The Tank Wars

The Tank Wars PDF Author: Mark Urban
Publisher: Little Brown
ISBN: 9781408703649
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 415

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the evacuation of France in 1940 to the final dash to Hamburg in 1945, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment were on the front line throughout the Second World War. Theirs was a war that saw them serve in Africa as part of the Desert Rats, before returning to Europe for the Normandy landings. Wherever they went, the notoriety of the 'Filthy Fifth' grew - they revelled in their reputation for fighting by their own rules. The Tank War explains how Britain, having lost its advantage in tank warfare by 1939, regained ground through shifts in tactics and leadership methods, as well as the daring and bravery of the crews themselves. Overturning the received wisdom of much Second World War history, Mark Urban shows how the tank regiments' advances were the equal of the feats of the German Panzer divisions. Drawing on a wealth of new material, from interviews with surviving soldiers to rarely seen archive material, this is an unflinchingly honest, unsentimental and often brutal account of the 5th RTR's wartime experiences. Capturing the characters in the crews and exploring the strategy behind their success, The Tank War is not just the story of an battle hardened unit, but something more extraordinary: the triumph of ordinary men, against long odds, in the darkest of times.

The Tank Wars

The Tank Wars PDF Author: Mark Urban
Publisher: Little Brown
ISBN: 9781408703649
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 415

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the evacuation of France in 1940 to the final dash to Hamburg in 1945, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment were on the front line throughout the Second World War. Theirs was a war that saw them serve in Africa as part of the Desert Rats, before returning to Europe for the Normandy landings. Wherever they went, the notoriety of the 'Filthy Fifth' grew - they revelled in their reputation for fighting by their own rules. The Tank War explains how Britain, having lost its advantage in tank warfare by 1939, regained ground through shifts in tactics and leadership methods, as well as the daring and bravery of the crews themselves. Overturning the received wisdom of much Second World War history, Mark Urban shows how the tank regiments' advances were the equal of the feats of the German Panzer divisions. Drawing on a wealth of new material, from interviews with surviving soldiers to rarely seen archive material, this is an unflinchingly honest, unsentimental and often brutal account of the 5th RTR's wartime experiences. Capturing the characters in the crews and exploring the strategy behind their success, The Tank War is not just the story of an battle hardened unit, but something more extraordinary: the triumph of ordinary men, against long odds, in the darkest of times.

The Tank War

The Tank War PDF Author: Mark Urban
Publisher: Abacus
ISBN: 9780349000145
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Get Book Here

Book Description
Drawing on a wealth of research, from interviews with surviving members to a treasure trove of rarely used archive material, Mark Urban has produced an unflinchingly honest, unsentimental account of the 5th RTR's wartime experiences. Capturing both characters in their crew and exploring the strategy behind their success, 'The Tank War' is not the story of an elite unit, but something more amazing: a regular unit of average men, thrust into war, who pulled together to achieve extraordinary things.

Tank Battles of World War I

Tank Battles of World War I PDF Author: Bryan Cooper
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473855101
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 159

Get Book Here

Book Description
Failure to exploit the potential of an original idea is a recurring phenomenon in our national history. Few failures, however, can have been so costly in human life as that of our military commanders early in 1916 to appreciate that the tank was a war winning weapon. The slaughter of the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres salient had to be endured before accepted 'conventional' methods were abandoned and the tank given a chance. Bryan Cooper describes the early tank actions in vivid detail, with many eye-witness accounts. He tells of the courage and endurance of the crews not just in battle but in the appalling conditions in which they had to drive and fight their primitive vehicles. Scalded, scorched and poisoned with exhaust fumes, constantly threatened with being burned to death, these crews eventually laid the foundation for the Allied Victory in World War I. The book is well illustrated with many original photographs which give the present day reader a glimpse of the infancy of a dominant weapon of modern war.

Kursk

Kursk PDF Author: M. K. Barbier
Publisher: Great Battles
ISBN: 9781782740223
Category : Kursk, Battle of, Russia, 1943
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
In July 1943, the German Army launched what proved to be its last great offensive on the Eastern Front. Kursk is a comprehensive history of the last time that Germany held the strategic initiative in the war against the Soviet Union. Kursk shows how a bitter struggle developed between the German and Soviet forces, which sucked in huge numbers of ta

The Tank Killers

The Tank Killers PDF Author: Harry Yeide
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1935149733
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

Get Book Here

Book Description
“A fantastic read . . . Whether your interest is armour or history I would highly recommend this book” (Military Modelling). The tank destroyer was a bold—though some would say flawed—answer to the challenge posed by the seemingly unstoppable German Blitzkrieg. The TD was conceived to be light and fast enough to outmaneuver panzer forces and go where tanks could not. At the same time, the TD would wield the firepower needed to kill any German tank on the battlefield. Indeed, American doctrine stipulated that TDs would fight tanks, while American tanks would concentrate on achieving and exploiting breakthroughs of enemy lines. The Tank Killers follows the men who fought in the TDs, from the formation of the force in 1941 through the victory over the Third Reich in 1945. It is a story of American flexibility and pragmatism in military affairs. Tank destroyers were among the very first units to land in North Africa in 1942. Their first vehicles were ad hoc affairs: halftracks and weapons carriers with guns no better than those on tanks, thin armor affording the crews considerably less protection. Almost immediately, the crews began adapting to circumstances, along with their partners in the infantry and armored divisions. By the time North Africa was in Allied hands, the TD had become a valued tank fighter, assault gun, and artillery piece. The reconnaissance teams in TD battalions, meanwhile, had established a record for daring operations that would continue for the rest of the war. The story continues with the invasion of Italy and, finally, that of Fortress Europe on June 6, 1944. By now, the brass had decreed that half the force would convert to towed guns, a decision that dogged the affected crews through the end of the war. The TD men encountered increasingly lethal enemies, ever more dangerous panzers that were often vulnerable only to their guns, while American tank crews watched in frustration as their rounds bounced harmlessly off the thick German armor. They fought under incredibly diverse conditions that demanded constant modification of tactics, and their equipment became ever more deadly. By VE-Day, the tank destroyer battalions had achieved impressive records, generally with kill-loss rates heavily in their favor. Yet the army after the war concluded that the concept of a separate TD arm was so fundamentally flawed that not a single battalion existed after November 1946. The Tank Killers draws heavily on the records of the tank destroyer battalions and the units with which they fought, as well as personal stories from veterans of the force.

French Tanks of the Great War

French Tanks of the Great War PDF Author: Tim Gale
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473881935
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Get Book Here

Book Description
A detailed history of France’s development of tanks and the combat the tanks served in during World War I, by an armored warfare expert. The French tank corps was an essential part of the French army from 1917 onwards, yet its history has been strangely neglected in English accounts of the Western Front. Using information derived from the French military archives at Vincennes—much of which has never been published in English before—author Tim Gale describes the design and development of the tanks, the political and organizational issues that arose between the French military and civilian bureaucracy, and the record of these pioneering fighting vehicles in combat. All the major engagements in which French tanks participated are depicted in graphic detail, often quoting directly from recollections left by individual tank commanders of their experience in battle, and each operation is assessed in terms of its impact on French tactics in general and on tank tactics in particular. The Nivelle offensive and the battles of Malmaison, the Matz, Soissons, and Champagne are featured in the narrative, and the actions of the French tanks serving with the U.S. army are covered, too. Much of the material in Tim Gale’s study will be entirely new to non-French speakers. The story will be fascinating reading for anyone who is interested in the Great War, the French army, military innovation and the history of armored warfare. Praise for French Tanks of the Great War “Gale’s book . . . is very easy to dip into.” —Military Modelling “It is a wealth of information and I would definitely recommend it.” —Forgotten Weapons

Tank Battles of the Cold War, 1948–1991

Tank Battles of the Cold War, 1948–1991 PDF Author: Anthony Tucker-Jones
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526778025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Get Book Here

Book Description
As Anthony Tucker-Jones shows in this highly illustrated, wide-ranging history, for most of the Cold War the tank retained its pre-eminence on the battlefield. The Arab-Israeli wars witnessed some of the biggest tank battles of all time, and tanks played key roles in conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan as well as in the Iran-Iraq War and the wars fought between India and Pakistan. But then in the mid-1960s anti-tank weapons became ever deadlier and the Mechanised Infantry Fighting Vehicle (MIFV), which was designed to support infantry and fight tanks, emerged and the heyday of the tank was over. Chapters cover each major phase in the evolution of the tank and of tank warfare during the period, from the battles fought in the late 1940s and 1950s with Second World War armoured vehicles like the T-34 and the Sherman, through to the designs common in the 1960s and 1970s like the T-55, Centurion, Challenger and M60 Patton, to the confrontation between the M1 Abrams and the T-72 during the Gulf War in 1991. Technical and design developments are important elements throughout the story, but so are dramatic changes in tactics and armaments which mean the tank has an increasingly uncertain role in modern warfare.

Dubno 1941

Dubno 1941 PDF Author: Alexey Isaev
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781911628439
Category : Brody, Battle of, Brody, L'vivs'ka oblast', Ukraine, 1944
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
In June 1941 the quiet cornfields and towns of Western Ukraine were awakened by the clanking of steel and thunder of explosions; this was the greatest tank battle of the Second World War. About 3,000 tanks from the Red Army Kiev Special Military District clashed with about 800 German tanks of Heeresgruppe South. Why did the numerically superior Sov

The Tank Book

The Tank Book PDF Author: DK
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd
ISBN: 0241428378
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the birth of the tank to unmanned vehicles and the tanks of the future, The Tank Book offers a truly definitive look at over 400 different tanks, produced in association with The Tank Museum. Take an up-close look at British, US, Russian, German, and French tanks, meet key designers such as Mikhail Koshkin and Sir William Tritton, and discover the ground-breaking technology behind such vehicles as the Centurion, Hellcat, SV Scout, and T-14 Armata, and the legendary Tiger tank Incredible photographic tours take you inside a variety of tanks, putting you in the seat of some of the most formidable vehicles to ever go to battle in World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and beyond. Perfect for anyone with an interest in military history, The Tank Book is the ultimate guide to tanks and their role on the battlefield.

Tank War, 1939-1945

Tank War, 1939-1945 PDF Author: Janusz Piekałkiewicz
Publisher: Blandford
ISBN: 9780713716665
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Get Book Here

Book Description