NOTE: This is not a recommendation to purchase any books. I have no relationship, financial or otherwise with the authors, publisher, or retailers.

I had high hopes for this one. Absolutely THE best on German Armor, Encyclopedia of GERMAN TANKS of World War Two^I have ever seen or owned (in fact, I own two, and expensive original hardback, that is white gloves only, and a paperback I use for research that never leaves my desk) had Peter Chamberlain as a co-author.

He and R. P. Hunnicutt write my favorite type of book on armor, that is there is plenty of information on development, some combat history, but the a completeset of data on the vehicle being analyzed, in one place. You don’t have to slip through dozens of pages, picking up a bit here and a bit there. The other Chamberlain book I own, has all the data you need, if you are serious about tanks, laid out on the page with that tank, and the tanks (and other AFVs) are arranged chronologically, the earliest pages being the oldest vehicles in terms of introduction, and the later pages for newer tanks. Like Hunnicutt, there are marvelous appendices, about engines, and their characteristics, Guns, ammunition, etc,

Hunnicutt does the entire story of the vehicle, from identification of s need, all the way though combat history. He puts every vehicle data sheet sepearte from the story, in tables in the back, and the same marvelous appendices.

This latest book I think, is more of a middle school for budding tank enthusiasts. It seems to try not to overwhelm you with too much, bury you in detail.

An example is the data tables. They are included with the vehicles, but are sort of interwoven with the story of the vehicle. Sometimes, the table will be at the beginning of the discussion, sometimes in the middle, sometimes…well you’ll find it.

And the level of detail is “non-threatening” as well. Armour thickness for example, is maximum and minimum. Not specific, divided by front, rear, side, or hull, superstructure, turret, mantlet. And no slope is given, which, if you don”t distinguish front from rear when quoting you a range of armor protection, would be pretty much impossible anyway. The Appendices are, perhaps a little lightmight be the best way to describe them.

To be honest, what I was looking for was the Chamberlain book on German Armor, But with British Tanks instead. Instead I got a book that someone wanting to “dip their toe” into WW2 research would be well advised to get.

It’s an easy read, I breezed through it (but I’ve read so many-armor books, it was bound to be), but I don’t think a relative new o Er would struggle with it either. It lacks detail that I these days needin a book about tanks, but doesn’t have a lot of technical terms or acronyms that would confuse a relative newcomer, or worse, put them to sleep. The book is if nothing else a good read.

One unique feature that I do like a great deal, is a set of tables that cross reference the British Army nomenclature for a given vehicle with the U.S. nomenclature, and to the extent the British version of the tank is in some way technically different, those are spelled out.

That frankly, is a brilliant idea and with the 20+ books I own on WW2 armor, this is the first time I have seen that feature. And I have run into the issue. When reading a British book with American tanks in it, and its a “Sherman Mark Vb” for example, I have to stop reading, grab the iPad, look it up before moving on. I don’t like permanently defacing books, writing in margins, etc., so I end up with book that looks like a porcupine at Mardi Gras, with multi-colored sticky notes protruding everywhere (although all my books seem to get that way). I jot notes on multicolored stickies all the time to mark supporting data for something I’m writing, to mark where facts I hadn’t known appear, and to mark any significant point in history.

Anyway, unlike some books I have purchased that didn’t meet expectations, I enjoyed this one. I didn’t find myself tempted to get the calculator out, the graph paper, start building a spreadsheet for data, nothing. I just read it for what it was, not for what I wanted it to be, and it was fine.

I still don’t have the book I want, a Chamberlain or Hunnicutt of British Armor, or Soviet Armor, But I’ll get there.

So Rating: 4.

If you are new to this stuff, it’s great.

If your serious about your tanks, just chill for once and enjoy a slow, liesurely walk through the world of US and British Armor. Forget the rating.