As early as 1957 the modern German Army, the Bundeswehr, began to receive the American M 48 main battle tank. Over the coming 35 years this MBT would be one of the backbones of the Panzertruppe and serve with pride. This publication describes the active service period of the German M 48 MBT and its variants on photographs taken during Cold War exercises thus adding to the technical history of the M 48 already described in Tankograd Special 5011.