Review

This offering from Peko is a hard backed book, presented in a landscape format. The author of this release is Thomas Anderson. The book is of a good quality, with stitched pages which always leads me to think quality. The contents of the title are presented over 190 pages of a gloss paper. The contents of the book are as follows:

Introduction

Establishment of Sturmartillerie-Abteilung 203

Transport to the East

B-Tag The Elephants Go to War

To the Caucasus

Sturmgeschutz-Abteilung 203 Relieving the 6th Armee

Strategic Situation in 1944 The end of the War

One of the criticisms of Peko’s books have been people complaining that the main subject of the title does not get the attention that the reader feels it deserves, with the result that the reader becomes dis-satisfied with their purchase. Well, from the very start, I do not believe that that criticism can be levelled as this release due to the Sturmgeschutz gets a great deal of attention in both written and perhaps more importantly photographic content. The books contents are well presented, with the written word taking second place to the photographs. With the book being printed in landscape, it lends itself to present photographs well and in a good size for the viewer to pick out detail. 

What I like about the title, is that it shows the men as well as the machines in various settings, enabling the modeller to garner information as to how the vehicles looked, and how the crews were dressed during various weather conditions and more importantly enables crews and machines to be shown in a very natural setting. One thing I will warn you about, is that both animal and human dead are shown in the book - some will find it distressing to see the Russian mine dogs that have been shot and that resulted in all dogs being shot on sight.

Conclusion

This release from Peko covering the combat history of Sturmgesschutz-Abteliung 203, is an excellent title to add to your library at a time when companies such as MiniArt are on a Stug Fest. The pictures are of a very good quality in most cases, with just a few having that ‘washed out’ aged look and the text is well written. I approve of the fact that crews get a look in, in this title, as to me it gives a more rounded knowledge and understanding of the subject at hand, and while your opinion may differ, there are plenty of images of the Stugs themselves that should more than satisfy your desire.