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Pershing/Patton in action

By Jim Mesko

Color by Lou Drendel
Illustrated by John Lowe
& Richard Hudson

 

Squadron/Signal Publications

 

S u m m a r y

Catalogue Number: Armor Number 40
ISBN: 0-89747-442-2
Media: Soft cover, landscape format, 50 pages plus covers (incl. 2 pages in full colour).
Price: USD$8.46 from Squadron.com
Review Type: First Read
Advantages: Compact and useful format for modellers; excellent timing with recent release of Tamiya kits in 1/16 and 1/35 and re-released Dragon kit; packed with helpfully captioned photos; 13 colour plates in the centrefold; attractive cover art - front and back; supporting narrative text.
Disadvantages: Minimal coverage of later variants
Recommendation: Recommended as a useful primer for the subject.

 


Pershing/Patton in action is available online from Squadron.com

Reviewed by Brett Green

 

F i r s t   L o o k

 

Pershing/Patton in action provides a summary of the history and operations of this important family of American tanks.

The text commences with a description of the pre-war and early-war armour environment, and the development of this "heavy" tank from the T20E3 to the production T26E3. The book then tackles the ambitious task of summing up 50 years of development and service in the remainder of this slim volume.

The author, armor authority Jim Mesko, focuses on the T26 and M26 with ample detail and general view photographs. In fact, more than half of the book is devoted to this earliest variant. This is a probably a good move considering the recent release of Tamiya's T26/M26 kits in 1/16 and 1/35 scale, and the re-release of DML/Dragon's very good T26E3 kit.

The M45 howitzer tank gets a few pages coverage before moving on to the M46 and M47.

The book follows Squadron/Signal’s popular “In Action” format with colour cover art by Don Greer, two colour pages as a “centrefold” with thirteen illustrations of eight M26s, M45, M46 and M47s in which range in service dates from 1945 to 1982, helpful line drawings and specifications spread over 50 pages in landscape format. As with the rest of the series, the real backbone of these books are the multitude of photographs packed between the covers. More than 90 photos are captioned in detail.

 

 

Conclusion

 

50 pages is nowhere near enough to cover the development and more than a half century's service for this distinguished family of tanks. However, Jim Mesko's new "Pershing/Patton in action" book is a great introduction to the subject.

This book will be especially valuable for anyone building the new T26/M26 kits from Tamiya or Dragon.

The investment of less than USD$9 is well worthwhile!

Recommended.

Thanks to Squadron for the review sample.


Review Copyright © 2002 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 21 August, 2002
Last updated 22 July, 2003

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