( Yet ! ) Another Peiper Tiger Book.........

Following hot on the heels of Greg Walden's 'Tigers In The Ardennes' and the three volumes of 'Duel In The Mist' comes another one - 'Stavelot La Gleize - Le Destin des Tiger de Peiper' by Hugues Wenkin / Christian Dujardin.

It's first in a new series called Panzer Battle Guide from Caraktere Presse in France ( the people who produce 'Batailles et Blindes' magazine.

http://www.caraktere.com

It's a paperback, it's not cheap - and it's in French.But the publishers have given it the full treatment ( which Schiffer certainly didn't do with Greg's book ). So, this one is full of photos and colour profiles. Many of the photos are ridiculously familiar ( the Poteau sequence has surely been included as padding ). But a decent number of unfamiliar ( to me ) photos have appeared, mainly from local Ardennes archives ( eg a most interesting shot of Tiger 222 being cut up for scrap ).

The book is nicely designed and laid out with maps clearly showing where individual tanks were knocked out or abandoned and finishes with a neat little 'Road Book', giving a then-and-now tour of locations.

If you only need one expensive book on the subject, go for the three 'DITM' books. If you're a Bulge completest/nutcase like me, then you'll 'need' this one before it goes OOP.......

 

Great issue indeed. I saw the "cimetière des Tigre" part on the sample.

 

Five minutes ago I did not know I needed this book, but now I do - badly lol!

 

indeed ..damn!

 

I've been browsing through the book for for over a week. If you're more fluent in French than me ( not hard ! ) there seems to be quite a lot of information here. one very odd thing, though - there isn't a single photo of the King Tiger today at La Gleize. OK, I know it's familiar to all of us, but surely any book about 'Peiper's Tigers' simply has to include a picture ?

It's odd that despite all the recent efforts, a truly 'definitive' Ardennes Tiger book, with all available photos, still hasn't been produced.
And maybe never will.......the market can't be that big. :eh:

 

Martin,

. did you pick up your copy in France or via the web site out of interest. I was in Marseille's biggest bookshop two days ago ( Librarie de la Bourse ..huge selection of Heimdal..) but no sign of this one ...and Caraktère are based in that part of the world

 

I saw it advertised in 'Batailles et Blindes' magazine while I was over there, but couldn't see the book among any of the dealers at La Gleize. Back home, I saw it was for sale on Amazon Marketplace which turned out to be direct from Caraktere themselves......

 

OK thanks. I've rated your review too. Putting you on the spot if forced to choose between this and Walden's newie (I'm not going to get them both) I'm sensing you prefer this one, despite the French ?

 

Urgh...that's a tough one, Neil. I feel rather disloyal to Greg ( who has contributed here ) but yes, my personal feeling is that he's been somewhat short-changed by Schiffer, and commercial 'realities' have produced a book which was less than we were expecting. So, even though I struggle with the French language, I slightly prefer the Caraktere book ( mainly due to the illustrations ).

But, really, both are disappointing in their way.

Roll on the next volume of Duel In The Mist........