Introduction

The Oliver Publishing Group should be familiar already to many. The latest addition to their Firefly Collection is a body of work focusing on German Armour in the West during 1945.

This book is by Dennis Oliver and follows the standard Firefly Collection pictorial format. It contains more than 50 archive photographs and six pages full of colour artwork showing the markings/camouflage schemes of a range of German vehicles, each being accompanied by short texts of known unit information.

The Book

The book consists of 36 pages (including the front and rear covers) and is of A4 (210x297mm) size. Printed on quality paper, the publication is easy to read and well referenced.

A brief opening text on page one sets the scene beginning in Aachen in October 1944 and ending in April 1945 with the death of Hitler.

Page three gives a table showing tank, anti-tank and assault gun establishment/strength as at December 1944. Page eight shows the deployment of Oberbefehlshaber West again during December 1944 and page 33 shows the dispositions of Clausewitz, The last Panzer Division in April 1945. From these the reader should get a good understanding of equipment strength and disposition during the final months of the war.

The remainder of the book is given over to archive pictures and text of a wide variety of armoured vehicles. Each photograph is accompanied by known date of unit and camouflage/markings of the vehicle. The pictures are of good quality and should make excellent reference material.

What is of particular interest is that although the book is focused on German Armour, many of the pictures display destroyed and captured vehicles, so there is a host of material for the diorama builder where US troops are interlinked with German Army armour.

Readers should note that several pictures contain graphic detail of dead German soldiers, and most show the carnage of war.

Both the front and rear cover of the book are in full colour as are pages 15 to 18. I counted 20 different vehicles schemes, 21 if you include the Tiger on the front cover.

Conclusion

This is a well-researched pictorial reference book. It should be of use to those with a general interest in German armour and in particular to those modellers (of both Allied and Axis) interested in depicting German Army vehicles in the latter stages of WW2.

Yet another good quality publication form the Oliver Publishing Group that provides excellent material for the model builder and diorama builder alike.