Book Alert: Panzerwrecks 20 – Ostfront 3

A new entry in the long running Panzerwrecks series is available.  Written by Lee Archer and Kamen Nevenkin and illustrated by Felipe Rodna, the 20th entry in the series takes a look at the Eastern front, specifically at panzers destroyed by the Red Air Force around Lake Balaton in Hungry late in the war.  This book is available for order at the Panzerwrecks website, although customers in the US will have to pay  extra to have the book shipped from the UK.  A North American release of the book is planned for November 2 of this year according to the Amazon listing.

Publishers Description:

What was the ‘circle of death’? Whose Panther was found at a railway station? Can a 37mm Sturmovik cannon destroy a Panther? Which new tank round was tested by the Russians in 1945? What aircraft weapon scored the most Panzer kills in Hungary? The answers to these and other questions are to be found here in Panzerwrecks 20, with 98 rare and unpublished large format photographs from Russian archives, 49 wartime sketches and specially commissioned artwork by Felipe Rodna.

Nearly every photograph is from an album unearthed from the depths of a Russian archive, and was produced by the 17th Air Army during their evaluation of the effects of aircraft weapons on German (and Hungarian) tanks in the field. No test reports on training grounds and firing ranges here – everything is based on genuine after-action and field reports. Not only have we included the photographs and data from the captions, but many of the accompanying sketches too.

“Panzerwrecks” author William Auerbach passes away

The website for the popular “Panzerwrecks” photo books is displaying a message that series publisher William Auerbach passed away suddenly on April 16.  Mr. Auerbach was known for authoring many books and articles presenting photographs of  WW2 German armor.  He was a frequent contributor to the AFV News bulletin during it’s publication run, his first article there appearing in the March 1978 issues.  Over the years he worked with several other writers on books about German armor, including Thomas Jentz, Lukas Friedli, and his partner on the Panzerwreck series, Lee Archer.  The Panzerwreck series includes 18 volumes published from 2005 to the present, collecting and presenting WW2 era photos of knocked-out German armor.