Hilary Louis Doyle was born in 1943 and has written numerous books on AFV's including the Encylopedia of German Tanks. Hilary lives in Dublin with his wife and three children. Tom Jentz, born in 1946, is one of the world's leading AFV researchers and is best known for the Encyclopedia of German Tanks. Tom lives in Maryland with his wife and two children.

Peter Sarson has produced graphic cutaways for many armoured vehicle publications, and is regarded as one of the world's great illustrators of military vehicles. Peter lives and works in Dorset.

The first attempt at mounting a flamethrower in a German tank was not the result of an engineering design process but rather occurred as a field expedient, when German troops involved in the Spanish Civil War mounted small back-pack flamethrowers on their PzKpfw Is. The German authorities took up this idea and from early 1939 began to design a flamethrowing tank based on the Panzer II. This was the first in a long line of German tanks to be equipped with flamethrowers. During World War II versions of the Panzer III, Sturmgeschütz and half-track were all given flamethrowers. This book examines their development, weapons and operational use, often using original German combat reports.