Camouflage & Markings of Allied Armor in the Battle for Cassino: January - May 1944 (Armor Color Gallery)

There were not as many colour plates as I would have hoped. However, it did have lots of photographs which I had not seen before. The description of these were sometimes lacking. For example, if there was another vehicle in the photo there would not be a description of type, which would have been interesting. I think I have been spoilt by the old Panzer Colours range.

The Italian Campaign of World War II is often overlooked, but no other campaign, in the west, cost more than Italy in terms of lives lost and wounds suffered by infantry forces of both sides. The bitter fighting in atrocious conditions, often reminiscent of the Western Front in World War I, is almost a forgotten front to the model making community. The slow progress of the Allies in a mountainous environment that favoured the defenders led to criticism from Churchill and others back in the UK with perhaps the cruellest and most unfound jibe claiming that the soldiers fighting, and dying, in Italy were “D Day Dodgers.” Ironically even when the campaign reached the climax of capturing Rome this momentous achievement was overshadowed by the Normandy invasion that occurred less than 24 hours after the Italian capital was captured.Books on the Italian campaign are comparatively rare compared to the other major campaigns in World War II and so the latest book in the Armour Color Gallery series that examines Allied armour that fought in the bloody battle for Cassino in the early months of 1944 is most welcome. The book is a departure from the usual format of the series that has so far concentrated on individual vehicle types.Fully illustrated throughout with 78 large and high resolution black and white, rarely seen, photographs of Allied armour most of the Allied AFVs used in the campaign are seen here. The campaign was a true “Allied” effort and this is reflected in the photographs as we see not just British and American armour but AFVs from France, New Zealand, Canada, India and Poland. As we would expect most of the photographs are of various marks of the Sherman tank but the Stuart tank features and there are some rare vehicles such as the Valentine Bridge layer and India Pattern Wheeled Carrier. Full credit to Polish publishers Model Centrum Progres as there are generally only two photographs to each page which means that details are really clear. The captions are comprehensive, often with an outline of the colour scheme and explanation of the markings carried.The final section of the book will particularly appeal to model makers as it consists of high quality colour drawings illustrating some of the vehicles that appear in the photographs. These seven pages of drawings - all to 1/35 scale - of side, front and rear views of the AFVs with some of the markings enlarged for clarity. These drawings are very highly detailed and will serve as an inspiration for military model makers, particularly as most of the vehicles are shown heavily weathered.In summary this book carries on the high standard of the books in the Armour Color Gallery series and by, covering a campaign that is seldom modelled, it will help inspire model makers to build and paint AFVs used in Italy. Highly recommended to model makers and those interested in the fighting in Italy, this book will undoubtedly prove to be as popular as the books in the rest of the series.