The strapline of this book by Perry Moore (published by Helion & Company) is “Armoured Operations on the Hungarian Plain”.  And this book describes the operations of the Hungarian and German armies against the onslaught of the Russian and their (recently gained) Romanian allies between September and November 1944, as they advanced from Romania into Hungary. 

The book covers this complex mini campaign very well in my view.  It deals with the semi strategic/operational overview of each segment of the campaign and then deals with the cut and thrust of the action of that segment at mainly a divisional level but inevitably the actions of particular battalions and companies come to the fore.   The text is balanced but leans more toward the Axis forces viewpoint than the Russian/Romanian.  The impact of air operations is touched upon, in passing really, with Mr Moore’s text reminding the reader that airpower was present and used by both sides to influence the ground battle.  The great thing about this book (and in some ways that would always have been the case because of the date and the geography of the actions being described) is that the Hungarian forces are centre stage and the qualities their troops were displaying at this stage of the war (both good and bad) make for interesting reading.  As well as giving us the big picture the text also gives some excellent vignettes – such as the sheer lack of armoured vehicles in German Jagdpanzer (so called) battalions and the fact that the King Tiger battalion committed to the action had more tanks than all the other Panzer Divisions in the area put together! 

This book is extremely well illustrated with photographs of German, Hungarian, Russian and Romanian troops in the area of operations; these are all quite atmospheric and provide a useful reference for modellers and wargamers who want their models to look as realistic as possible.  These are complimented by eight pages of colour plates at the back of the book each showing two AFVs of the various sides.  These are of an excellent quality and are by Wydawnictwo Militaria.  For this reviewer, who is more familiar with the AFVs of the Western Desert campaigns, the pictures of the Hungarian AFVs were especially informative!

The book also has several maps dotted around the text showing the main units, their lines of attack and key towns and cities.  These are my only gripe with the book – not all places referred to in the text are on the maps.  And whilst appreciating, as a geographer, the difficulty of doing so, it did make following the action on the maps hard work.  Also the maps just seemed to be placed in the wrong bit of the book in relation to the action being described, again making references from the text to the maps harder work than I felt it should have been.

Finally at the back of the book in a series of appendices are various orders of battle and armour/aircraft strengths at key points of the action and the standard ToE of various formations.  The orders of battle are of varying types eg showing Russian Groups/Corps making up Fronts or Divisions in German Army Groups.  The ToEs go down to battalion and even platoon level  eg the armoured car platoon of the Reconnaissance Battalion in a Hungarian reserve division should have 4 Csaba armoured cars!).  All this information is clearly going to be of enormous use to wargamers re-enacting late Eastern Front battles.

Overall if you are an Eastern Front enthusiast then this is an excellent book giving a detailed view of a small piece of the war in the east. It must also have high utility for wargamers both players and writers of rules and army lists. 

 The book is available now from Casemate, hardback price £29.95 (ISBN 9781932033163).