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Detailed Review

Book Content

This review is of the latest reference book by Ampersand Publishing in their “Visual History Series”.  It is called “The Staghound: A Visual History of the T17E Series Armored Cars in Allied Service - 1940-1945 ” and it is authored by David Doyle. Although it does provide a lot of information about the vehicles, the main purpose of the book is to provide a “visual history” (e.g. Photographs) of the Staghound.

 

The focus of the book is mostly on the more common Staghound variants, including the T17E1 Staghound I, T17E2 (Anti-Aircraft version), T17E3 (mounting a M8 75mm Howitzer turret), Staghound II (with 3” tank howitzer) and the Staghound III. However, it does cover a few of the less common vehicles as well.  In addition, as indicated by the title, this book only covers the use of the Stag during WWII, so you won’t see any information or photographs covering the post war use of this hearty vehicle. 

Accuracy of Information

The accuracy of the information provided by the author is excellent.  When compared to my personal references on the Staghound series, Mr. Doyle’s book is very accurate.  I did not identify any wrong or misleading information contained in this book. 

The sources I used to check the accuracy of the book are “Armored Car- A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles” by Richard Hunnicutt; "Staghound Armored Car 1942–62"(New Vanguard 159) by Steve Zaloga;

"Staghound Armoured Cars: Profile of a Long-Lived Family of Chevrolet-Built Wheeled AFV's" (Wheels & Tracks Issue #32); “The Staghound in Canadian Service” by Roger Lucy; “T17E1 Staghound Vehicle Technical Manual (TM 9-741)” CD ROM by Easy One Productions; U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles” by Fred Crismon and my WarWheels.Net website (http://www.warwheels.net ).

Ampersand Publishing is known in the modeling hobby for the quality and quantity of photographs they provide in their books. This latest selection is no exception.  Ampersand and Mr. Doyle provide 227 photos and 4 illustrations on 128 pages. 225 of those images are in black and white with only the back and front covers being in color.  Although the photos are of very high quality, I would have definitely liked to have seen more color photos.  However, the use of black and white photos does keep the book price down, so that is welcome to me in this weak economy.

 

Even with that stunning quantity of photos provided, most of them are of sizes that are actually usable.  In fact, a VERY large proportion (approximately 40%) is full page photos. And, the smallest photos provided in the book are still fairly large, being approximately 3”x5”.  Many of the full page photos are of the full vehicle or “in action”, whereas the smallest photos are generally detail shots. Sometimes when publishers include a lot of photos in a book, many are unusable as a modeling reference as they are too small to identify many of the specific details.  Ampersand has balanced this aspect well. 

The quality of the photographs is as usual with their products, outstanding.  The images are of high quality, clear and in crisp black and white. Small details can be readily identified when viewing most all of the pictures and some of them are so good the details literally “pop out” at you.  

Also, the selection of photographs provided by Mr. Doyle is exceptional in quantity and variation.  This might be the best feature of this book as it not only contains a decent number of overall shots of each vehicle, but you get tons of fine detail pics of the Staghounds as well.  In addition, the book covers the entire WWII lifespan of the Staghound from its development through its combat career.   It does this by providing photographs of vehicle prototypes, the factory construction process as well as “in action “ shots.  This book is one stop shopping for Staghound photos.
 

The four (4) 1/35 scale black and white line drawings provided are of good quality and show views of the front, top, back and left side of a Staghound Mark I.  Although they are a nice addition to the book they’re almost unneeded as the book is so detailed without them. 

The book visually covers (not surprisingly with photographs) the Staghound design from inception, through development, into production and then fielded in combat.  It also includes detailed descriptions and photographs of the differences between “early” and “late” (post May 1943) production Staghounds.  In addition the book describes/shows the differences between the vehicles in both British and Commonwealth service by highlighting the modifications made by Brit, Canadian, Pole, Kiwi, etc units.

 

All of the main variants of the Staghound are covered in the book.  These include the T17E1 Staghound I, T17E2 Anti-Aircraft version, T17E3 vehicle with 75mm Howitzer (basically an M8 HMC turret), Staghound II with 3” tank howitzer (sometimes called the Close Support Stag) and the Staghound III. A good proportion of the photos cover the Staghound Mark I as that vehicle was more prevalently photographed as it was produced (and used) in larger numbers than the other variants during WWII.

In addition, a few of the lesser known, non-production or “one off” Staghounds are covered including the Communications/Rear-Link Stag, Staghound with 5” rockets/launcher and the Staghound modified into a convertible command vehicle by Canadian Lt. General Guy Simmonds (nicknamed “Charger”).  The only fairly recognizable Staghound not covered is the Canadian version with 60lb air to ground rockets.

With this book, author David Doyle continues to make his case for being one of the best military vehicle reference authors in the business.  It seems that each one of his new books is better than his last.  Considering the fact that his “older” books are outstanding, this is an incredible feat.

Once again, he’s hit a grand slam with this latest offering on the Staghound series of armored cars.  The massive number and selection of photos provided in the book is of the usual high quality we’ve come to expect from both Ampersand and Mr. Doyle.  It covers just about every variant/version of the Staghound, from inception/production to combat operations.  At a retail price of $19.95 this book is a steal as I would gladly buy it for double the cost.  If you can only have one book on the Staghound, this book is it.  In my opinion, it is the “Staghound Photo Bible”.

Recommendation:  “A Must Have” 

Thanks to book author David Doyle and Ampersand Publishing for the review sample.