Book Review of
Stug III, Brigade 191
The Buffalo Brigade
In Action in the Balkans, Greece & From
Moscow to Kursk & Sevastopol
Author: Bruno Bork
Introduction by Anthony Tucker-Jones
Greenhill Books
ISBN: 978-1-78438-695-5
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $34.95
ISBN: 978-1-78438-695-5
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $34.95
HISTORY:
The Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) assault gun was Germany's most-produced fully tracked armoured fighting vehicle during World War II, and second-most produced German armored combat vehicle of any type after the Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track.
It was built on a slightly modified Panzer III chassis, replacing the turret with an armored, fixed superstructure mounting a more powerful gun.
Initially intended as a mobile assault gun for direct-fire support for infantry, the StuG III was continually modified, and much like the later Jagdpanzer vehicles, was employed as a tank destroyer.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Type: Assault gun
Place of origin: Nazi Germany
In service: 1940–1945 (German service), Syrian StuG IIIs were in use until the Six-Day War (1967), possibly later
Wars: World War II, Six-Day War
Designer: Alkett
Manufacturer: Alkett, MIAG
Unit cost: 82,500 Reichsmark
No. built: 10,086 StuG III, 1,299 StuH 42
Mass: 23.9 tonnes (52,690 lbs)
Length: 6.85 m (22 ft 6 in)
Width: 2.95 m (9 ft 8 in)
Height: 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in)
Crew: 4 (driver, commander, gunner, loader)
Armour: 16–80 mm (.62–3.15 in)
Main armament: 1 × 7.5 cm StuK 40 L/48 with 54 rounds.
Secondary armament: 1 × 7.92 mm MG34 machine gun with 600 rounds, 1 × coaxial 7.92 mm MG34 machine gun firing from hole in gun mantle (from 1944 on) with 600 rounds.
Engine: Maybach HL 120 TRM V12 gasoline engine driving six-speed transmission, 300 PS (296 hp, 221 kW)
Power/weight: 12 PS (9.2 kW) / tonne
Suspension: torsion bar
Operational range: 155 km (96 mi) (.9 mpg‑US (1.1 mpg‑imp; 260 L/100 km) at 22 mph (35 km/h), 71 US gal (59 imp gal; 270 l) fuel)
Maximum speed: 40 km/h (25 mph)
This illustrated volume tells the tale of Brigade 191, aka the ‘Buffalo Brigade’, who used the Sturmgeschütz III as they took part in Operation Barbarossa in the Ukraine, saw action during the fight for Greece in 1941 and were deployed to the areas of heaviest fighting in the campaign against the Soviet Union.
THE BOOK:
Greenhill Books is located in the UK.
This book is hard-bound with a paper jacket that has flaps on it to hold it to the book.
The front of the jacket has a black and white wartime photo on it of 11 Panzer crewmen sitting atop a Stug III by a building.
The back cover of the paper jacket shows a black and white photo of a Stug III Ausf. F crossing a pioneer bridge.
Also 2 black and white photos of 2 crewmen sitting atop Stug IIIs.
The book contains 318 pages in 6” x 9” page format.
There are 331 black and white wartime photos and no color ones
The black and white photos show various Stug III, vehicles, crewmen and officers, a couple graveyards and monuments etc.
The Brigades are discussed in 213 ½ pages of text. A lot of reading.
At the end of the book there are 12 black and white cover arts of other Greenhill Books:
Panzer Ace
Blood & Soil
Tiger Battalion 507
Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front Volumes 1 & 2
Living With Hitler
Luftwaffe Night Pilot in WWII
Lady Death
Enemy Coast Guard
Girl With a Sniper Rifle
T-34 an Illustrated History of Stalin’s Greatest Tank
This book will be of great interest to modelers and military historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the North American distributor of Greenhill Books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
The Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) assault gun was Germany's most-produced fully tracked armoured fighting vehicle during World War II, and second-most produced German armored combat vehicle of any type after the Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track.
It was built on a slightly modified Panzer III chassis, replacing the turret with an armored, fixed superstructure mounting a more powerful gun.
Initially intended as a mobile assault gun for direct-fire support for infantry, the StuG III was continually modified, and much like the later Jagdpanzer vehicles, was employed as a tank destroyer.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Type: Assault gun
Place of origin: Nazi Germany
In service: 1940–1945 (German service), Syrian StuG IIIs were in use until the Six-Day War (1967), possibly later
Wars: World War II, Six-Day War
Designer: Alkett
Manufacturer: Alkett, MIAG
Unit cost: 82,500 Reichsmark
No. built: 10,086 StuG III, 1,299 StuH 42
Mass: 23.9 tonnes (52,690 lbs)
Length: 6.85 m (22 ft 6 in)
Width: 2.95 m (9 ft 8 in)
Height: 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in)
Crew: 4 (driver, commander, gunner, loader)
Armour: 16–80 mm (.62–3.15 in)
Main armament: 1 × 7.5 cm StuK 40 L/48 with 54 rounds.
Secondary armament: 1 × 7.92 mm MG34 machine gun with 600 rounds, 1 × coaxial 7.92 mm MG34 machine gun firing from hole in gun mantle (from 1944 on) with 600 rounds.
Engine: Maybach HL 120 TRM V12 gasoline engine driving six-speed transmission, 300 PS (296 hp, 221 kW)
Power/weight: 12 PS (9.2 kW) / tonne
Suspension: torsion bar
Operational range: 155 km (96 mi) (.9 mpg‑US (1.1 mpg‑imp; 260 L/100 km) at 22 mph (35 km/h), 71 US gal (59 imp gal; 270 l) fuel)
Maximum speed: 40 km/h (25 mph)
This illustrated volume tells the tale of Brigade 191, aka the ‘Buffalo Brigade’, who used the Sturmgeschütz III as they took part in Operation Barbarossa in the Ukraine, saw action during the fight for Greece in 1941 and were deployed to the areas of heaviest fighting in the campaign against the Soviet Union.
THE BOOK:
Greenhill Books is located in the UK.
This book is hard-bound with a paper jacket that has flaps on it to hold it to the book.
The front of the jacket has a black and white wartime photo on it of 11 Panzer crewmen sitting atop a Stug III by a building.
The back cover of the paper jacket shows a black and white photo of a Stug III Ausf. F crossing a pioneer bridge.
Also 2 black and white photos of 2 crewmen sitting atop Stug IIIs.
The book contains 318 pages in 6” x 9” page format.
There are 331 black and white wartime photos and no color ones
The black and white photos show various Stug III, vehicles, crewmen and officers, a couple graveyards and monuments etc.
The Brigades are discussed in 213 ½ pages of text. A lot of reading.
At the end of the book there are 12 black and white cover arts of other Greenhill Books:
Panzer Ace
Blood & Soil
Tiger Battalion 507
Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front Volumes 1 & 2
Living With Hitler
Luftwaffe Night Pilot in WWII
Lady Death
Enemy Coast Guard
Girl With a Sniper Rifle
T-34 an Illustrated History of Stalin’s Greatest Tank
This book will be of great interest to modelers and military historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the North American distributor of Greenhill Books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Highly Recommended.