"German Armor books - looking for suggestions" Topic

Can anyone recommend any books on WWII german armor, with lots of color pictures, preferably.

Basically I'm looking for things like insignia placement, camo patterns etc. Same goes for uniforms too.

Has anyone looked at the Osprey (I hear a collective shudder) modeling series? Any good?

Anyways, I'm thinking of popping into my local indy bookshop and placing an order for some books - but want to check out options.

Panzer colours 1, 2 and 3.
Although quite dated they have all the data you need.
For uniforms I'll go for Osprey's Man-at-arms, Warrior, etc etc.

Marco

The absolute must-buys are Panzer Colours, Panzer Colours 2 & Panzer Colours 3 by Bruce Culver (last seen printed by Squadron/Signal Publications in paperback for £14.00 each). Each book is in large 'portrait' format and is packed with black-and-white photos, with very detailed captions and interspersed with lots of colour plates. Volume 1 deals with vehicle camouflage schemes, Volume 2 deals with the markings of the panzer forces and Volume 3 deals with the markings of panzer-grenadier divisions, SS divisions, StuG brigades, Tiger battalions and the Hermann-Goering Fallschirm-Panzer-Korps.

Concord is mostly B/W with a few color plates. Very good assortment. The most color is the old Squadron-Signal three part series called 'Panzer Colors'.

You have already mentioned Osprey. You might try some of the higher priced Casemate books.

That is all the companies that we carry in that era. -Time Portal Hobbies-

For uniforms, there are web sites you want to google for.
Best single colour book (IMO) German soldier of world war two (histoire collection).
Out currently published books zaloga's the eastern front.
The three colour german camo had no particular standard other than ambush pattern. A quick google for scale model pictures should get you a heap of hits for ambush scheme examples.

Obviously, you could borrow such books from a lending library and maybe inter-library-lone oop ones such as the panzer colors series.

In addition to the above, although in B&W, all true treadheadz should have The Encyclopedia of German Tanks of WWII by Peter Chamberlain and Hillary Doyle

For specific vehicles I also reccommend the Squadron "In Action" series, which has a lot of titles in print for German tanks (something for almost all the main types, IIRC). One of the problems with Osprey (IMHO) is that they tend to have good text with a lot of detail, but few photos. Squadron books tend to have many times more photos, and tend to have at least a couple photos for each major variant. They're around $10 last I checked. They also include several color plates (though patterns, schemes, and other details can sometimes be gleaned from the photos...)

Damon.

If you go and buy the Panzer Colors series, I suggest you also check out Bill Murphy's Panzer Markings site (if you can find it - Geocities can't this morning). Murphy was one of the authors of Panzer Colors I. His site points out numerous errors in Volumes II and III (with which he wasn't involved).

If anyone knows where Bill's site went to, could they post it to this topic? It used to be on Geocities, but now seems to have been lost.

Also try the 'Armour & Camouflage Markings on the East Front' by Zaloga. It's as useful as PC 1-3. The Ospreys vary widley in quality & content. You really need to examine them before you buy them.

As a follow-up to my earlier post, I have located Bill Murphy's list of errors in Panzer Colors II & III (i.e., the ones he wasn't involved in). Since this is no longer available on his web site (which itself doesn't seem available), I can email a copy to anyone interested.

If anyone has a web site where this info might be useful, let me know and we'll work on getting it up there. I'm not sure, but we might have to track down Mr. Murphy and get his permission.