Military Model Scene

Title: German Tank Destroyers
Author: Pierre Tiquet
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 978-1-61200-906-3

New in their Casemate Illustrated series of books, this new 192-page hardback book is packed with some great references on this popular type of WW2 AFV, from the early to late war periods.
One of the early lessons of WW2 that while towed anti-tank guns were useful, they lacked in their speed of mobility. That resulted in the development of self-propelled mounts for these weapons. The book starts off with the small Panzerjager I, a 47cm gun, mounted on a Pz IB chassis, mounted in a fixed superstructure, before moving on the giving some fine coverage of the Marder II along with the various types of Marder III. Perhaps a bit odd that it misses out the Marder I. My favourite section comes next, with some of the best coverage I've seen all in one place, for the rarer Dicker Max and the Sturer Emil. The remaining sections cover the well known Jagdpanzers with Nashorn, Hetzer, Elefant and Jagdpanzer IV. Some of the photos are well known, but most were new to me, and there are some great details which I am sure modellers will like. The photos all have informative captions, and there is some text spread amongst all the pictures throughout the book, with a number of personal accounts from veterans and some details of various battles where they made a mark. There are also some pages of colour artwork and an Afterword which gives a basic assessment of the success of these tank hunters. Also nice that the book has some modern photos of examples now held in museum collections.
Photo histories like this a always popular, and this is a good one. I was a little surprised that things like the Marder I and the Jagdpanther were omitted, but it is still a very nice reference resource, with lots of detail and diorama inspiration for modellers.
Thanks to Casemate for our review copy.

Robin