Tanks in the Winter War 1939-1940
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Author: Maksym Kolomyjec
Publisher: Leandoer & Ekholm förlag
ISBN: 978-9-197589-52-9
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 224
The Winter War of 1939-1940 is often a footnote in the greater World War Two historiography, which is a pity given the interesting events of that conflict. An increase in interest in this little known conflict has resulted in several new books to come out covering the Winter War, and this is one of those taking advantage of new archival references.
While the majority of the book covers the various tank battles of the Winter War, the text also includes overviews of the conflict as a whole, as well as a breakdown of the tank forces on both the Finnish and Soviet sides. Appendices also include information on those tankers who received Hero of the Soviet Union. The amount of information presented here is outstanding, and the text is nicely written, all the more impressive for a translation.
Complementing the text are the many photographs presented throughout the pages. Several of these are copies of newsprint photos, with the halftone printing painfully obvious. However, as these photos likely only survived in newspaper archives, having them printed this way is better than not having them at all. Not all of the photos are presented that way, and there is plenty of interesting markings and scenes to make the armor modeler quite happy.
For anyone interested in side conflicts to the Second World War, this is a great book on the Winter War. Whether you are looking for a good written history or a collection of useful reference photos, this book has it all. My thanks to Casemate for the review copy.