Book Review Tank Destroyer Achilles & M10

Tank Destroyer
Achilles & M10
British Army Anti-Tank Units
Western Europe 1944-45

by Dennis Oliver



Tank Destroyer
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
Series: Tank Craft
Pages: 64
Illustrations: 200
ISBN: 9781526741905
Published: 12th March 2019

Think this might be the best I've yet seen in the 'Tank Craft' series.
Not sure I need to get too descriptive about the format as there's a few other reviews of the series on here, so:
Uncommonly high number of photos, thoroughly captioned.
Good detail on organisation, units & markings.
Crucially, the colour illustrations showing potential subjects for models are excellent. Certainly not that odd 'MS Paint' style seen in some others in the series, From snow patterns to Hessian camo, there ought to be something in there to inspire.
The usual decent surveys of available kits (with maybe a little more on resin/etch accessories than usual), combined with some finished kit photos that actually zoom in properly on certain details.

It's got a focus that's not always present in these books.
The technical description section is above average (yes, he mentions the uncertainty about the Achilles name ), and he stays persistently with the stated period & British Army use. It's actually a relief in a book like this when the author says 'but we can ignore that here' when some US or earlier point requires passing mention.

The Black & white photos aren't the sharpest reproduction (have speculated before that production costs here go primarily on very good colour sections), and sometimes suffer from lack of contrast in caption colour, but there's no padding in them. Each is an interesting shot, including ones that mostly show other RA vehicles that might be seen alongside M10s.

Making an M10 kit?
Yep, definitely.
Above average.

Just interested in M10s?
Hmmm... probably, why not. They're not particularly expensive books, but again - don't expect an exhaustive survey. It's for modellers really, though it appears to be quite good ready reference for formation signs, organisation etc.

~A

Cheers to P&S for the review copy.