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Captured and put to good use by the Germans and their allies in WWII –
the Panzer 38t tanks and the chassis that bore them proved to be the equal of
their homegrown brothers in service. Now Squadron has captured a bunch
of the 38t variants in their latest “In Action" book on this hull and her
incarnations. See what we think about it in our review..
Published by Squadron/Signal
Charles K. Kliment. –
80 pages
Landscape soft/hardcover
186+ photographs, line
drawings and colour profiles;.
Available from Squadron Directly
I am in the process of modelling the 16th scale
Panzer 38(t) from Panda hobby. I have looked around and I have often came up
against the very same pictures fo this interesting little tank ( the kit you
are working on is always suddenly interesting it seems) and so when I saw this
new book from Squadron/Signal Publications from their “In Action” series on the
LT vz.38 or 'Light Tank model
38' as called by its Czechoslovak manufacturers before World War II I was very
interested.
Physically
it follows the trend set by it’s brethren in the series – a landscape type book
with either a soft or hard cover ( ours is a softcover) and it is 80 pages long
– in English packed with over one hundred and eighty pictures and colour
profiles as well as some line drawings of the vehicles to boot.
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Being an “In
action” book from the series we do look at the service life of the vehicles
that used the 38t chassis – from the most famous light tank PZ 38(t), through
to the Marder, the Grille, the FLAK 38t and the small but deadly Jagdpanzer 38
'Hetzer. However the book starts off describing the origins of the chassis and
the original vehicles it was used on – some going to Iran, Sweden, Switzerland and
even as far afoot as Peru. The German invaders of Czechoslovakia saw the
potential in this excellent base and soon got to use the 38t as an apt (and
sometimes preferred replacement to their homegrown panzers.
The book is
full of Pz.Kpfw.38(t) light tanks in service in Poland, France and Soviet Russia
during the Blitzkrieg and after. There are some great shots of this tank in all
types of conditions from factory fresh to wounded and destroyed in battle. With
different load outs shown this was a great help to my research on the vehicle.
Unfortunately this part of the book ended too fast for me. There was one colour
profile of this tank and to me it could have filled a whole book.
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We do see
the book in allied/captured service as well, and in companion s t the text
there are several comparison charts spread through the book showing performance
of the different variants of this tank in comparison to each other.
The chassis was later adapted by the necessities
of war for heavier guns to be used as a basis for tank hunters, self-propelled
artillery. There are a lot of pages dedicated to the Marder and GRILLE assault
guns. These top heavy and ungainly looking tanks are captured in some detail by
the authors in well written text as well as their photo collections. You can see the basis of this chassis adapt
and evolve – especially in very late war pics of the chassis in the reconnaissance
version that never saw service, the Vollkettenaufklarer 38(t) Kätzchen (Kitten).
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There is a
short section on the camo and making of these vehicles and how it changed
during the war then onto my second favorite the Jagdpanzer 38(t) (Sd.Kfz.
138/2), later known as Hetzer ("baiter")
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Most of the shots fo this I have
seen before as I have researched this kit for several projects but there were a
few shots I had not yet seen. Especially nice to see was the Hetzer compared
with an SPG and the Jagdpanther! Several shots of this tank captured and
damaged in battle are nonetheless great for your archive on this machine. All
of the Hetzer development is captured here with not common variants explained
as well.
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There are
also several colour profiles of the Hetzer in the book. I would have liked a
few more especially of the 38(t) light tank but there is only one – along with
the grille and Marder one each. The one
thing I thought could be changed about this book is the length. There is enough
potential for three books here – the light tank, Hetzer and other variants. It
is a shame that it was banged together in only 80 pages in a way.
I suppose
if not enough pages is my only complaint I don’t have it that bad – there is
more than enough for the casual historian and modeler with lots of inspiration
for your builds in these pictures I liked this book a lot – bring on Volume II !
(if only)
Adam
Norenberg
