Comments: Softcover, 124 pages, 109 black-and-white photos, 13 color plates
ISBN: 978-1-4738-5675-2
Price: $22.95 (£14.99)
Publisher: Pen & Sword
From the publisher: The Panzerkampfwagen IV proved to be the one constant in Hitler’s Panzerwaffe throughout World War II — the German equivalent of the American Sherman and the Soviet T-34. The author provides a concise account of the PzKpfw IV’s design, development, and performance in combat. The PzKpfw IV served on every major front — in France, the Balkans, North Africa, the Soviet Union, and, at the end of the war, in Germany itself — and was a key weapon in the blitzkrieg of the early war and the desperate defense of the Reich at the last.
Wartime photographs and specially commissioned color plates describe the initial design of the tank and how it was modified and refined throughout the course of the conflict to counter the threats posed by ever-more-formidable Allied tanks and antitank guns. While the PzKpfw IV was never produced in the same numbers as the leading Allied tanks, it was without doubt one of the principal players in the tragic drama of WWII.
FSM says: Wartime photos, including many of derelict combat losses, show PzKpfw IV variants through Ausf J plus antitank, anti-aircraft, and assault guns mounted on the PzKpfw IV chassis, from the Eastern Front, North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany. Many photos of knocked-out vehicles provide modelers with otherwise unseen details revealed by combat-induced “cutaways.”