This book was recommended to me as a good source of information on the German Army. Although my search was for the World War II(WW2) period, I thought this might have information I could use.  I'm glad I picked it up because it is a very valuable source book.

Unfortunately it is no longer in print and unless you want to spring for a used copy, you'll have to get it vis Inter Library Loan (ILL). The copy our local library got me came from the College of DuPage Library.

The book has numerous strengths - it is well researched, full of interesting pictures (some of which have been around forever - how many times do you need to see von Paulus surrendering at Stalingrad) and others very unique. One of the fun ones is the picture of the Tatra propeller driven snowmobile seen to the right. This could be a fun evening or weekend modeling project and there would be no reason to limit this type of vehicle to just the Germans. The US had their own special vehicles such as the Weasel, a small, tracked personnel carrier that had been designed to support the operations of the 1st Special Service Force in Norway.

The list of equipment covered is pretty exhaustive. I'm not certain that any author could cover the myriad numbers and types of vehicleand weapons the German army used without leaving something ouot, but Quarrie seemsto have hit most of what I am aware as being in use. The book reads like a user's manual for a new car in places where he lists vehicle characteristics such as the Kübelwagen - "Weight fully laden: 1.175 tonnes; Overall length 3.74 m - and so on. These stats are of interest to designers and not necessarliy to we mere mortals.

On the plus side, the line drawings in the book are superb. The picture to the left shows a drawing of a telephone vehicle  used by the German army that was based on a Kübelwagen chassis.

If you have an interest in the details of the German army of WW2, this book belongs on your shelf. If you can't buy it anywhere, you should at least grab it from ILL to see what it's got in it for you.