In Review: Peko Publishing Panzerwaffe on the Battlefield - World War Two Photobook Series Vol.IIII

Having read the latest book from PEKO Publishing on the StuG III l and the T-34 in the last few months, we were eagerly anticipating the next volumes from  this new publisher – and this one has promise – the first in a two part series of early German tanks in combat, called “Panzerwaffe on the Battlefield” – Let’s have a look…

Peko Publishing

Panzerwaffe on the Battlefield - World War Two Photobook Series Vol.III

Hardcover: 112 pages

Publisher: PeKo Publishing Kft.Author: Peter Barnaky

Language: English/ Hungarian

ISBN-10: 9638962321

ISBN-13: 978-9638962324

Product Dimensions: 29.9 x 21.3 x 1.3 cm

Price:  £23.99 + P&P direct when ordered from: info@pekobooks.com

The subject of this book is the combined Panzerwaffe of the German tank corps. In the introduction we read about the subject of this book being the early war vehicles, but panther and Tiger lovers have heart – these heavier late war vehicles will be in a later title. So what you are reading in this book is a mixture of early and light panzers right thru to the Panzer IV. The scope of this book being from the blitzkrieg thru to late 1945.

We reviewed book one and two in this series from PeKo over the last few months  (the StuG II on the battlefield& T-34 on the Battlefield) and we were really impressed with the layout, style and above all content of the new series – and although this book is not set on a single subject, this book physically shares the same attributes as it’s cousin titles in this series. The book is a hardcover landscape format book of 11.8 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches / 300x215mm and a total of 112 pages packed full of 105 black and white period pictures of excellent quality – mostly from the author Peter Kocsis’ personal collection – so there are a lot of unpublished snaps there which is great in this era of “everything is already on the internet.” One or two of the pictures in this book even show signs of scratches which really made me take notice of them a little more funnily enough.

The text is in dual Hungarian and English – and although my “Magyar” is a little rusty I can read the English and the comments on each photograph are excellent and the grammar is spot on. This is often a fault of dual language books so good work Mr Translator!

Not only is the text correct but it is half of what I really like about this book. The Author has examined each of these pictures and often found several little gems in the pictures that you would have otherwise missed 9 times out of 10. The research / knowledge the author has on each of the subjects really does shed a lot of light on what is going on in each frame and makes this book a real interesting read as well as just a picture book.

The pictures bring me onto the other half of why I rate this book. They are one picture to a page set up in this book. Large landscape formatted shots in clear focus are the norm here and the photographers back in the 40’s need to be congratulated as they did take some interesting shots! Along with the text the pictures really make this book more than just a glance over. I am sure you will come back to this book again and again for inspiration.

The first 25 odd pages are full of shots of the Panzer 38T Czech designed and German used tank – better than the PZ I& II’s of the time, I am modelling the Panda Hobby kit in 1/16^th right now and these are great reference shots for my build.

There are some shot of the Panzer I & II light tanks from early on in the war as well as a “Kleines” recon and command vehicle. There are fifteen pages of these early war types in a few varied situations and in different conditions. I love the picture of the Germans hiding behind a tiny PZII!!

We go onto the many makes of the Panzer III next – taking a lot of the book for this – the backbone of the Panzerwaffe throughout the war and especially early on. There are pictures from both Barbarossa in the east as well as the African campaign. From the Stub nosed vehicles right through to the infantry support L and M versions with wider tracks and extra armour there are some great pictures of these tanks in ll types of stats of repair and configurations.

Next and last of all we have the other back bone of the German tank Korps – the Panzer IV. We start with the early Pz.IV’s and see the development of this type right through to 1945. Snow covered vehicles in Russia, vehicles in Germany, burnt out hulks and even brand new vehicles are captured here. Peter takes us through the subtle differences of each vehicle in the large pictures and in a very readable way makes the sometimes tiny differences interesting as he explains why changes were made and for what reason. Even why some Germans thought they needed to take a table into battle!

Enough exposition – I really enjoyed this book and found it very readable and inspirational with the large clear pictures. I am a bit of a late war tank guy myself (isn’t 99% of the population) but this book made me appreciate what was interesting about the Panzerwaffe’s early steeds of battle.

A great book and an excellent addition to the series – looking forward to the next one!

Adam Norenberg

Thanks are due to PeKo Publishing for the review sample.

Their next title will be second part of the StuG III in battle series – keep an eye on their Facebook site for all of their latest – or just come back here..