Review

Winter Battle in Franconia

The following introduction is supplied via Tankograd:

REFORGER 79 was the second such exercise of US armed forces to take place in winter. One objective of the training exercise was to test the deployment of American reinforcements to Europe under extreme weather conditions, and to learn lessons for the future in order to optimise the process. Yet, poor and unpredictable Central European winter weather in January-February 1979 impaired the exercise to a hitherto unprecedented degree and presented the command with major challenges.

Core element of REFORGER 79 was the Certain Sentinel corps combat training exercise in the central Franconian region in the southern part of West Germany. This publication uses impressive exercise photographs to illustrate the fight of American, German and Canadian units against a superior armoured enemy force but also their battle against the harsh Franconian winter weather.

Review

Tankograd Publishing releases titles every year it has however come to my attention it is the titles covering military exercises that prove particularly popular with modellers on Armorama. This release is just such a title and covers a very interesting aspect of a possible winter war. This offering is a soft backed offering with a robust full gloss cover and 64 full gloss pages. The title is provided in a portrait style of A4 size and is typically well laid out. It should also be noted that the captions supplied with each photograph is provided in duel languages also.

The title begins with a 10 page written introduction covering the exercise. This covers what and when while also remembering the trials and aims of the exercise. The text is provided in duel languages of German and English. This is presented to the reader with German on the left and English on the right of each page. The text is written using a reasonably sized font that enables you to have an easy and enjoyable read while taking in the provided data. The information is presented under the following titles:

Timetable for REFORGER 79

REFORGER 79 reinforcements and test brigade

Air Transport

Sea Transport

Air Force Exercise

Issuance of Equipment and movement into operational areas

Exercise Area

Certain Sentinel in numbers

Organisation and deployment of police Forces

Exercise Forces

REFORGER 79 certain sentinel Exercise schedule

Summery

After the text we move onto the glorious pictures where Tankograd has provided us with39 black & white photographs plus 90 colour photographs that help to give the viewer some idea of what a winter war in Europe could possibly be like. The photographs cover everything from soft skinned vehicles through to the heavy armour and everything in between. The photographs are all of a good quality and really does enable those who have never faced a German winter a chance to feel a shiver. These titles covering exercises that in this case was the best part of 40 years ago and to see vehicles usually found in museums in an environment that they were designed to operate and as weapons of war rather than polished exhibits.