Thursday, April 23

Preview: U-boat Im focus Issue 12 & Brandenburg Panthers about to be let loose from luftfahrtverlag-start

 We get a sneak peek the brand new issue 12 of “U-boat Im Focus” and also a little about the new “Brandenburg” book in today’s preview of two highly anticipated new books from luftfahrtverlag-start …

Two new tittles just around the corner from Luftfahrtverlag-Start


No#12 - U-boat Im Focus 
from Axel Urbanke 
Published by: luftfahrtverlag-start
Softcover 54 pages 
A4 Portrait Format
Dual English/German text
available from the luftfahrtverlag-start webpage or from their re-sellers worldwide in subscription or as single issues

It’s that time for U-boat lovers to feel happy again. We have the new U-boat Im Focus in our hands and this one – No #12 looks to be a great issue from what we have seen included – let’s have a look in our review at what lies beneath…

Here is the table of contents of UIF 12:

Interior Shots: U-18, 1943:
Editorial / Reader Forum: U-223, 1943
The first emblem of 3 U flotilla: Sunk in Narvik applications (U-64)
Type VII B boats: U-52, 1941/42
Type VII C boats: U-382, 1943/44
Type IX C boats: U-68, 1941
Electric Boats: U-2524, U-3514, U-2502, 1945
Conning Towers: The "Buffalo head" emblem at the Tower of U-10
Scenery: Bombing raid on Kiel on 14 May 1943 (U-236 + U-237)
Colour photos: Late colour shots of the 21 U flotilla (U-733)
Boat in Focus: U 249 - boat with the FuMB 35 Athos I
 Unknown emblem: The fair-skinned Moor by U-387
Document: British leaflet to the demoralisation of the U-boot men
Photos with a Story: U-1406 and U-1407 - sunk or they surrendered when the war ended?
Unusual: "Ordnungsaufruf" of the Hauswirts
Fate: Sunk in the home port! (U-622)
Equipment: Torpedo reload during the 3rd patrol of U-221


The Panther Battalion "Brandenburg"
Oder Front - Seelow Heights - The Halbe Pocket
The Battles and Final Destruction 1945

By: Wolfgang Ockert and Axel Urbanke 
English and German text
Format: Hard cover, 9.25" x 11"
Pages: 220 pages
Photos: 130 rare wartime photos (many from the Oder Front and the Halbe Pocket)
ISBN: 9783941437173
And finally the title and the back of the "Brandenburg"-book! It will cost just about 59,00 Euro + shipping and you can also pre-order it via email here: Axel-urbanke@luftfahrtverlag-start.de - It looks like shipping for this book is due to begin by the end of July

In the spring of 1945, with the Second World War undoubtedly nearing its end, events followed in rapid succession. There was fighting on every front and German losses were enormous. Units were created and destroyed without receiving much attention in the records of the Wehrmacht staffs. Even veteran units suffered this fate.

This book, the product of ten years of research, documents the battles and demise of a panzer unit which, though it fought on the Oder Front and in metropolitan Berlin, remains almost unknown – the I Battalion, Panzer Regiment “Brandenburg.” It was created in spring 1945 through the renaming of the I Battalion of Panzer Regiment 26. The latter had seen action, usually attached to the Panzer-Grenadier Division “Großdeutschland,” at the hotspots of the Eastern Front from January to October 1944. The Panthers had fought at Cherkassy, in the Memel bridgehead and the battles in Hungary.

 Rear Cover
The unit’s existence would span just three and a half months; consequently it is almost unknown today. At the beginning of February 1945, the I Battalion of the Panzer Regiment “Brandenburg” was dispatched to the Oder Front and attached to the Panzer-Grenadier-Division “Kurmark.” Fighting as part of that unit, in spring 1945 the battalion took part in the fierce battles at the Soviet bridgehead near Göritz south of Küstrin and for possession of the Reitweiner Sporn and the Klessin strongpoint.

The “Brandenburg” Panther battalion was always in the middle of the battles against the overpowering Soviet enemy. After the big attack by the Soviets on 16 April 1945 and the battle for the Seelow Heights, at the end of April the remnants of the battalion with 14 Panthers found themselves in the Halbe pocket with the 9th Army. In the fierce fighting that accompanied the break-out, a small number of Panthers succeeded in breaking through to the west. Many members of the battalion were killed in the Halbe area or were captured by the Soviets. Without fuel and ammunition, the battalion’s last four Panthers were abandoned near Beelitz south of Berlin. Most of the battalion’s survivors crossed the Elbe near Tangermünde and were taken prisoner by the Americans.

The book describes in detail the history of I./Pz.Rgt. 26 in the east as part of the Panzer- Grenadier-Division “Großdeutschland” and the costly battles as Panther Battalion “Brandenburg” in 1945. The book captivates through the intensity with which the events are documented, including firsthand accounts by eyewitnesses. It is thus a piece of contemporary history that gives the reader a sense of what it was like to be there.

You can get this from the luftfahrtverlag-start webpage or their re-sellers worldwide