GERMAN ALLIED ARMOUR 88MM GUN VERSUS

◗ Greentree and Campbell

◗ Osprey (2021)

◗ £13.99

◗ 80 pages (softback)

◗ ISBN:9781472841155

◗ ospreypublishing.com

I hate criticising an author’s personal writing style, but this is the prime cause of failure in this book.

This account of the famous 88mm in the Desert War follows the usual format in the ‘Duel’ series: the background to the two opponents, technical specifications, and combat operations. Unfortunately, the technical and user information on the 88mm is far too detailed, and in any event much of it would be better placed in tabular form rather than tedious text. The combat descriptions are a series of short staccato sentences, in a bitty style with no cohesion, and describing far too many actions in far too little detail. No author could properly cover the myriad actions involving the 88mm in a mere 20 pages. In marked contrast is the threepage section on the US experience in Tunisia, covering principally one action, and enabling a clear picture to be gained (my guess is that it was written by the second author...).

The photographs are good – and there are useful snippets in the text – but this is a rare failure in a good Osprey series.