The Images at War series is now a highly popular series with a well-established format, this new volume is a worthy new addition. The concise text supports the outstanding image selection very well. This is a very informative review of one of the most important Main Battle Tanks currently in service . – Highly Recommended
NAME: Images of War, Mi Abrams Tank, Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives FILE: R2781 AUTHOR: Michael Green PUBLISHER: Pen and Swords BINDING: soft back PAGES: 184 PRICE: £14.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: US Army, US armour development, WWII, Cold War, gun tanks, Main Battle Tanks, technology, tactics, deployment, future development
ISBN: 1-47383-423-6
IMAGE: B2781.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/l88l8aj LINKS: DESCRIPTION: The Images at War series is now a highly popular series with a well-established format, this new volume is a worthy new addition. The concise text supports the outstanding image selection very well. This is a very informative review of one of the most important Main Battle Tanks currently in service . - Highly Recommended The US Army was equipped with competent armour during the 1940s. It was always trying to catch up with the development of armour by other countries but what it lacked in leading edge technology it more than made up for in highly productive assembly lines. Through WWII, US tanks were consistently out-classed technically by German designs and some British designs, but the ability to replace losses and to field larger numbers of vehicles that achieved high reliability more than compensated. The British used many US designs, as produced for the US Army, but they enhanced designs to improve lethality. Two notable British enhancements were the fitting to Sherman Tanks of a 17 pounder anti-tank gun that could penetrate German armour, and the modification of Shermans to enable them to swim ashore for beach landings. The US development into the M10 tank killer was less successful, being incapable of penetrating all German armour. After WWII, the US continued to follow others in technology but to maintain the edge on volume production of reliable tanks. The British Centurion tank just missed WWII but would have been near invincible. After WWII it became one of the best tanks available and its world beating 105mm was widely adopted to up-gun other tanks or other nations and as original equipment in new designs. However, it was not adequate for battle in Europe with large Soviet tank formations and the somewhat ponderous and unlovely Conqueror was produced in relatively small numbers to support Centurion formations as a tank killer. The Chieftain was intended to provide a tank to replace both of these models and introduced some revolutionary technology. The US was looking to break the old patterns and produce a tank that would be at least equal to the best tanks available or better. It was the result of experience since 1940 but it introduced the M1 Abrams with a number of important advances, including the gas turbine multi-fuel power plant. Although some have suggested that a diesel re-engining is necessary, or that a new gas turbine needs to be developed, the current power unit has a number of advantages over diesel powered designs. The author has looked at what led up to the M1 Abrams and how it has developed and been updated to maintain its position in world armour. There is more text than many books in this series but it is still concise and it has not reduced the number of fine illustrations that have made the series so popular.