Book Review

The Panther Tank by Anthony Tucker-Jones

~ Colonel Mustard ~ 2 Comments

Milly from Pen And Sword Books was kind enough to send me a copy of “The Panther Tank”, by Anthony Tucker-Jones, for a bit of a review by Colonel Mustard. The Panther has to be one of the most popular of tanks in the modelling and wargaming world. I don’t know the statistics but if i had a top ten of tanks the Panther would be right there in the run down. Maybe even top five…… That could be a blog post right there.

So as a keen student of the history of the Panther i was very excited to read this concise and picture heavy volume. Only 120 pages long it’s an easy read, but a very entertaining and interesting one. It follows the Panther’s conception, development through various models, its involvement in various theaters of World War Two, and ultimately its successes and failures. Built initially by the Germans to counteract the super reliable and versatile Russian T34, it soon became a crucial part of their war machine. My preconceived opinion was that the Panther was a super successful vehicle, but that opinion appears to be a misconception after reading this. The Panther was fraught with problems from day one and suffered badly from these problems throughout its encounters of the war. Most of the time a high percentage of Panthers were unusable due to mechanical issues. It appears the design was over engineered, hard to repair, susceptible to poor conditions and often manned by untrained crews. I think its firepower and armour were unrivaled, but its reliability, maneuverability and availability were all crucial issues that detracted from its overall success. Mr Tucker-Jones does a great job of going through the tanks history in World War Two, and how it measured up against opposing forces.

I love the large amount of images included in the book which will provide many inspiring ideas for my own Panther tank modelling. It really is stacked full of black and white images of Panthers in various situations, many wrecked or shot full of holes! So anyone with an interest in this distinctive vehicle should grab a copy.

However if you want to win a copy just comment on this post with the answer to my following question: Which version of the Panther was a turret less tank with an 88mm gun? First correct answer will get a copy sent to them by Pen And Sword Books!

Colonel Mustard

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SAS With The Maquis

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For a bit of a change for Colonel Mustard this week I was given the opportunity to review some military history books by Pen & Sword Publishing in the UK. I picked out a very interesting title about an SAS unit fighting behind enemy lines in France in 1944.

Ian Wellsted writes an excellent first hand account of his activities with the SAS, in conjunction with the Maquis, or French resistance, in enemy occupied France. The narrative is quite riveting from the moment Ian and his few men are dropped into the French countryside, all the way to their repatriation to England by American forces a few months later.

Their adventures include many successes and failures along the way including blowing up railway lines, destroying bridges, ambushing enemy forces and various other missions. The spirit and bravery of all the men involved is certainly captured by Mr Wellsted, both SAS troops and French fighters alike. With limited resources, quite often just a broken down old car, maybe a few men and a bren gun, the results they achieved were amazing. Although it feels like a great adventure you never lose sight of the fact that this was a war and that people were dying around them. Danger and death are never far away, but this doesn’t stop these brave men from continuing their missions to disrupt German logistics.

It’s a great, absorbing story. British Jeeps charge around the French countryside, avoiding enemy units, teaming up with French civilians, aided by frequent resupply drops of equipment, then planning and executing operations (with varying degrees of success). Anyone interested in true acts of bravery under very difficult conditions should read this, so i can wholly recommend checking it out.

You can find this and many other titles at www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

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