Introduction

The following introduction is provided by Tankograd:

On 30 September 2021, the reorganisation ceremony of the German Panzerpionierbataillon 130, the British 23 Amphibious Engineer Squadron and the 3rd, 4th and 5th Companies of schweres Pionierbataillon 901 took place in glorious sunshine. The German-British Amphibious Engineer Battalion 130 had been created.

The main weapon systems of the DEU-GBR battalion are the Improved Ribbon Bridge / Faltschwimmbrücke (FSB 2), which is used by heavy armoured wheeled and tracked vehicles, as well as light tactical vehicles, for water obstacle crossings, either as a floating bridge or attached to a ferry; and the Amphibian M3 Schwimmschnellbrücke (SSB) high-speed floating bridge that is the result of further development of the M2 Alligator bridge and ferry vehicle. The combination of the twin capabilities of a land and water vehicle is the key performance feature here.

This publication tells the story of the German-British unit in great detail and supported by impressive exercise photos of all its vehicles.

Review

This offering from Tankograd is a soft backed title of 72 semi-gloss pages inside a card full gloss cover. The cover provides a reasonable level of protection unless abused, and presents the title is a visually appealing style. This release is a duel language offering with German on the left and English on the right of each page. When I received this title, I learnt something that I hadn’t previously known in that the British and German forces has joined together to provide amphibious engineer units in the field. I has known that the British had served alongside German units since reformation of the German army after World War II. But as I say I did not know about a joint unit. This title authored by Daniel Nowak provides a surprising amount of written information before getting to the glorious full colour images of the vehicles available to these units in the field. As is usual, each of the images is accompanied by a duel language caption, with a particularly pleasing area of the title covering the amphibian M3’s which is a huge vehicle that can be used to create a bridge or for itself to enter and leave the water unaided. I do not know of any models of this vehicle, but all I can say is” yes please”. A couple of these with some heavy armour crossing will make for an absolutely stunning presentation at any model show. 

Conclusion

This offering from Tankograd in addition to providing me with information that I did not know, provides images of vehicles that are seldom, if ever, get coverage in their own right. The ability to quickly provide heavy armour with the ability to cross rivers is an absolute must for the modern military, where the accuracy of modern weapons could quickly take out traditional river crossings. While vehicle utilised for this purpose may not have been considered previously by yourselves, I strongly urge you to pick up a copy of this offering as it lights lots of synapses as regards to presentation possibilities. One thing that does need mentioning, is that the cost of the titles has had to go up and are now available for €18.95, which in my opinion still represents very good value for money, when all aspects are taken into account.