Top German Cross-Country Lorries & Trucks for Off-Road Adventures | Durable Heavy-Duty Vehicles for Construction, Mining & Outdoor Exploration

The book offers a great collection of black and white photos but only minimal information text and captions. There are 1/2 -page descriptions of the histories of each of the truck manufacturers covered. The captions describe what is in the photos but offer little information on the trucks. Only three manufacturers and truck models are covered: Henschel Type 33, Mercedes Type G 3 Series, and Magirus Type M 206.In looking at the photos of the various German military trucks, they just don’t look as robust as American or even Canadian and British military trucks. The Germans had nothing comparable to the American GM CCKW 2 ½ ton (“Deuce and a half”) truck, the Mack NO or NM, the Diamond T 967, or even the ¾ ton Dodge.The Germans were also greatly out-produced. According to this booklet, only a little over 10 000 Henschel Type 33s (plus another 4000 Magirus Type 33s built under license), 2000 Mercedes G 3s, 2000 Mercedes LG300s, and 1000 Magirus M 206s were manufactured. The US produced more than 2.5 million military trucks during WW II, including more than 600 000 GM 2 1/2 - tonners. Canada added another 850 000 and Britain more than 500 000. In comparison, Germany produced approximately 350 000 trucks during the war.In my opinion, a better book is “Trucks of the Wehrmacht” by Frank (1994). There are lots of reasonably well-captioned photos of the incredible number of different makes and models of trucks the Wehrmacht used. Pages 25 -26 give a history of the development of military service trucks that were used in the German army in the 1920s through the 1940s. It also describes the attempt just before the war in the form of the “Schell Plan” to develop standard designs for vehicles with reasonable cross-country performance but reality didn't match up with the desires. The vast majority of trucks used by the Wehrmacht were requisitions from the civilian economy, especially trucks that were confiscated from the conquered nations such as France. The book also includes captured British and Soviet military trucks that were impressed into Army service.A couple of other very good books on WW II trucks (including German vehicles) are:• “World War Two Military Vehicles: Transport and Halftracks” by Ware (2007);• “The World Encyclopedia of Military Vehicles” also by Ware (2010).