AJ Press US HAlf-Tracks Vol 2

Title: Half-Track, Vol. 2
Author: Patryk Janda
Publisher: AJ Press
ISBN: 978-83-7237-221-5
 
The second volume on the US HAlf Track by AJ Press in their excellent series of 'Gun Power' books.  A soft cover book of some 240 pages, this is once again in dual language Poish and English throughout.  The first 90 pages are devoted to a mixture of 1/35 scale drawings and linking archive photos which are ideal for the modeller.  I suspect a number wil like the drawings of the example modified for General patton as a Command vehicle.  Others include morter carriers, gun carriers, and anti-aircraft mountings so plenty to tempt is into conversions.
Then comes coverage of the planned amphibious Cargo Carrier, the T32, a project that wasn't proceeded with in the end.  It was intendeed to be something capable of carrying a heavier cargo load than a DUKW but was abandonned due to the success of the LVT series.  Then other experiments such as with an armoured roof, detail of the interior layout of Command vehicles, before moving into the combat history, again with lots of archive photos.
 
These combat photos go beyond WW2, and do include their use by the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) who made extensive use of the M3 series before the M113 became more readily available.  That moves on to the final sections, which have a listing of the kits and conversions of the US half track variants available from the major model manufacturers, though it does miss the many variants of smalll scale models done in resin and white metal, which would extend the list even further.  That leads into some pages of good colour profiles and then about 36 pages of their superb 3D computer images that illustrate a number of variants really well.
 
The final few pages are colour photos of preserved examples, some looking immaculate.  This combines really well with the first volume and provides a first class reference on thes impoortant series of half tracks, which were produced in such huge numbers as well. Highly recommended.
 
Thanks to Casemate Publishing, the distributors in the UK for our example, it is available now.
 

For full details on this title, and all other Casemate Publishing titles, please visit the Casemate website.

For ordering please see here: Casemate UK