy duty specialist vehicles (wheeled) for lifting and recovery, bridge laying. Loaders, trailers, all manner of light tracked reconnaissance, command and control vehicles, mine layers, mine clearers and finally onto the various types of AVRE, ARRV and AVLB .

Each photograph is accompanied with clear and useful text describing the vehicle portrayed.

As an added bonus pages 59 to 64 take a look at the future of armoured assault with vehicles like Trojan. Titan and Terrier being discusses and displayed.

Conclusion

Excellent, sums this one up for me. Enough background information to give the read a clear understanding of the makeup and function of the unit. A great range of 1st class photographs on probably almost every vehicle used in the unit.

For the modeller, well what can I say – If you interested in modern British armour then this is a must. I don’t build modern armour but after reading and looking at this book I’m just about to become a convert!!!

Highly Recommended.

My thanks to Tankograd Publications for the opportunity to review this book.