The latest in Concord's excellent-value Armor at War series by US armour guru Steve Zaloga, this book offers an excellent selection of photos and colour profiles of US light tanks, mostly from the M3, M5 and M24 families.

The selection of photos is, as usual, mostly drawn from the US National Archives. After a smattering of pre-war photos, there is good coverage of both British and American use of M3s and M5s in North Africa, then sections on light tanks in the Pacific, Italy, and finally the campaign in Northwestern Europe. Although the emphasis is on American use, there are plenty of photos of Stuarts in service with British Commonwealth and Polish units.

Although some of the photos have been seen before, many surprises still lurk within these covers. The examples of both German and Japanese vehicles would make interesting models, as would the unusual Yugoslavian makeshift self-propelled guns, fitted with a 75mm PaK 40 or 20mm Flakvierling 38. Personally, I particularly liked the photos of heavily stowed M24s and M5A1s in Germany during the final months of the war; the photo on page 71 of an M5A1 passing an abandoned sPzAbt 653 Jagdtiger would be a great diorama!

Despite being primarily a photo book, Zaloga provides a great deal of technical information (as always) in his photo captions, helping to sort out the differences between the various models of M3 and M3A1, as well as pointing out the upgrades applied to the M5 family throughout the war. As an added bonus, several interior photos of the M8 Gun Motor Carriage are included.

The colour plates are well-executed, although I would like to see more scrap views of the front, rear, and/or tops of these vehicles, in order to give modellers a clearer picture of the complete markings and camouflage patterns of the subjects.

The two colour photos on the back cover, although uncaptioned, are quite interesting. The top photo is a well-known one of an M24 Chaffee from 1st Armored Division in northern Italy in 1945 (subject of one of the colour profiles), while the other is a line-up of Brazilian M3s fitted with the welded D38976 turret. This would make an unusual, and colourful, modelling subject.

As usual, this Concord book is a great inspiration for modelling and diorama projects. My biggest lament with this book, in fact, is the lack of good quality kits of these subjects, although recent rumours of M3 Stuarts from Academy could change all that.

Highly recommended for anybody interested in American World War II armour.

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