introduction

This is my second Tankograd book I have read, and I also have Part Two, which I will review soon. Tankograd is a very good publishing company, because their books are accurate, very well-written and full of photos useful to modellers. Second, they release a few new titles every month, so that covers a lot of subjects. Their latest is about the M113 in German service.

The best way to introduce the M113 is to let the book speak for itself:

No other vehicle in the history of modern armoured vehicles has been as successful as the American M113 APC. The Heer (Army) of the German Bundeswehr also procured this successful vehicle from 1962 onwards, fielding it under the name Mannschaftstransportwagen (MTW) M113. In the Cold War period, some 4,000 M113s and variants belonged to the vehicle inventory of the German Army, among them many specialised variants. During their service with the German Bundeswehr, vehicles of the M113 family were also put through several programmes aimed at improving their combat capabilities and extending their in-service time. This documentation (requiring four, due to the large amount of variants) described and illustrates in detail use of the M113 MTW and its variants by the Bundeswehr from 1962 to the present.

the book

The book is a 64-page soft cover book with 60 colour photos, 41 black & white pictures, 23 graphics and a five-view 1/35 scale drawing.

the review

Let’s start with the look of the book: the covers are nice and glossy with pictures of the subject. On the back, we have a few pictures, and a description in both German and English. Just to get you into the Bundeswehr M113, I will quote this part:

Now, let’s review the parts of the book, which are very interesting.
Page 4: M113 Development this chapter describes the need of a compact APC carrier after after WWII,and its way through prototypes and different services.

Page 5: M113 American Predecessors there is no text in this chapter,only pictures showing the prototypes of M113 (T¸113,T113E2 and M59 APC)

Page 7: M113 and variants in service with the Bundeswehr ( some very nice graphics on these pages; you can see an example in the attached scans) here you can find out what versions of the M113 were used in the Bundeswehr, and how did they look.

Page 11: M113 Technology basically explains every part of the M113, from the hull, running gear, and engine to its armament.

Page 26: "Germanization" of the M113 G. The author describes German variants and different armaments they have used.

Page 31: M113-A1 is the German diesel version of the M113 with a new transmission (Detroit 6V53). Some very interesting graphics and drawings in this part.

Page 59: NDV Service life extension programmes are the programs that the German army used to extend the service of M113.

Page 64: Designation schedule for M113 variants of the Bundeswehr. Future plans for the M113 in German service.

In this book we can see many useful pictures, graphics and info about each model of the German M113, which is ideal for a scale modeller. You can build a perfect German M 113 after studying it.

conclusion

So we can conclude this is a very interesting book, both for those interested only in military matters, and for those who are interested in models. Basically, it's the Bundeswehr M113 Bible.

Thanks to Tankograd for this review sample. Be sure to mention you saw it reviewed here on Armorama when ordering.