INTRODUCTION

Waffen-SS in action #6528 is a 52 page book from Gordon Rottman and Ramiro Bujeiro and is published by Concord Publications. The ISBN is 962-361-157-9. The book is a soft cover book and contains 124 black and white photographs, 4 black and white illustrations of different SS unit patches and 4 color art work prints.

The book

The book begins with a 2 page brief history of the Waffen SS from its beginnings to the end of the war. The remainder of the book is dedicated to a wide array of photographs and the color prints.

Some of the SS units covered throughout the book are:
•Leibstandarte-SS “Adolph Hitler” (LSSAH)
•3. SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf”
•2. SS-Panzer-Division “Das Reich”
•SS-Gebirgs-Division “Nord”
•5. SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking”
•Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division “Langemarck”

There is a wide variety of troops covered throughout the book. These include:
•Infantry
•Tank crew members
•Engineers
•Motorcycle troops
•Artillery crew members
•Anti-aircraft crew members
•Military police
•Ski troops

Also covered is a wide variety of weaponry. This includes:
•Armor
•Anti-aircraft guns
•Artillery pieces
•Machine guns
•Mortars
•Rifles
•Pistols
•Sub-machine guns
•Hand grenades
•Flame throwers

Another subject that is covered is captured/commandeered equipment and weapons. This has been a long time favorite subject of mine so I was very pleased to see that is was covered in this book. Some of the captured/commandeered items include:
•Small arms
•Vehicles
•Wagons and carts
•Horses
•Bicycles
•Miscellaneous equipment such as tools.
•And one that I found very interesting, a horse drawn sleigh.

The Photographs:
The photographs range from the early war time frame to the end of the war. There is a wide array of subjects in the photographs focusing on areas such as uniforms, equipment, small arms, vehicles, artillery and armor such as the StuG III. The majority of the photographs are identified as being in Russia. However the photographs are not in any particular order nor do they detail any particular battle or specific area. They do cover different seasons and various locations such as forests and the steppes.

The photographs range from action scenes to troops in casual poses. As I looked through the book I was pleased to discover that I hadn’t seen a majority of the photographs before. So I found this to be very appealing. Most of the photographs are nice and clear, however there are some that have a kind of blurry/fuzzy look to them. I don’t know if this is due to the original photographer or if it is from them being enlarged for the book.

Note: The pictures that I have provided look blurry and the captions are hard to read. This is due to my scanner. That is not how they appear in the book. So please don’t be misled by my examples.

The Color Prints:
Artist Ramiro Bujeiro has provided four color prints. The color art work prints are done very well. They show nice representations of different uniforms and include detailed captions describing the represented uniforms, weapons and individual SS unit portrayed.

The Captions:
The captions that accompany the photographs are well written and are very detailed. As with the color prints they include information about uniforms, weapons, equipment and individual SS units. One thing I did discover with some of the captions is that there are some misspellings. I also found one caption that ended in midsentence and the remainder of the caption is absent. What I thought was funny is that it is the caption for one of my favorite captured/commandeered equipment photos, the horse drawn sleigh. The misspellings could be due to the fact that the books are printed in Hong Kong and could be just simple translation mistakes.

Conclusion

All in all I am very impressed with the book. The variety of subjects covered will appeal to the figure and diorama modelers. It will be a welcome addition to anyone’s personal library. I would have no hesitation to add other Concord titles to my personal library nor would I hesitate to recommend this book to others.