Military Model Scene

Title: German Motorcycles at War 1939-1945
Author: Ian Baxter
Publisher: Pen & Sword
ISBN: 978-1-03610-056-8

The Kradschutzen Truppen, a new Images of War title from Pen & Sword. A 128-page soft-cover book.
A regular feature in so many wartime photos of the German military in WW2 was their widespread use of the motorcycle, both solo bikes and sidecar combinations. It's split across an introduction and 4 chapters, plus 3 Appendices. Each of the main chapters are started with 2 or 3 pages of text, then a collection of wartime archive images, all with extra detail in the captions. First some background to the formation of the motorcycle units, thanks to large motorbike production in Germany in the years prior to the war, then their use in the Blitzkrieg invasions of 1939 and 40. The last 2 chapters focus on the war on the Eastern Front, and how the Kradschutzen units lost their importance in the later stages of the war, as reconnaissance units were equipped with more vehicles and light armour, so the motorcycles were relegated to more support roles, such as dispatch riders, and less need for their recce roles as the front lines were increasingly in retreat. Plenty of detail in the photos, not just the many bikes themselves, but the specialist rubberised coats issued to these troops, and the distinctive camouflage uniforms worn by the SS units. Add the Fallschirmjager crews and there is plenty of variety. Operating conditions vary greatly, from the good roads of western Europe, to the rough tracks of the Eastern front, with their extreme weathering in the mud. The end of the book has 3 appendices, covering the components of a Kradschutzen Battalion over the years, background history of each of the different units between 1939 and 43, and then finally the detailed structure of motorcycle company, type b, from late 1941 through to mid-1942.
Altogether a fine collection of archive images of the operation of the German motorcycle troops during WW2 on both Western and Eastern Fronts, though nothing on North Africa (where my own father had a captured BMW combination at one point) and only 1 of them in Italy (Rome). Another useful reference in this series for modellers, and I am sure, for the many motorcycle fans.
Thanks to Pen & Sword for the review copy.

Robin