Colour photography was a rare thing in the 1930s. Various systems of colour photography had been tried, including Dufaycolour and Kodachrome but the processes were time consuming and difficult to process. The Germans had developed Agfacolor, which was state of the art for the time and easily processed with basic chemicals and equipment in rudimentary darkrooms close to the front. Sending propaganda units with the troops, and war correspondents armed with colour film and Leica cameras, the photographs captured the horror of war in colour for the first time. Here, over 70 colour and 70 black and white images tell the story of the Blitzkrieg as it happened, with immediacy that only action shots can portray.

• Latest title in Amberley’s growing Military History series

• Reviews in the national press.

• Stunning colour photography of the war years

• Rare colour images of the first two years of the war, showing the invasions of Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway.

• Using rare German photographs to illustrate the lightning war 1939-40.

• Ideal for modellers and military historians