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REVIEW
Armored Attack 1944
Mario_HR
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Croatia Hrvatska
Joined: June 28, 2006
KitMaker: 376 posts
Armorama: 303 posts
Posted: Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - 03:55 AM UTC
Cpt. C. Sosebee, USA (Ret) reviews "Armored Attack 1944: U. S. Army Tank Combat in the European Theater from D-Day to the Battle of Bulge" by Steven Zaloga what looks to be a great reference book. Read on!

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Thanks!
SdAufKla
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South Carolina, United States
Joined: May 07, 2010
KitMaker: 2,238 posts
Armorama: 2,158 posts
Posted: Saturday, January 07, 2012 - 01:46 PM UTC
Thanks for the great review, sir!

I was hoping that one of Santa's elves would bring this one to me, but no joy. But after reading your review, I can see that I need to switch to the procurement mode and get a copy without any more delay.

Cheers,

Michael Roof, SGM, USA (ret.)
Firecap4
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Georgia, United States
Joined: December 12, 2007
KitMaker: 309 posts
Armorama: 288 posts
Posted: Saturday, January 07, 2012 - 02:28 PM UTC
I picked this one up last month, and I agree wholeheartedly with the review; it's FANTASTIC...can't wait for the second volume, "Armored Victory" to come out next month.
SdAufKla
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South Carolina, United States
Joined: May 07, 2010
KitMaker: 2,238 posts
Armorama: 2,158 posts
Posted: Sunday, January 15, 2012 - 04:36 PM UTC
Received my copy from Amazon a few days ago, and... WOW!

What a great value! - For a scanty $32 with shipping, we're talking of almost 500 (!) pages of photographs (with an average of 3 photos per page).

I know there have been some critisisms that the book doesn't have much in the way of text, and that's true. However, I don't believe that its intended purpose was a descriptive history. Instead, I blieve that it is just what Mr. Zaloga started out to create - A photo "journal" illustrating each of the major phases of the US Army's armored operations in North West Europe in 1944.

I love the way the book is organized with the photos grouped by general time periods and operational phases. I have plenty of operational histories of campaigns and battles, but the one thing they all lack is good photo coverage. This book is a great companion to go with all those other books.

There are a few strange things done in the book - like a couple of digressions into Commonwealth or German operations - but since these just add a few more photos to the total, I can live with them. The few introduction pages of "generic" armor ID photos is not very useful, but again, it's only a few pages out of half-a-thousand pages of otherwise very useful photos. And, if you're a serious student of the subject, then there are a lot of photos that you will have seen before, but so far for me, I'd say these amount to less than 25% of the total. (Which is not bad, really.)

If anyone reading this has any interest in US Army armored combat in Europe, then you will want this book. You can't beat the price. Keep it beside you as you read "A Dark and Bloody Ground," or "St-Lo," or "Hold the Westwall," or any other reference on any of the 1944 battles and campaigns and you'll easily find photos of the US armored vehicles and units that were involved.

I've already got the next volume on pre-order and can't wait for it!
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