This is a massive and quite ambitious book that aims to do nothing less than to document every type of armoured vehicle and most types of soft-skinned vehicle produced for the German armed forces.  In some ways, this book is a successor the classic Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two, written almost 30 years ago by Peter Chamberlain, Hilary Doyle, and Tom Jentz, and should fill a similar place in armour enthusiasts’ shelves.  It has the added bonus, however, of including softskins and takes into account more recent research on the subject.

Within the soft covers of this book are 512 pages filled with over 1,000 photographs showing German vehicles in both factory shots and operational settings; there are no drawings, however.  Somewhat surprisingly, there is a small section of colour photographs, some wartime photos (fairly common ones) and some shot at museums and re-enactments.

The book is arranged by function, as opposed to chassis, so all of the fully tracked armoured vehicles are at the beginning, which are then broken down into tanks, assault guns, jagdpanzers, and so on.  There are several paragraphs of text describing each vehicle type and sub-type, with a data table giving the essential statistics on the type.  There are usually several photos of each vehicle type, with good captions that point out the distinctive characteristics of the specific vehicle.  By and large, the captions concentrate more on the technical aspects of the vehicle than camouflage and markings, but that is in keeping with the intent of the book.

While many of the photos have been seen before, some are new (at least to me) and quite fascinating.  For instance, I had never seen a photo of the E100 chassis sitting on its tracks before, but it’s seen on p. 99, waiting at Bovington in the 1950s to be scrapped.  Likewise, there are a couple of nice shots of a captured Pz.Kpfw. IVG on display in Moscow with a full set of Winterketten tracks and a great interior photo of a rocket-armed Sd.Kfz. 251 with crated 28 cm. rockets stowed inside the vehicle.  Aside from factory photos and combat shots, there are also some interior photos and tech manual images.  This is one of those books which you can look through many times and find something new that jumps out at you each time.  As an aside, I found it sad to see some photos of vehicles on display at Aberdeen Proving Ground in the late 1940s and early 1950s (e.g., 3.7 cm Mobelwagen, Sd.Kfz. 234/2 Puma, Munitionsschlepper IV for Karl Morser) that were eventually scrapped.

Of necessity, the coverage of softskin vehicles is not as comprehensive as that of armoured vehicles due to the sheer variety of vehicles used; for instance, only motorcycles manufactured by BMW and Zundapp are covered.  Nevertheless, all of the major and many of the minor softskin vehicles used by the German armed forces are in here.

There are a few things this book does not cover.  There are no ‘paper panzers,’ for instance, nor are there any captured AFVs in German service, except for those modified by the Germans (for instance, the many self-propelled guns built on French tank chassis); these are very minor issues, however.  A couple of nice bonuses are in the rear of the book, though: a glossary of German terms and a full list of Sd.Kfz. numbers matched to vehicle descriptions.

Well-written, logically laid out, and very good value for the money, this book is very user-friendly and an excellent reference for both the beginning German AFV modeler who can appreciate the mass of photographs and information and the more serious student of the subject who wants a single reference that can help to identify the most obscure vehicle.  Even the modeler with a huge reference library will find photos in here that are new.  Highly recommended.