Tank books

I've had a blitz on E-bay and Amazon to improve my knowledge of all things tank for WW2.  As a consequence here is my collection of tank books.  Some are better than others and there is clearly a lot of cross-over in terms of information available but there are some enjoyable reads to be had.

The Airfix collection - good stuff!

The Airfix collection is fantastic.  Quite slim volumes but packed with useful information and photographs (all black and white). 

The basement range

Then comes what I'd call the basement range.  OK in parts - the George Forty version has colour photos to help with painting and the Crawford version has a page per tank with a brief description.  The Vital Guide is the best of the three for me.  More detailed descriptions and colour photos make it best of this bunch for modelling and general info.

Top of the class

The top of the class mark goes to the Chamberlain and Ellis book on US / British tanks.  Just about everything you wanted to know about all WW2 allied tanks - and more besides.  It includes info and photographs of all prototypes and developments (including the 'funnies').  An excellent book.  Eric Groves' book is also better than it looks - it goes into a lot of detail about the key tanks of the period.

I wanted to find out more about the Eastern Front (given that I have a whopping 6mm Russian army) so the Eastern Front book was an easy choice.  Its OK but jumps around a bit but contains all the basics you need to have.  Jane's book is great - pocket sized but with key info on all the main tanks used - always fun to dip into.