Military Model Scene

Title: The 'Grossdeutschland' Division in World War II
Author: James F. Slaughter
Publisher: Osprey
ISBN: 978-1-4728-5592-3

'The German Army's premier combat unit', is the topic for number 255 in the Elite series from Osprey, with artwork by Ramiro Bujeiro.
This tells the story of a unit which started out in the 1930s as a ceremonial guard, or Wachtregiment, in Berlin. The opening pages explain how it got its' name, and how the enlarged unit was used in the invasions of Poland, France and Russia. The text then takes us through the individual years of the war, gradually growing into a Panzergrenadier division and later still, a Panzerkorps. The division spent much of the war on the Eastern Front, and became known as the Wehrmachts 'Fire Brigade', being sent to places where their extra help was needed. One of the few Wehrmacht divisions to get new supplies of armour and heavy equipment, a privilege often reserved for the SS divisions. To accompany the story of the division are plenty of archive images throughout the book, including a lot which give fine detail of their uniforms and equipment and how that evolved over the course of the war. There are 8-pages of very fine artwork illustrating particular uniforms and equipment, showing the changes over the years. With 3 uniforms on each of those pages, they all have a page of text giving the background detail of what is featured in each one.
An interesting history of this famous Wehrmacht unit and their story through to the end of the war, when it was broken up into smaller fighting units amidst the confusion that accompanied the disintegration of the German army in the final months of the war. A good value introduction to the history of the unit and with artwork that will be very helpful to wargamers and modellers of military miniatures for colours and equipment of their soldiers at the different stages of WW2.
Thanks to Osprey for the review copy.

Robin