Badges and Insignia of the Third Reich 1933-1945

I can understand the frustration of the modellers below, however, this book was clearly not written for them. There are many online resources now regarding German Army rank insignia for those so inclined. What this book does is give a very broad overview of the scope of German insignia throughout the Reich - from train conductors to the various branches of the military, the Party, the ladies auxiliary services, and more - even the Legion Condor is included. Given the broad approach to this enormously complex subject, only a taste can be given. I would have preferred that the subject matter be broken up into many volumes, but I'm not sure the market would have borne such an enterprise. The colour plates are brilliant - rather than photos of fading, rotting artifacts, McGregor has very nicely rendered each piece of insignia by hand. There is a scale bar on each page so one can judge the size of the insignia, all done to scale with each other, plus McGregor has found a technique to actually convey the texture of the embroidery in many cases. Explanatory text is adequate, and there are period photos throughout the text that provide additional amplification, but not nearly enough. Rated a 4 because of the technical quality of the coloured plates. Should not be considered the only resource for anyone interested in particular branches.

If you are a collector of WWII German militaria and you do not own this book, you should. Classic volume, features 64 color plates (illustrated by Malcolm McGregor) depicting virtually every patch or badge issued by the Third Reich. Each Item is accompanied by an incitefull description of each item. All-in-all, an excellent sourcebook by a world-renown militaria author. I also strongly reccommend any of Mr. Davis's fine books.