Many books has been written about the Tiger and Tiger II, both good and bad. With these books, however, the world has finally gotten a good reference to just about any piece of the Tigers history.
These books are written based only on primary sources, as we have become accostumed to from the Jentz and Doyle team. The subject has been divided into four volumes. The first covers the developement of the Pz.Kpfw.Tiger Ausf.E, the second thedevelopement of the Pz.Kpfw.Tiger Ausf.B, the third the combat history of both vehicles and the fourth is a photo reference. Each book can be used independantly, but all four should still be on the shelf of any serious student of the Panzerwaffe.
The books are packed with a myriad of well-selected photographs and skillfully done line drawings, which accompany the text well (which itself is filled with excerpts from German reports, translated into English). Not only the developement of the vehicles themselve, but also many of the related prototypes are mentioned in depth, and gives an exellent picture of the whys concerning the design of the Tigers.
The third volumes includes not only the combat history of the Tigers but also reports by the German commanders from the front about the useabiliy, giving a unique idea of how the Tigers really fared in combat.
The fourth volume, Tigers at the front, has been published independently of the three others, but is still to be considered part of the series. It consists of more than 200 pages of high-quality photographs, some of which are classics and some of which are new to me.
If there should be mentioned any problem with these books, it should be that they are quite expensive, with a combined cost of about $180. Still, spread out over a few months, this should be affordable to most people, and I doubt anyone will be disappointed with their investment.
Volume 1 - D.W. to Tiger I: ISBN: 0764310380
JENTZ, Thomas L. & DOYLE, Hilary Louis. Germany's Tiger tanks - D.W. to Tiger I: Design, production & modifications. Atglen (PA) : Schiffer Military History, 2000.
[Buy now at Amazon.co.uk]
[Buy now at Amazon.com]
Volume 2 - VK45.02 to Tiger II: ISBN: 0764302248
JENTZ, Thomas L. & DOYLE, Hilary Louis. Germany's Tiger tanks - VK45.02 to Tiger II: Design, production & modifications. Atglen (PA) : Schiffer Military History, 1997.
[Buy now at Amazon.co.uk]
[Buy now at Amazon.com]
Volume 3 - Tiger I & II: Combat tactics: ISBN: 0764302256
JENTZ, Thomas L. & DOYLE, Hilary Louis. Germany's Tiger tanks - Tiger I & II: Combat tactics. Atglen (PA) : Schiffer Military History, 1997.
[Buy now at Amazon.co.uk]
[Buy now at Amazon.com]
Volume 4 - Tigers at the front: ISBN: 0764313398
JENTZ, Thomas L. & DOYLE, Hilary Louis. Germany's Tiger tanks series - Tigers at the front. Atglen (PA) : Schiffer Military History, 2001.
[Buy now at Amazon.co.uk]
[Buy now at Amazon.com]
All contents written by Christian Ankerstjerne unless stated otherwise