Introducttion
This offering from AK Interactive and titled the Lebanese Civil War and covers all combatants vehicles used during the period of war from 1975 to 1991 and beyond. This is one of the titles from AK interactive that is part of the Modern Conflict series and is a visual delight rather than a written tome.
Review
This offering from AK Interactive, has the full title The Lebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1991 and Beyond and is part of the Modern Conflicts profile guide volume 2. It is a soft backed book, with a card cover protecting no less than 220 pages of glossy paper. The book has been printed in a portrait profile, and is A4 in size. The authors of this release from AK Interactive are Bassel Abi - Chahine and Zachary Sex.
The book is laid out as follows:
Introduction
The Progressive Socialist Party and its military wing, the People’s Liberation Army
The People’s Liberation Army the forces of the martyr Kamal Jumblatt
Multi National Forces in Lebanon
Lebanese Forces Christian Militia
Retreat from the Mountain
Lebanese Forces T-54/T-55
Lebanese Army
IDF in Lebanon
Syrian Army in Lebanon
PLO and Palestinian Groups
Unimog Flak Wagon
Colonel Barakat’s Army or Army of Free Lebanon
The South Lebanese Army
Al-Mourabitoun/Independent Nasserite Movement
Arab Socialist Union
The Amal Movement
Al-Ta Whid
Other Factions
Hezbollah
First an observation of the paper, the paper is a nice glossy stock that shows of photographs very well, but it could be easily torn if it is not shown some care. The book is laid out with an introduction in full English for each chapter. The actual introduction itself covering not so much the Civil was in the Lebanon, as a series of conflicts, that overlapped each other, with the result that the people of the Lebanon cannot remember a time of piece unless into their very late forties. The sections on the various units that were in the Lebanon, gives you an outline of their groups, their purposes and in many cases how their contribution was ended.
Other than the written introductions, you are provided with art prints of the various vehicles that saw service in the Lebanon, with the benefit of them being broken down to the individual groups or armies that utilised them. In addition to these artists prints that are quite useful, you are also supplied with photographs from the period usually in colour, but something you need to remember, this particular war zone was not well photographed and that is were the addition of the prints and photographs together provide a good reference, as one provides detail and the photographs providing overall appearance. To the best of my knowledge, MiniArt is the only company to supply models specifically aimed at this conflict and of course the Israeli vehicles are well covered by multiple sources. What this book will enable the modeller to do, is to take a vehicle of their choice and kit bash a replication of it, using this book as reference.
Conclusion
This offering from AK Interactive will prove a real delight, for anyone interested in the conflict in the Lebanon. As I have said the paper in quite thin, but does display the contents well and it has enabled AK to get a good number of pages in the title. As such, I have no concerns about highly recommending this title to anyone with an interest in the many and varied forces that have taken part there over the years.
