Books in the TopDrawings series

The PzKpfw III (Panzerkampfwagen III) is a German medium tank designed by Daimler-Benz AG. The first tests of the vehicle took place in 1936. The construction of the PzKpfw III consisted of four main modules: the turret, the front of the hull, the rear of the hull with the engine compartment cover and the lower hull. The first version of PzKpfw III - Ausf. A - was produced in May 1937. Soon after, the Ausf. B and C versions also entered production. Ausf. D version was introduced in January 1938. Early PzKpfw III models were prototype vehicles and were not suitable for mass production on a large scale. They were powered by Maybach HL 108 TR petrol engines with 250 HP. They were armed with 37mm guns and three MG-34 machine guns (two in the turret and one in the hull).

British battleship HMS Royal Oak secured place in the history books as unlikely hero - sunk as a result of one of the most famous naval operations of the World War II. German submarine U-47, commanded by G. Prien, after undetected penetration into the Royal Navy Scapa Flow base, sent her down the bottom of the ocean together with the majority of her crew. This was one of the most painful losses of the British fleet during the war.>"R" battleships have not participated in many of the naval operations of the Great War, as for Royal Oak she took her part in the battle of Jutland. Between the wars HMS Royal Oak was incorporated into the Atlantic Fleet and Home Fleet. She operated on the Mediterranean Sea during the Spanish Civil War.

Highly illustrated look at the Yakovlev Yak-3, considered one of the best World War II fighter planes.

Highly illustrated look at the ship in the years 1944-1945 including descriptions, technical data and professional drawings.

The French aircraft carrier "Clemenceau" is one of the largest and most powerful ships that served the Marine Nationale. Her keel was laid in November 1955 at the Brest Arsenal Ch. Atlantique in St. Nazaire, and she was launched two years later - on December 21st, 1957. Together with the twin "Foch", it was built on the basis of a project developed from the beginning of the 1950s, which included almost all of then novelties that were introduced in the construction of this type of ships. Therefore, she received, among others: a sloped flight deck with two lifts, mirror systems facilitating the approach to landing, means of observation enabling early detection of surface units and means of air attack, and modern catapults adapted to work with jet aircrafts with a large take-off mass. The length of the flight deck was 257 meters, the main runway was 165.5 meters long and 29.5 meters wide, with a deviation from the centre of the ship by 8 degrees. The hangar below it was 180 meters long and 22 meters wide. In more than forty years of service, which began on November 22, 1961, the "Clemenceau" performed countless tasks in both European and Pacific waters. She supported the activities of the land forces, incl. in former French colonies and during nuclear tests. Together with "Foch", she formed one of the strongest task force in the Mediterranean region and the waters of Western Europe.

The Navy Carrier Torpedo Bomber Tenzan or Nakajima B6N, was codenamed Jill by the Allies. It was the replacement of the famous Nakajima B5N (Kate) torpedo bomber and although more B6N's were built than B5N's, the plane never achieved the spectacular success of its predecessor. It entered service in the second half of 1943 but wouldn't be used on a large scale until June, 1944 during the air and sea battles in the Philippine Sea for the Mariana Islands. Later it would be used in Taiwan, the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa and for Kamikaze attacks. The crushing air superiority of the Allies and the loss of nearly all the Japanese aircraft carriers and their trained pilots led to many Tenzans being lost, while never having had a chance to prove their worth. In spite of the fact that the Tenzan never achieved any real successes, it was undoubtedly one of the best carrier based torpedo bombers of WWII.

Junkers Ju 188 - German bomber during World War II, successor of the Ju 88, was flown in January 1943.