German Armored Trains 1904-1945

It's a little pricy, but you won't find a better and more comprehensive book on German armored trains. It covers armored train use in World War I, World War II, and the Interwar leftist rebellions in Germany. Complete descriptions and make-up of the many different Panzerzuge and their configurations, details about the Armored Train Replacement depots, information on every train and their fates, their commanders, and their combat actions. It's extensively illustrated with drawings and a plethora of photographs, including interior shots and a ton that did not appear in Sawodny's previous smaller paperback volumes. Definitive, and highly recommended for anyone interested in this rarely-discussed branch of the Wehrmacht.

An impressive work. It's a complete history, with some very rare pictures, from the sparse info available pre WW1 to the end of WW2. The 1st 60 pages condense the story up to 1921. The remainder of the book covers the following 24 years. The Dr. interviewed a fair number of train veterans before they passed on & in many cases was given access to their personal archives. Background, theory, evolution, & usage as well as the combat history & make up of each of the plethora of trains, including captured, temporary, & known variations. The amount of detailed information is staggering.Almost 450 pages printed well on heavy gloss paper. A few of the pics are on the dark side & would be more useful in a larger size. The translation is even pretty good for Schiffer, with only a few rough spots. This book leaves those 60 page soft-cover volumes by the same author as little more than teasers. Glad to have found one in good condition at a low price.

Schiffer has done something wonderful in making this translation available for English speaking armored train enthusiasts and researchers. I admit I was skeptical when ordering the book as I was afraid I was paying a high price just to get a rehash of earlier works. When the book arrived and I thumbed through it I realized I had done a very good thing in ordering it! Dr. Sawodny was able to dig deeper into the military historical records than in his previous works, as well as have contact with still living officers and crew members of the trains (and access their personal archives of photos and documents as well as memories).The translation is on the whole quite good (not perfect - there are a few troubled passages here and there) and there is a huge amount of new information and many new photos. Some photos are repeats from earlier works but I do not find them distracting from the value of this one at all as they are used to illustrate the discussion from the text and generally have more informative captions than previously. This work subsumes his earlier works into a new and comprehensive history of German armored trains.There are sections on cars, locomotives, weapons (both those built into the trains and those used by dismounted troops), auxiliary rail vehicles, the command staff, brief overviews of the armored trains of the other European powers are also given. There are numerous quotes from orders and guidelines on the usage of the trains, the theory and proposals on what future armored trains should look like and how they should be used (from the interwar period), unit history's, it goes on and on.I find myself repeatedly going back and just opening up the book to some random page and diving into the information all over again - and finding something new every time.The only "problems" might be that there are no footnotes nor a comprehensive index. Sawodny explains that he intentionally chose to forgo footnotes as the vast majority would be for rather obscure archival material or personal interviews and correspondences. While there is no index, there is an appendix of all WWII armored trains with a brief list for each with significant dates, train commanders(if known) and page numbers where the train is mentioned in the text or photographs.It should also be noted that in this translation of the Second Edition of the book, as in the original German edition, added photographs were also placed in an appendix at the back to avoid repaginating the entire book (noted in Sawodny's forward to the Second Edition). However in the captions to these photos, a page reference is given to where the photo would be appropriately placed.Simply wonderful information on every page from an area of military history that has been lacking for so long. Sawodny is the expert on German armored trains and to have this in English is a great asset.One hopes this same type of detailed work can be available in English someday for German Heeresfeldbahnen, flak trains and railway artillery as well as Russian/Soviet armored trains.

I own several other works by Wolfgang Sawodny concerning armored trains and they are all very good, but this one is by far the best! Additional documentation previously unavailable but presented in this work includes private archive material and interviews with officers and crew involved with the armored trains. A valuable resource concerning a most interesting topic, IMHO.

There is no doubt Wolfgang Sawodny is the leading expert on German Armored Trains and this re-write and expansion on his book Deutsche Panzerzüge in English is a most welcome Addition to any military history library. The book is well written and loaded with useful and informative photos and drawings. This book surpasses all others readily available on this topic. Highly recommend and thanks to Schiffer for making it possible.

This is what I was hoping for after having purchased the original German language edition. I, however,. do have a few comments. First, the German edition is less bulky and will probably stand up better over time. Second, the photographs are more dark in reproduction. This necessitates me to reference the original publication photos when I need to more closely inspect details. I have noticed this with Schiffer in the past, and it is a minor distraction.

great photo content,i buy books for their photos so I can't critique the writing content

It is a spectacular, very good book, both for their photos, text and format.Especially for lovers of trains.Es un libro espectacular, muy bueno, tanto por sus fotos, textos y formato.Especialmente recomendable para los amantes de los trenes.

Full of great photos and information

This is a great book, far more than I expected and well worth the price.

Great book and cover the subject in a lot of detail. Great photos

The ultimate compilation about Armored trains. Full of information and pictures. It worth it. I wonder to find something similithar with zeppelins and russian armored trains.