Introduction

Allied-Axis is a regular publication providing detailed photo accounts of weapons systems of WWII. It comes in a paper back, letter size (roughly A4 size for us Europeans) format. The title is aimed mainly at the modeler with detailed large print walk around photos and some in actions shots. Photos are B&W with only the back cover of the book providing a color photo. It provides little in the form of background information other than what’s provided in the captions of the images. In the contents some further reading is suggested though.

Review

Issue 24 covers the following subjects:

.50-Caliber Multiple Gun Carriage M55:
The M55 is the airborne M20 trailer combined with the M45 quad .50 cal. MG turret as seen on the M16 halftrack. The book dedicates a full 22 pages to the subject. The first 7 pages have full page photos of the M55 taken probably from the technical manual and describe the features in detail. The next 9 pages plus the first page show the M55 in training or action. Some of these pictures are from training after WWII or show the M55 deployed in Korea. Unfortunately there is no mention of the date or place most of the photos were taken and one can only guess that most of them are training shots.
The rest of this part is a detailed walk around with 2-4 photos per page. All in all a very detailed photo account that provides more than enough reference material to super detail any of the available plastic or resin kits, in particular the recently released Dragon kit No. 6421 Reviewed here on Armorama.

Autocarro Pesante Lancia 3/RO with Canone da 90/53:
The Italian 90mm L53 anti aircraft gun mounted on a Lancia heavy (“pesante”) truck and used in the anti tank role is the subject of the next 10 pages of the book. The first two pages have full page pictures of the vehicle as captured by commonwealth troops or destroyed on the battlefield. The captions describe only the vehicles and it remains unclear where and when the pictures were taken. The other 8 pages cover the vehicle in detail with a walk around of the preserved example at an Air Defense Artillery Museum. Maybe this is obvious to some, but for me it is unclear where that museum is. The photos are of high quality with up to 4 photos per page. The selection of kits of the subject is scarce with only the resin example by CriEl in 1/35 scale and the recently released Italeri fast assembly kit kit No. 7508 in 1/72 scale.

75mm Pack Howitzer M1A1:
The next 21 pages are dedicated to the well known American pack howitzer. The first 6 pages cover the howitzer’s use with the Marine Corps in the PTO with some high quality action shots. These are followed by 3 pages covering its use as an airborne artillery piece and 4 pages of its use in its originally intended use as a pack howitzer. The latter includes detailed images of the different loads on mules. The last 7 pages are dedicated to a detailed walk around with 4 pictures per page. The back of the book also contains the only color picture of the book with a ¾ ton Dodge WC towing an M1A1 across a bailey bridge. The most notable kit of this little gun is probably the 1/35 scale kit by Vision models (No. 35001) Reviewed Here.

Type 95Ha-Go light tank:
This is a detailed walk around of the preserved example in the Oregon Military Museum spanning 11 pages, with one of these photos being a period photo of a destroyed example somewhere in the pacific. Again no background information is provided for that picture. The pictures are mostly very good quality and include some interior and engine pictures as well. The most likely kit to be detailed according to these photos is the Fine Molds kit No. FM 16, and a review of that can be found Here.

105mm Howitzer M2A1:
14 pages are dedicated to the ubiquitous American 105mm howitzer. The first 8 of these pages show full page pictures of the howitzer in action in the ETO, CBO and PTO with good captions including background information on the pictures. These pictures also include good views of the standard towing truck, the CCKW-352 short wheel base truck. The other six pages are another detailed walk around of the example preserved at the Museum of the American G.I. with 3-4 pictures per page. The pictures should prove useful in backdating the older Italeri M101 kit No. 319 or the recent Dragon M2A1 offering No. 6499 which is Reviewed Here.

sFH 18 15cm howitzer:
The final 16 pages are dedicated to the German schwere Feldhaubitze (sFH) and are marked on the front of the book as part 1, with part 2 presumed to follow in issue 25. The first 8 pages are full page in action photos of the howitzer, with again no background information provided as to the date and place of the pictures. The other 8 pages are another detailed walk around of a preserved example with no indication as to where that example might be. The latest kits of this gun are the Dragon kit No. 6392 and the Trumpeter No. 02304. A review of the Trumpeter kit can be found Here.

Conclusion

All in all a very useful book with detailed walk arounds for some very interesting (mostly towed) weapons systems which are all, but one, readily available in plastic. Hopefully the book will give some manufacturer the input to release an Autocarro Pesante Lancia 3/RO with Canone da 90/53 and a CCKW-352 short wheel base truck in 1/35 scale.

Unfortunately some of the pictures lack background information of place and time, and also the reader has to get one of the references mentioned in the contents section to get further background information on the weapons. That said, the book’s aim is to provide detailed pictures for the modeler and not a history of certain vehicles, and that aim it certainly fulfills.