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Rating: 
Summary: Like Reading Two Books At Once
Review: I can only agree with the earlier reviewer who slammed the editing of this volume. Between the duplicated and miscaptioned photos, and the text and accompanying photos getting completely out of sync, it's unreadable as a single work.Read the (well-written) text right through then go back and look at the (numerous and interesting) photos afterwards. Trying to find the appropriate photos for the current text is a nightmare. Note that the companion _1946-Present_ volume doesn't share this problem.
Rating:
Summary: Like Reading Two Books At Once
Review: I can only agree with the earlier reviewer who slammed the editing of this volume. Between the duplicated and miscaptioned photos, and the text and accompanying photos getting completely out of sync, it's unreadable as a single work. Read the (well-written) text right through then go back and look at the (numerous and interesting) photos afterwards. Trying to find the appropriate photos for the current text is a nightmare. Note that the companion _1946-Present_ volume doesn't share this problem.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Thesis Marred By Poor Editing
Review: If you are looking for the ultimate resource guide for WWII Russian AFVs, you will be disappointed. I'm not a WWII grognard, but have a working familiarity with the Russian "glamor" tanks such at the T-34 and the KV series. To Fleischer's credit, a fair portion of the book is devoted to the predecessor tanks which were anihilated by the Germans by the thousands and which, consequently, are often overlooked by military historians. Alas, the editing of this book is abysmal. In addition to a number of typos, there are duplicate photos and other photos with clearly erroneous captions. More disconcerting to the casual reader is the total estrangement of photos with the accompanying text. I like to read text, and then study the charts and photos which accompany the text. At least that's how it usually works. Not in this book. Want to learn about a light tank such as the T-40 from 1941? The text starts on page 92, but you won't find photos of that tank anywhere near page 92. Instead, the photos on page 92 (starting many pages earlier and lasting for many more pages) are of the T-34. It is easy to get engrossed with the many excellent photos in the book, but they ultimately become distracting given that they bear no relation to the accompanying text, and often, provide no educational value. Therefore, one must decide to follow the text or the photos, but not both, or you will easily get confused. Furthermore, for those students who want to determine, e.g., how a KV-1 differs from a KV-2, Fleischer is not always clear. In fact, after one reading I still don't know. Fleischer discusses both models, but I'm not sure that he ever differentiated the two. The answer may be contained in a caption to one of the photos, but I have no idea where in the book that photo is, if it exists. Finally, there is no index -- an unconscionable oversight for any reference book, but especially glaring here given the organizational shortcomings of the book. In summary, the book requires one read-through to realize how it is organized. I expect it to be more useful on the second read. Despite the book's deficiencies, Fleischer's writing style is not dry and I would recommend it for those who want a one-volume overview of Soviet tank designs from WWII.
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