Carro M vol 2

Title: Carro M, Vol. 2
Author: Andrea Tallillo, Antonio Tallillo and Daniele Guglielmi
Publisher: Gruppo Modellistico Trentino di studio e ricera storica
ISBN: 978-88-3905651-5-1
 
...Carri medi M 11/39, M13/40, M14/41, M15/42 Semovente e altri devivati

A large format soft cover book from Italy, and not suprisinglly covering Italian tanks and self-propelled guns.  The bulk of the text is in Italian though every picture is captioned in both Italian and English, plus there is an English summary at the end of the book.
 
You can tell by the name of the publishers that this is a book for modellers, by modellers.  The second volume in the series, it covers the combat history of these various Italian tanks.  As explained (in the summary) the Italian army was not best prepared for the war in terms of the most modern tanks, still too many light tanks and tankettes.  Those they had were pushed to the limits in North Africa and worn equipment, opposed by better fighting tactics from the British Army, they found themselves outgunned and morale suffered.  The tanks covered by this title are well illustrated by this book, with loads of archive photos, scale drawings, tables of the numbers of the different types in use at various times, and an appendix with plenty of colour profiles showing camouflage and markings, along with artwork for crew uniforms as well.
 
There are some 200 pages in the book, and even if you are not able to understand the Italian, the English captions for the photos and plans throughout the book will give most modellers what they want to know, and plenty of detail for modelling the various AFVs this volume covers, especially those colour profiles at the end.  The text covers operational service with the Italian army up to 1943, then in German hands after that time, even on to post-war Italian use for some things.  They use veterans accounts of events to illustrate the use of these AFVs in service, a service where they were soon outclassed by their opponents, and Italian industry was not able to develop new vehicles quickly enough to compete.
 
This is an interesting book, ideal for modellers who want to detail/paint some Italian WWII AFVs.  Many of the photos give some great ideas for dioramas as well.