WW1 AFV References
- Mainly Out of Print

Anyone modelling WW2 AFV:s will find a plethora of books. Not so the modeller of the tanks of the Great War. But there are still quite a number of useful titles around. Here you will mainly find the ones that are out of print.

For those WW1 AFV Books IN PRINT, click here!

Information about all those marked with an asterisk (*) has been kindly supplied by William A. Beard III. Those titles marked with two asterisks has been kindly supplied by Joe Fullerton, who also supplied to commentaries regarding these. (If anyone knows of any more titles, please feel free to drop a line.) Books out of print can almost ALWAYS be found on web services like the excellent Abebooks or Bibliofind. And off course, there is always Amazon:

• **Mark Whitmore: "Mephisto".
  "I really like this one...it has some photos that aren't in either Hundleby and Strasheim's book or in Strasheim's Schiffer book. Great maps of the st Quentin and Villers Brettoneux and a thorough history of tank 506. Best of all, it has a large scale drawing poster of Mephisto from several angles!  They say you can order a more comprehensive set of 3 technical plans showing internal details, and a poster with a cut-away isometric drawing of the tank.  I've been meaning to do so, but I havent gotten around to it yet."
• **Pierre Touzin: "Les Vehicules Blindes Francaise 1900-1944".
  In French obviously, so the text isnt very useful for me.  Not a huge number of WW1 tank photos (since the scope of the book goes well into the post ww1 era) but it also covers armoured cars, lorries, etc.  I like it because there's seems to be so little available about the French tanks.
• **Harvey and Chasemore: "Look inside. Cross-Sections of Tanks"
  "Great Illustrations (some are floating around the web) with minimal and doubtful text.  Basically a childrens book and only 30 pages long, but 4 out of the 10 tanks covered are WW1, so I can't complain.
• "British Tanks in Russia". Armada Series No. 14.
  In the same format as the Schiffer and Squadron booklets, this one is a small gem, containing lot's and lot's of unpublished photos of Mk V:s, Whippets, Mk B:s and FT-17 in use by both sides during the Russian Civil War. In addition to this there are a number of quite superb 1:35 plans and some very fine colour profiles. The text is Russian throughout, but the captions are in English.
• Maxwell Hundleby & Rainer Strasheim: "The German A7V Tank and the Captured British Mark IV Tanks of World War 1". Sparkford 1990.
  One of the best book on WW1 AFV:s ever written. You can find *everything* here, from detailed technical stuff, over information on use and tactics, to a detailed discussion on camouflage and markings! Lot's of photos - both contemporary and new -, lot's of plans. Quite indispensable!
• Heinrich Kaufhold-Roll: "Die deutschen Radpanzer im Ersten Weltkrieg". Osnabrück 1996.
  The book to have if you are at all interested in German Armoured Cars. And beside the German types, the reader also finds descriptions of other important vehicles, like the Belgian Minerva, the Peugeot 1915/16, the Lancia MK-2, the strange Garford-Putilov and a number of others. See also this review.
• *Ellis, Chris & Peter Chamberlain: "Fighting Vehicles". Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited. London: 1972.
  This volume has 25 pages devoted to tank development and WWI tanks with two pages in full color of surviving tanks. Good text, clear photographs, and a couple of scale drawings fill out the content in the early chapters.
• *Dooly, Jr., William: "Great Weapons of World War I". Bonanza Books. New York: 1970.
  This book covers weapons ranging from artillery to small arms. There are 340 pages of which 27 pages are devoted to the tanks. Excellent source for World War One weapons study, and there is a companion book on WW II.
• *Chant, Christopher: "How Weapons Work: Small Arms, Ammunition, Artillery, Tanks, Aircraft, Warships, Bombs, Missiles". Marshall Cavendish Limited: 1976.
  This book has some technical drawings of First World War tanks. There are only seven pages devoted to WWI tanks, but this volume has a very good cutaway view of a Mark IV tank.
• *Bartholomew, E: "First World War Tanks". Shire Album 172. Shire Publications Ltd: 1986.
  The author is the education officer and assistant librarian at the tank museum at Bovington. Excellent source of information, although, the booklet is only 32 pages as are most Shire Albums. There is a visitors guide to museums housing WWI tanks around the world.
• *Bartholomew, E: "Early Armoured Cars". Shire Album 209. Shire Publications Ltd: 1988.
  This little booklet shows many of the armored cars in all the stages of development with an emphasis on British Vehicles. Many of the types are comical in appearance.
• *Orgill, Douglas: "Armoured Onslaught 8th August 1918". Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century Battle Book No. 25. Ballantine Books. New York: 1972.
  Throughout this 160 page volume are plenty of photographs and drawings of all major types of World War One tanks. The book concentrates on the use of the tank in certain battles of 1918. There are other Ballantine World War One volumes.
• *Tank Museum: "Tanks of Other Nations: Germany. An Illustrated Record of the Development of Armoured Fighting Vehicles". The Royal Armoured Corps Bovington Camp Dorset: 1969.
  This little 52 page booklet covers German tanks from their beginnings to 1969. This book contains some useful tables and charts.
• *Macksey, Kenneth & John H. Batchelor: "Tank. A History of the Armoured Fighting Vehicle". Scribner's and Sons. New York: 1970.
  This book has 45 pages devoted to early tanks and tank development with many technical drawings and photographs of early tanks including tread and armor welding.
• *"Steel Coffins and Armored Monsters - The Changing Face of War". War Classics Magazine: Tanks. Vol. I. No. 10. December 1975. pages 6-13.
  This information is available in many other sources. Several close-up photographs of the tanks.
• "Armoured Fighting Vehicles of the World - Volume One: AFV World War One". Doncaster 1998.
  A reprint of the long gone Profile Publication from 1970. And although it contains a number of misconceptions and outright errors - like the spurious "Whippet ARV" - it still a classic, that contains loads of useful stuff, especially when it comes to more obscure subjects, like French AFV:s and German Armoured Cars.
 
• Jacek Solarz: "Czolgi Brytyjskie 1914-1918". Kraków-Warszawa 1996.
  Polish text, English captions to the photos, which are a mixed bunch. There are some colour profiles, but the publications main value lies in the line drawings: all the major types can be found here
• David Fletcher: "War Cars - British Armoured Cars in the First World War". London 1987.
  More by the prolific Fletcher. Again expert text and good photos. Starts with the first, truly bizarre contraptions of the early 20th century, and concludes with a summary of all units using Armoured Cars.
• Steven Zaloga: "The Renault FT Light Tank". London 1989.
  Another fine work by the doyen of all Armour Experts. Good although comprehensive text, good photographs, colour profiles. Also contains some colour material on the clothing of the French tankers. Useful. (Osprey Vanguard No. 46.)
• Frank Mitchell: "Tank Warfare - The Story of the Tanks in the Great War". London 1933/1987.
  A really interesting book, containing a lot of unknown facts and forgotten stories, written by a veteran of WW1. (Mitchell participated as a Tank Commander in that famous first ever Tank-vs-Tank combat at Villers-Bretonneux in 1918, when his under-staffed Mk IV engaged a couple of A7V:s.) The pictures aren't that much to write home about, but that really doesn't matter, as the insights given here are really first-rate.
• Peter Chamberlain & Chris Ellis: "Pictorial History of Tanks of the World 1915-45". London 1972.
  The pictures are often murky and the text is really sparse, but it still contains quite a lot of information. A bit dated but useful.
• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Tanks and Fighting Vehicles". London 1977.
  Put together by bits and bobs from the old AFV Profiles Series, and really not that good, but still has a value as it contains some information that's hard to get, e.g. on the German Erhardt Armoured Cars. But the reliability of the colour views is not too great, I guess.

And here are some tips on more books on the Great War: