Military Model Scene

Title: Tanks and Armour in Ukraine 1941-1944
Author: Ian Baxter
Publisher: Pen & Sword
ISBN: 978-1-03612-255-3

A new addition to the Images of War series from Pen & Sword, and another from author Ian Baxter. A 119-page soft-cover book.
There are two natural main elements to this book. The first is the basic historical story, with a few pages of text that start each of the four chapters. which take us through the chronology of the progress of the war with the German invasion of Ukraine in 1941, the capture of the country, and then the fighting withdrawal before the final battles that eventually led to the defeat of Germany in WW2. This story is I think quite sad in many ways, as the names of these places, such as Kiev and Kharkov just to pick two examples, are names we here almost everyday in the news today. The modern Russian invasion cannot be ignored when reading this story, and I couldn't help but feel sad for the Ukrainian people and having to go through another war in their territory. The second element of the book though rests in another interesting collection of archive photos from the war, most of which I can't remember seeing before. Among the things we see are the widespread use of horse drawn transport during the war, and the change in power of the equipment used over time, from the Panzer IIs and IIIs of the early war, to the much larger Panthers and Tigers of the late war period.
There are also three appendices, which give us different Orders of Battle for Army Group South in 1941-42, again in 1943-1944 and finally for Army Group North Ukraine in 1944. Plenty of interesting detail on uniforms and equipment of both German and Russian forces engaged in Ukraine and plenty of diorama inspiration for the military modeller.
Thanks to Pen & Sword for the review copy.

Robin