AFV Edition STUART TANK, VOL.1,
LEGENDS OF WARFARE SERIES
FINLAND AT WAR 1939-45,
HISTORY IN MODELS
DAVID DOYLE, SCHIFFER MILITARY
ISBN: 978-0-7643-5660-5
ISBN 978-91-85657-636
From good bookshops
The American M3 Stuart light tank was developed from light tank and Combat Car designs in
the late 1930s and the true M3 entered production in March 1941. Already close to being
obsolete when compared with German and Soviet designs, the M3 was still a vital part of
US and British forces, particularly in North Africa. The Stuart featured a number of different
turrets and also evolved through other design changes. With the M3A1, the significant
change was the inclusion of a turret basket, made necessary by the adoption of power-
traverse. This book also covers the M3A3, which had a complete redesign from the track
upwards, and featured sloped armour as well as a larger turret. The M3A3 was not used by the
US Army, who went on to use the M5 light tank.
This book does not cover the M5 tank (wait for volume 2), but concentrates on the types of light tank previous to this type and
this book does the job with style! The 100+ pages are covered in large, sharp photos with valuable captions which guide the reader to the
significant features. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction which points out some of the key differences between the M3 versions, which are complex
to understand as there are different hull and turret features. For anyone with the new Tamiya kit of the M3, this book is a great source of inspiration. CLS
This recent tome from Finnish publisher Leandoer & Co Förlag/Publishing focuses on Finland’s
part in the Second World War, expressed through the medium of scale modelling. It’s a
nice concept and by and large, they did a good job, representing some of the aircraft and
military vehicles that took part in the Scandinavian campaign. There are nice models on
show; Jonas Dahlberg’s evocative diorama depicting a Soviet T-26 tank of the 62nd Tank
Regiment breaking through ice on a frozen lake, its crew bailing out and swimming for their
lives. There are some other nice works in the book from a host of authors, the only criticism
being that the images are mostly printed quite dark, making it hard to see the detail in the
models. Otherwise, an interesting subject with some nice models. MN