The Images of War series has proved very popular with its combination of aggressive pricing and outstanding rare images, as with this new addition there is also excellent concise text to provide a detailed picture of the subject. This new work provides a very nicely balanced view of US Army armored formations during WWII that is prefaced by a description of British and French innovation in WWI and US and other development between the two World Wars – Most Highly Recommended
NAME: Images of War, United States Army Armored Divisions of the Second World War, Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives FILE: R2758 AUTHOR: Michael Green PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: soft back PAGES: 217 PRICE: £16.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: WWI, World War I, World War 1, First World War, The Great War, WWII World War Two, World War 2, armour, USArmy, between wars development, armoured artillery, fighting tanks, reconnaissance tanks, armored cars, half tracks, engineer tanks, US perspective
ISBN: 1-52671-725-5
IMAGE: B2758.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/ycbbjfh6 LINKS: DESCRIPTION: The Images of War series has proved very popular with its combination of aggressive pricing and outstanding rare images, as with this new addition there is also excellent concise text to provide a detailed picture of the subject. This new work provides a very nicely balanced view of US Army armored formations during WWII that is prefaced by a description of British and French innovation in WWI and US and other development between the two World Wars - Most Highly Recommended The author has been responsible for a number of books in this series, with a special interest in armoured vehicles, tactics and deployment. In this book he has covered the evolution of US Army armored vehicles and their deployment in WWII. By the entry of the US into WWII, the US Army had established mechanized divisions that comprised some soft skinned vehicles for supply and support and for communications and reconnaissance in addition to a range of armored vehicles, wheeled, half-tracked, and full tracked. Armored vehicles were developed to provide an all-arms force of self propelled artillery, engineering and assault vehicles, with gun tanks as armored fighting vehicles. The author has started his story with the US Expeditionary Force that was sent to France in the closing stages of WWI. The American soldiers depended heavily on personal and fighting equipment from British and French supplies. This was logical because the Anglo-French forces had been fighting the Germans for four years in the first industrial war. Many weapons and defensive equipment were first used or developed for the war that was being fought and the equipment was proven under fire. At home, the US Army was being formed and its equipment was little changed from domestic duties. In the case of armor, the US soldiers received the British heavy tanks that had been developed by the Royal Navy to break the deadlock of trench warfare. They were slow and ponderous but carried their armament in side sponsons that were similar to naval mounts for secondary or minor guns and were able to fire in both directions along enemy trenches as the tanks crossed them. They could also be used together in a relatively narrow arc of fire and individually over almost 180 degrees to port or starboard. The US force also received the Renault light tanks that were designed for reconnaissance as armored cavalry. These tanks carried their armament in a turret with a near 360 degree field of fire and were capable of a much higher speed, even across difficult terrain. After the end of WWI it was logical that the US Army should continue with tanks of these types, while exploring alternative designs, including the innovative Christie suspension with its large tyred road wheels that could either run inside broad conventional tracks, or as a wheeled vehicle. There was also development of armoured cars and tanks with multiple gun mounts. What marked the US armor out from British and French post-1918 development was that it concentrated on half track and full track vehicles that could be produced in volume and where a chassis might be equipped in several forms to built an all-arms armoured force. None of the designs were outstanding but they were generally competent and, if produced in volume, could overwhelm smaller numbers of more sophisticated enemy armor. High loss rates could be sustained by volume production. The author has provided very good descriptive text and captions to an excellent selection of rare images. The series of books is always applicable to serious enthusiasts and professionals in offering a visual augmentation of an existing military history library. They are also useful to novices who want to make an easy entry into an area of military history. This is also the case for this book, but it is more important in that it is a comprehensive study of the development of US armor into the armored divisions deployed in North Africa, Italy and Northern Europe with great success.