Malinava is not an action of which we were familiar, but apparently it is a village in Russia, close to which a tank action took place in July of 1944. According to the memoirs of one Otto Carius, a tank commander, entitled 'Tiger in the Mud', a number of German tanks met a number of Red Army tanks and destroyed many. The accuracy of his account has been questioned, but in essence this is simply an example of the many tank versus tank actions that took place during the long advance of the Red Army as they forced the Germans back towards their own country and ultimately to Berlin.
In this theatre and at this time armour was of course extremely important, yet armour still needs infantry, so we begin with the figures in this box:
Naturally there is plenty of armour and heavy weaponry included too. Specifically: - 2 of Italeri Tiger I Ausf. E (7505)
- 1 of Italeri IS-2 (part of 7502)
- 1 of Italeri T34/85 (part of 7515)
- 1 sprue from Italeri ZIS-3 AT Gun
Lastly there are three laser-cut MDF buildings. Two are different models of a Russian isba (a Russian hut) and the third is a barn.
In our review of the Esci German infantry we pointed out the rather confusing mix of early war uniforms and late war weapons, so in our opinion this is not a great set to be used for the eastern front in 1944. The Esci Russian infantry is much better for this purpose however. The inclusion of four medium and heavy tanks is great, as is the powerful ZIS-3 anti-tank gun.
These are all fairly small buildings, but nicely done and seem fairly typical. We must presume that there were many such buildings encountered during the months of battle in 1944, although their main function in a set such as this is to help hide a tank or gun as it waits to ambush an opponent.
For this set the usual made-up model is rather strange. It shows the buildings, tanks (one too many) and guns in a well-made terrain, but very few figures. The gun crew is clear, but there are few Germans, and the Russians are not from the sprues in the box. Perhaps something changed before the set actually went to market, although naturally it is the armour that is the main focus in this set anyway. As always, the base, terrain and accessories such as telegraph poles are not part of the set, but the illustrative model is very nice, even though it seriously compacts the battlefield so all the elements are very close together here.
This has some nice buildings and a good range of armour, so is a fair reflection of the campaign at this stage. The figures are the weak point in this set, mainly the less than ideal Germans, but it is a nice little snapshot of German armour meeting Soviet armour and anti-tank guns.