Osprey New Vanguard 83
"Armored Units of the Russian Civil War - White and Allied"
by D Bullock, A Deryabin & A Aksenov

It is always gratifying to find new additions to the literature of WW1 AFV:s, a pretty neglected subject this far. 

The well known publishers Osprey, who have done excellent booklets on unforms of the Great War, and on WW1 aviation has now published a booklet in their New Vanguard series, called "Armored Units of the Russian Civil War - White and Allied" (it is to be followed soon by a sister volume covering the same subject but on behalf of the Red forces). The booklet follows their successful standard format, with fine text, many new photos and really good artwork. The booklet is really ambitious in scope, as you can see in the table of contents, quoted below:

"ARMORED CARS

• Armored cars in the North and Northwest

• Armored cars of the Armed Forces of South Russia

• Armored cars of the Russian Army

• Armored cars of the Don Cossacks

• Armored cars in Siberia and the Far East

 

WHITE AND ALLIED TANKS IN RUSSIA

• French tanks in South Russia

• American tanks in the Russian Far East

• Tanks in North Russia

• Tanks in Northwest Russia

• Tanks in Denikin's Armed Forces of South Russia

• Tanks in Wrangel's Russian Army

 

WHITE ARMORED TRAINS

• Armored trains in East Russia

• Armored trains in North Russia

• Armored trains in the Northwest

• Armored trains of Denikin's Volunteer Army

• Don Cossack armored trains

• Armored trains of the AFSR in 1919-20

• Armored trains in Wrangel's Russian Army

 

COLORS AND MARKINGS OF WHITE ARMORED CARS AND TRAINS

• Base colors

• Names

• National flag

• National roundel

• National chevron

• Improvisations

• The Cossacks

• The Czechs

 

COLORS AND MARKINGS OF WHITE TANKS

• Names "

Add to this a Colour Plate commentary, a very good Bibliography and an Index, and do it all in 48 pages, and you can understand that in order to cover so much ground, the text often have to be sketchy! Most of it deals with how many AFV:s there were, where and at what date. And most of this info is quite new to me. Russian historian Alexander Deryabin has done an excellent job in ferreting out this new material. For anyone with a deeper interest in the Russian Civil it's very illuminating, as, it is stated in the Introduction:

"The number of tanks, armored trains and armored cars that participated in the Russian Civil War on all fronts, including all nationalities, certainly totaled less than 1,000 and probably not much more than 700. Insignificant by the standards of World War II, these armored units nevertheless exerted an influence disproportionate to their actual numbers on the battlefields of what would become the most important civil war of the 20th century. Wherever terrain permitted and whenever assets were available operationally, armored units spear­headed the major offensives, primarily along the railways that were the main arteries of advance for all combatant forces."

There is of course little technical info on the AFV:s to be found here. The decision to include Armoured Trains as well reduces the space that can be given to Tanks and Armoured Cars proper, but the decisions makes sense, in that these types of Armoured Fighting Vehicles were of utmost importance, and often took on the same tactical role as the AFV:s running on roads. Also, this is the best I've seen thus far on the Armoured Trains of the Russian Civil War. The text could easily have been doubled or trebled, but the parameters of the New Vanguard Series are strict. Still, it's better to get this booklet than none at all. 

The Colour Art Work is excellent! The man behind them is Andrei Aksenov, who did the super artwork for the Armada Series of Early Foreign Tanks in Russian and Soviet Service (the two booklets cover pretty much the same ground, but the Russian one is superior: it also comes with really first rate plans of the different tanks). If I have to complain, then it would be that it's so little of it: you get two Austins, one FT17, one Mk A Whippet, one Mk V, one Medium Mk B, plus three pages with artwork showing Armoured Trains - in themselves very interesting: never seen anything like that before, in any book. The customary centrefold cut-away plan is very, very fine, and shows a Mk V. A little disappointing maybe, as this type of tank has actually been done several times before. But still, this is the best of the lot, and for all those who haven't seen the previous exploded views, it's a real eye-popper!

All in all, as you can see above, my only complaint is that you want MORE! But still, the format of the series is what it is. Very highly recommended!