PANZER III On The Battlefield, WWII Photobook Series Vol.14, by Tom Cockle (Peko Publishing)
The idea of producing a series of well printed photo books about armoured vehicles is so simple but it was Peko Publishing from Hungary who materialized it! There are already 16 titles released in their Photobook range but a relatively recent on the Panzer III cought our eye.
Panzer III is one of our favorite shapes of WWII, since we first remember seeing it in vintage war comics of the early 70s and especially building the Matchbox 1/76th scale model kit back in 1973, with that fantastic box art by Roy Huxley (showing an Ausf L moving fast across the western desert during an attack in 1942).
“Panzer III” is written by Tom Cockle, a well known expert modeller and author of many armour related books (some published by Osprey) and also a researcher and technical consultant on Dragon’s Panzer III kits. The photographs come from various private collections of Peter Kocsis, James Haley, Thomas Anderson, Wolfgang Zimmermann, Hilary Luis Doyle, IWM, Bundesarchive and a number of private archives and institutions. Most photos are new and unknown to us and a few of those we have seen before were of a much lower quality.
The book comes in a very practical landscape format (21,5 cm height X 30 cm wide) with hard covers and 112 pages. Printed on heavy, high quality semi-matt paper that brings out all the details, it is written in both English and Hungarian. There is a two page introduction where the author describes all the modifications from Ausf A to Ausf N, highlighting key features, dates, production numbers, etc, and changes through variants in a clear and comprehensive manner, so the reader will find it easier to follow the photographic material and understand differences among the types. Each of the 112 pages contains a very large photograph of a Panzer III in different conditions with bilingual captions.
The photos are in chronological/development history order, beginning with an Ausf A in Poland and follow the path of Panzer III all the way to the final days of captured vehicles in 1945.
Under each photograph the author highlights important aspects that allow identification of each production version. Also the unit and time of action/scene involved. Many of the vehicles shown have mixed features like different road wheels, or a mix of various style tracks. Many of those Panzer IIIs are shown during movement or stationed, while there are plenty of knocked out examples. The high quality of photographs allow seeing different details and are a great source of inspiration for a modeler. All theatres of war are present: Poland, France, Africa and Soviet Union. Many tanks have interesting camouflages, including some very attractive winter paint schemes that would be great to show on a model.
In fact some pictures are so intriguing and dramatic that inspire you to build a specific scene as a diorama or even a single Panzer III with many unknown details: Vehicles hidden in the woods, in service/repairing, struggling through the mud or on dusty desert, personel repainting them, suffering from mine explosions, frozen in deep snow, burned out, some without turret stowage bins, with disruptive two-colored winter camo, random white over dark grey, and many more.
It is amazing that most photos are so clear that you would not believe that they would exist at all in any archive, so far!
Besides the excellent photos of the vehicles we see lots of pictures of not only the environment, the markings and the additions to each variant, but we also see a lot of pictures of the crews of Panzer III. So the reader -and especially the modeler- gets an idea of how the tankers fought in and maintained their tanks. Equally important for a modeller when adding figures to his model and diorama.
In conclusion…
If you like Panzer III do not miss this book. Very highly recommended for beginner to advanced modelers and a must have book for all lovers of Panzer III tank - essential to have it in your library. Get a copy as soon as you can.
Panzer III on the battlefield - World War Two Photobook Series (Vol.14)
Author: Tom Cockle
Dual Hungarian-English languages
Landscape Format (21,5cm height x 30cm wide)
112 pages, Hardcover
Price: €28.95
ISBN: 9786155583063
You can order it fast & easy on the PeKo Publishing website here.
It is really worth following Peko website to see what comes next.
