Small Scale Military Headquarters

What is the best WWII armor book? like an encyclopedia?

If you haven't seen these - then for the quickest reference on German vehicles;

'Encyclopedia of German tanks of world war two' by Peter Chamberlain and Hilary Doyle.

This claims to be and most probably is ; ''the complete illustrated history of German battle tanks, armoured cars, self propelled guns and semi-tracked vehicles 1939 - 1945"

Along with approx 1000 photos, it gives production quantities, basic specs, armament details and armour thickness plus a short history of each vehicle together with specific features and a short combat history on every type including captured vehicles in German service, plus sections on German armament, ammo, radio and optical equipment, and the Sdkfz numbers allocated to each type.

There's also 'British and American tanks of world war two' by Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis.

This is in a similar format, with separate sections on British, American and also Commonwealth vehicles. As well as all the different versions of the usual suspects, it's got loads of one off and prototypes - For example, i'm not sure how many books would have a picture of the T53E1 Gun Motor Carriage in final form showing the retracting jacks on its bogies....

Both are great books to either give a sound knowledge of the various versions and sub types of a particular vehicle, or for use in identification of vehicles in other publications...or as inspiration for the scratch builder's latest conversion project.

Hope this helps.

Kev

I second what Kevin says! I own both and highly recommend them! Both of these books contain very thorough and accurate studies of many different German, American, and Commonwealth tanks. Purists will find inaccuracies in both, but they are nitpicky at best. A must have for any tank enthusiasts library!

I have one about Soviet Armor as well, but I can't for the life of me remember its title. Until I get back home and unpack everything I cannot be sure if this is the same one, but a quick search of Amazon yielded,"Russian Tanks and Armored Vehicles 1917-1945: An Illustrated Reference ", by Wolfgang Fleischer, and that seems to be the one I read and enjoyed.

-Kevin

I actually own "Encyclopedia of German Tanks of WWII".

More of a plane guy, but like WWII armour, especially German, and when I saw it, I knew I had to get it. Very detailed, and much more than I need, but a great reference book, with a ton of info and pictures.

Thanks Guys! I already have those and they are great! I was just hoping there was something out there I was missing. I wish there was one that had all the soviet stuff and had all the missing gaps like Italian and Japanese armor. An "All in one" but I guess that does not exist.

Have you got this one?:

Pictorial history of tanks of the world 1915-45 by Peter Chamberlain & Chris Ellis.

This has tanks (but no other types of afv) from all the major powers covered in over 1000 photographs.
Covers the tanks from Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, GB, Hungary, Italy, Japan, NZ, Poland, Sweden, USA, USSR and other miscellaneous minor tank using countries.
It's in similar style to the other books, but no combat history and unit allocations, it does however give details and design modifications together with armament, and basic performance statistics.

Another good one to have.

Cheers
Kev

Ah, yes, I have that book. It is comprehensive and have relatively good pictures and good technical data. Not too much regarding operational history, camo colours, or interior pics though however.

I was browsing through it yesterday,

In the Italian section, there's a picture of a couple of tankettes going down a slope - it must be at 60 - 70 degrees,for what looks like a publicity shot and it's that steep they look like they are falling rather than being driven, i'm sure the crew must have been injured.

In the Australian section - there's a Sentinel tank with two 25 pounder guns mounted side by side in the turret, used to test the effect of recoil on the chassis when they were considering fitting the 17 pounder. Must have been a massive blast when they were fired together.

All sorts of strange looking designs when all the Nations were trying to get the triangle balanced...