Zenith Press

Zenith Press, an imprint of MBI Publishing Company, encompasses combat memoirs; battle and unit histories; books on civil and military aviation; biographies of prominent military figures; titles on espionage and national security issues; books on military weapons and equipment; and titles on policing, fire-fighting and rescue.

The At-War Series

This 128 page soft-bound book contains excellent color photographs and illustrations that emphasize the use and history of these military vehicles. Practically every page has at least one photograph while others have more. Talk about a photo-reference guide these books are it. Black and white photos are also included from an historical perspective. All of these books are written in a chronological format for each subject matter covered from background development to present or end of production. Each book has an excellent index to help you locate specific subject matter.

M4 Sherman At War

This is another fine offering of the At War series of books. This one covers the venerable M4 Sherman series of medium tanks from World War II through Korea. This book contains a interesting mix of color photos with black and white photos. Many color photos are of restored and running vehicles from various collections. There are also photos of static tanks on display as monuments and some dragged from shooting ranges. These are very high quality photographs I might add. Intermixed you are shown technical manual illustrations and photos. Let's not forget the informative text from the design and manufacture to the operation and the men that made up the tank crew. One of the interesting facts I found reading this book was the US Army took possession of 160 Sherman tank 'Firefly' conversions that did not see action and there is no information about what happened to them. The only shortfall of this Sherman book is it did not cover the tank's use with other countries such as Israel with the M50 and M51 Super Sherman (my favorite version of this tank). As with the other At-War books, this one is accompanied with wonderful color and black/white photos. You will see Sherman variants, interior shots, inaction photos and informative illustrations explaining ordinance technology. This is a nicely concise but very informative book.

Conclusion

With the exception of the Hunnicutt book on the Sherman tank this one could be its little brother. It has photos and documentaries that I haven't seen even in the Hunnicutt book and this one is by far less expensive. For $20 you will be hard pressed to find a better book on the Sherman tank. I highly recommend this to any AFV book library or modeler. I would like to thank MBI Publishing for the review books.