German Tank Fetish

[Extra Crispy]

As I have started to look for good reference on WW2 AFVs the Uber-Panzer Fetish is really showing up. You can't swing a dead cat by the tail without hitting yet another book on the Tiger, but the poor KV-1 and KV-2 have to make do with a couple pages. I've seen books devoted to the Sdkfz 251and besides the T34 not a single book so devoted to a single Soviet vehicle.

I expected not to be able to track down info on the more obscure vehicles, but it seems "obscure" is the same as "Russian".

[Schwerepunkt]

One reason for this is, I believe, the security maintained over their equipment for the last 60 years. With the end of the Soviet Union and the opening of the Red Army archives, I though much historical material as well as technical information would have become more available to Western historians.
This may have happened for a while but with the glorious new tractor production factory at Hostile on the Volga, led by Vlad the Putin, this may have prematurely ended.
In addition and more importantly, there is just more interest in German Panzertruppen than just about any other nation's tank forces.

[Panzerleader71]

I know Osprey Pub. has a book out on the KV-1, not sure about the 2 model, and they pretty much cover most of the main AFVs used by the Soviets during the war IIRC. You should check out there site. Keeping in mind these are not large tomes, but they are better then nothing.

[Thomaso827]

There was a set of 3 books put out some time ago that had photos of just about everything out there for German, Russian and US/British (why the merged the last two, I don't know but they were in one volume). I'll have to dig those out and pass along the names, ISBNs and stuff. For the most part, photos are of prototypes rather than lots of "in action" shots, but for some models, they may be the only ready source out there, and there are many models covered that never got beyond prototype, so may be of some help for the WW2 1947 stuff as well. If it rings any bells for anyone else, these books were in different colors on the cover, the Germans being red, the US/British an OD Green shade, and the Russians more a hunter green. I probably bought the German book in the late 70s and the other two were given to me by a friend cleaning out his collection in the mid 80s. If you dont see anything before then, I'll bring with me to Warparty, Warband or Drums, whichever is first.

Tom Oxley

[warrior]

I've seen books devoted to the Sdkfz 251and besides the T34 not a single book so devoted to a single Soviet vehicle.
I expected not to be able to track down info on the more obscure vehicles, but it seems "obscure" is the same as "Russian".

This view is too simplified. In fact, a lot of books about Russian armor was printed, though their number doesn't match with that about German armor. A simple search of Amazon.com web-site can give good old books, written by S.Zaloga, like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Soviet-Tanks-Grea ... 479&sr=1-3

And recently some books of Russian historian have been translated into English. I suggest you to read books of this author:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/searc ... ryatinskiy

And this book is among the best ever published in Russia in the last five years about the discussed subject:
http://www.amazon.com/T-34-Action-Stack ... 379&sr=1-1

One reason for this is, I believe, the security maintained over their equipment for the last 60 years. With the end of the Soviet Union and the opening of the Red Army archives, I though much historical material as well as technical information would have become more available to Western historians.
This may have happened for a while but with the glorious new tractor production factory at Hostile on the Volga, led by Vlad the Putin, this may have prematurely ended.

It's true that many (if not most) of documents about Russian armor were kept secret during Soviet era, and that often led to "informational hunger" of Western historians that studied this theme. After the fall of the Soviet Union, many of closed archives were opened, but only now we can say that thousands of ex-secret documents are somehow systematized at least on the level archive fund, and they are ready to be studied. Russian law doesn't restrict foreign historians to work with these documents, and V.Putin doesn't prevent them from doing so either. Two main issues - the language barrier and costly tourist infrastructure in Moscow - makes it difficult for Western historians to study archive documents on this (and no only on this) theme.

[Timothy OConnor]

I have to agree with Mark. While there are some books available on topics such as Russian armor, there's something about the WWII German AFV that allows it to dominate the hobby and historical publishing. From technical books to pre-painted 1/72 tank models it's easy to find German AFVs of many types but much harder to find their allied counterparts. To paraphrase Jan Brady, "It's always German, German, German!"

Germany was only one of four major powers fighting in the ETO (Germany, Russia, Britain, and America) yet seem to get the vast majority of the coverage (how many Wittman books does the world need?)