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Skoda LT vz 35 Tank, Vladimir Francev and Charles K. Kliment.
MBI Publishing PO Box 20, Posta 515,155 00 Praha 5, Czech Republic
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In the last days of 1995 there appeared in the specialized bookstores a slim, but comprehensive, and very well executed monograph of the history of Czechoslovak military technology. It is a complete treatise, describing the pre-war Czechoslovak light tank LT vz.35 that formed the backbone of the Czechoslovak army's attack units in the critical days of 1938. The book is printed on quality paper and has an eye-catching color cover page. The experience of the two well-known authors, V. Francev and C. Kliment, renowned experts in the field of armored vehicles, is apparent on every page. The concrete historical and technical data have been taken from a wide array of documents, both from the Skoda's company archives in Pilsen and in Prague, the tank's manufacturer and exporter; and from the collection of the Military Historical Archives HU ACR in Prague, a main source of documents on the tanks' utilization by the Czechoslovak army.
The book is divided into well-arranged parts, describing the history of the development of Czechoslovak armored formations from 1918; the history of the development of the LT vz.35 tank; its utilization by the Czechoslovak army up to March 1939; and its modifications and use during the Second World War in the armies of Germany, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. No less interesting is the technical description of the tank, its camouflage and markings, and listing of surviving examples in various museums. The text is done concurrently in Czech and English, and although it is full of technical terminology, it is an easy read, which is not usual in publications of this type. The author of the Czech part uses the correct historical and contemporary military terminology. The book is rich with photographs, drawings and color plates, showing chosen details and interior shots of the tank. Especially interesting is the table which lists all the manufactured LT vz.35 tanks, the date of their manufacture, their registration numbers, assignment to units and final disposition.
Could one find any shortcomings? Just a few. Some of the photographs probably did not come out as the authors expected, but this was caused by the low quality of the available negatives. The authors state that the photograph on page 12 shows the T-13 tank. I doubt it. It may be the S-IIa-R prototype, or a modification designated S-IIa-2. The T-13 tank had a differently shaped turret. The contract to supply ten tanks to Afghanistan was signed on October 2, 1939, not in 1940, as is incorrectly stated on page 13. The text corresponding to the photographs on page 37 seems questionable. I recently obtained the same photographs from Slovak sources, describing them as taken during the Polish campaign in September 1939. The prone infantry's formation and the distances between the tanks are too perfect, and the panache with which the tank is felling a tree in an area with plenty of room to avoid it, pose the question that these are staged training photographs and not combat pictures. The drawings are well done, with the exception of a small detail on the T-11 tank: the illustrated cannon's length and thickness corresponds more to the A7 cannon, while the T-11 tank was armed with the A8 cannon, which had a shorter barrel. To be exact: the A7 cannon had a barrel L/47.8, or 1,778 mm long, while the A8 cannon's barrel was L/41.4 or 1,540 mm long. The difference in barrels length was 238 mm.
In the end, I would like to say that the enthusiasts of armored vehicle history have been presented with a really outstanding work, which they should find fully satisfying. The former publications on the same theme (J. Milson - Profile AFV 22; H. Scheibert - Waffen Arsenal 21); J. Ledwoch - PzKpfw 35(t)) do not even bear comparison with this one. And so we can only hope that both authors would present us with the monograph about the light tank LT vz.38 as soon as possible.
Oldrich Pejs
(translated from Czech original)
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