This book is a visual guide to the vehicles in service with the Popular Army of the Progressive Socialist Party in Lebanon.
Before the Israeli invasion of 1982, the People's Liberation Army had only a few jeeps and trucks, some of them armed. Over time, it was equipped with heavier equipment acquired mainly from the USSR, including T-55 tanks, and also reusing captured vehicles such as the M-113 and M-48.
The book is written and edited by Walid Fayad and is a softcover volume in A4 size in portrait format with 108 pages and 168 photographs. It is volume 1, so more should follow in the future.
It is a bilingual book in Arabic and English, and is read in the opposite direction to the usual Western format. The first two pages are in Arabic, as are the captions, while at the end of the book is the English text, as well as the captions translated and referenced by a number corresponding to each photo.
After the foreword, there is a brief introduction, just over half a page long, about the vehicles that served in the PSP. Then comes the main part, which is the collection of photos, occupying 95 of the 108 pages. It is divided by vehicle type, and the following can be found:
- Jeep
- Other converted civilian cars
- M325 command car
- Trucks
- M113
- BTR-152
- BTR-60PB
- BMP-1
- Other armoured vehicles
- T-55
- M-48A5
There are numerous photos of all of them, practically all half a page in size and some even larger. Approximately half of the photos are in colour. All have captions, either their own or shared if they are part of a series, informing the type of vehicle and, if possible, where it was taken.
As can be seen from the list, there was a wide variety of vehicles, some of them improvised with medium armament.
There is also a variety of camouflage patterns and an abundance of painted slogans. This makes it a very interesting book for modellers, as it allows them to recreate rarely seen schemes and even conversions.
Conclusion
A good collection of photos focused on one of the Armies that fought in Lebanon. Although they started with light vehicles and civil conversions, they eventually fielded heavy weapons, including captured equipment. The book covers all these vehicles, with good sized images. It is a useful historic reference and also can serve to inspiration to modellers wanting to depict less common subjects.