Introduction

The following introduction is as provided by Jochen Vollert in his own words; and having heard a little about this back story I could not think of a better introduction:

About a decade ago I was not well and it was thus uncertain if I could carry on running Tankograd (I have overcome and we are still here!). Therefore at that time I have made a bucket list of what I truly wanted to write and publish facing harsh reality. All of the books written by me in the past thirty years have made some money to pay my bills, just one project had, as a full hardback book with 200+ pages, so few potential monetary appeal (artillery books have a very limited audience, hence there are so few of them) that it was from the start a non-profit undertaking. It consequently had been postponed several times up till the present threat to health and business in the pandemic: The time is now for the B-4 howitzer. 

I am truly enthusiastic about this Soviet design born from such a difficult development background in the 1920s yet making such an impact on WW2 battles and still being in service in its 90th year. It is this book I wanted to do before fate would stop me, and I have put everything in it what I wanted disregarding costs. It is thus not for the average reader, not for the fainthearted, not for the bargain hunter but for the fans and for the historians and for me. „B-4 Soviet Hammer of God“ can also be called „Vollert’s Folly“ because of its lush layout but non-profit approach, yet that is exactly the reason it turned out to be a little gem to warm the heart of the truly devoted artillery buff. Mission accomplished!

Review

This offering from Tankograd is a hard backed book containing 224 pages of high quality gloss paper that presents the contents very well; I believe the pages are stitched into the spine and is another indicator of quality in my opinion. With this title being authored by Jochen Vollert you know the quality of the product that you are going to get, and I can promise you will not be disappointed. The contents of this title are presented as follows:

Soviet Heavy Artillery – A Brief History

The Soviet High-Power Artillery “Tripleks”

B-4 Development and Production

B-4 Organisation

B-4 Red Army Service, Wartime Record, Parade Duty

B-4 in Operation Barbarossa 1941, “Through the German Lens”

Br-2 152mm Gun

Br-5 280mm Mortar

SU-14, S-51, S-59 – Self Propelled Guns/Howitzers

B-4M, Br-2M, Br-5M – Post War Nuclear Artillery

B-4 – The German Side: 20.3cm Haubitze 503 (r)

Tripleks – Technical Detail Overview

B-4 Technology in Close Up

Tyagatshi – The Tractors behind the Guns

The Tripleks in Museums.

This book from Tankograd follows the typical layouts of its little brothers with the subject being present in text, drawings and photograph heavy presentation. The text is heavier than in the shorter titles and presented in English only. Reading the dedicated text content I was only able to find a single spelling mistake, which in a book of this size and page count is pretty good. The was concerned that the text would be heavy going, but Jochen has authored the book very well keeping the content informative, well spaced out and easily read.

The drawings in the title are a mix of line and fully drawn and filled offerings. There is a very good number of scale drawings in 1/35thscale and these are a real plus for the modeller who wants to check out the scale aspects of a model or some of the other elements such as carriages. The drawings that point out specific areas of interest are a great aspect for me as it enables a quick reference and identification of specifics on this huge artillery piece family. The text that accompanies each of the drawings clearly identifies what you are looking at as regards gun type. Something I found very informative but that I did not think I would like are the angled drawings that show areas of the guns that quite often would be hidden or unclear.

The photographs in this title are exceptional and I never would have believed that so many high quality images of these guns were out there. Tankograd inform us that there are 415 black&white photographs, 119 graphics and sketches, fourteen 3-D artists' impressions in colour, twenty 3-D drawings and two five-perspective 1/35 scale drawings. I did note 1 photograph had been duplicated, but I can easily forgive that due to just how much I have enjoyed this book. Of course photographs on their own are of limited value and so it is the very well written captions that are supplied with each image that makes them so valuable to the viewer.

Conclusion

This offering is simply a stunning book offering under the Tankograd publishing label and I truthfully believe you will kick yourself if you miss it. The contents are well written, presented and offers a stunning selection of imagery for the reader. Is there anything else I would like to go with this title? Yes a new 1/35th scale model of the gun, but I cannot expect Tankograd to provide that on top of what is offered here.