Tank Warfare

The story of the battlefield in the 20th century was dominated by a handful of developments. Foremost of these was the introduction and refinement of tanks. In Tank Warfare, prominent military historian Jeremy Black offers a comprehensive global account of the history of tanks and armored warfare in the 20th and 21st centuries. First introduced onto the battlefield during the World War I, tanks represented the reconciliation of firepower and mobility and immediately seized the imagination of commanders and commentators concerned about the constraints of ordinary infantry. The developments of technology and tactics in the interwar years were realized in the German blitzkrieg in World War II and beyond. Yet the account of armor on the battlefield is a tale of limitations and defeats as well as of potential and achievements. Tank Warfare examines the traditional narrative of armored warfare while at the same time challenging it, and Black suggests that tanks were no "silver bullet" on the battlefield. Instead, their success was based on their inclusion in the general mix of weaponry available to commanders and the context in which they were used.

This military history provides the reader with a guide to tank warfare, including the development of tank tactics and strategy. Also included are details of great tank battles such as Cambrai, Kursk, Chinese Farm and the Gulf War.

This is one of the most significant military books of the twentieth century. By an outstanding soldier of independent mind, it pushed forward the evolution of land warfare and was directly responsible for German armoured supremacy in the early years of the Second World War. Published in 1937, the result of 15 years of careful study since his days on the German General Staff in the First World War, Achtung Panzer! argues how vital the proper use of tanks and supporting armoured vehicles would be in the conduct of a future war. When that war came, just two years later, he proved it, leading his Panzers with distinction in the Polish, French and Russian campaigns. Panzer warfare had come of age, exactly as he had forecast.This first English translation of Heinz Guderian's classic book - used as a textbook by Panzer officers in the war - has an introduction and extensive background notes by the modern English historian Paul Harris.

Explores the doctrinal, strategic, and tactical ideas behind World War II tank combat Contains detailed maps and diagrams Critiques the performances of commanders like George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and others Focusing on five Allied tank operations from July to September 1944--Operations Goodwood, Cobra, Totalize, and Tractable and Patton's tank battles around Arracourt--armor expert Roman Jarymowycz draws on after-action reports, extensive battlefield reconnaissance, recently discovered battle performance reviews, and war diaries to evaluate the successes and failures of the art of armored warfare as practiced by Allied tank commanders in France in 1944.

“An “insightful and informative” overview of the role of tanks in combat from the First World War to the present day (Dennis Showalter, author of Armor and Blood). The story of the battlefield in the twentieth century was dominated by a handful of developments. Foremost of these was the introduction and refinement of tanks. In Tank Warfare, Jeremy Black, a recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society for Military History, offers a comprehensive global account of the history of tanks and armored warfare in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. First introduced onto the battlefield during World War I, tanks represented the reconciliation of firepower and mobility and immediately seized the imagination of commanders and commentators concerned about the constraints of ordinary infantry. The developments of technology and tactics in the interwar years were realized in the German blitzkrieg in World War II and beyond. Yet the account of armor on the battlefield is a tale of limitations and defeats as well as of potential and achievements. Tank Warfare examines the traditional narrative of armored warfare while at the same time challenging it, and Black suggests that tanks were no “silver bullet” on the battlefield. Instead, their success was based on their inclusion in the general mix of weaponry available to commanders and the context in which they were used. “An excellent overview of the subject.” —Alaric Searle, author of Armoured Warfare: A Military, Political and Global History

Tank Warfare looks at the way that tanks changed warfare from their first introduction on the static Western Front of World War I, through the proving ground of World War II, where the tank became the queen of the battlefield, to its more dangerous position on the modern battlefield. Today, the tank is still a major asset but against it there has evolved a range of defensive antitank options - light infantry-borne antitank weapons, mines, attack helicopters, and tank-busting aircraft - that do much to dull its edge of invincibility.Each chapter in Tank Warfare examines carefully the evolution of tanks in the period, illustrating the seminal types, and looks at the changes to the threats against armor, assessing the improvement of the tank's physical and tactical defenses against such threats. It is intelligently written, cogent, and extremely well illustrated and it provides a much-needed discussion of a vital component of land warfare. Tim Ripley is a research associate at Lancaster University's Centre for Defence and International Security Studies (CDISS) in the United Kingdom. Over the past decade he has traveled extensively in the Middle East and Balkan region as a correspondent for Janes's Defence Weekly, Jane's Intelligence Review and Flight International.

Packed with archival photos, a fascinating account of armored warfare in WWII—and how tank design and tactics were transformed during the period. On the battlefields of Europe and North Africa during the Second World War, tanks played a key role, and the intense pressure of combat drove forward tank design and tactics at an extraordinary rate. In a few years, on all sides, tank warfare was transformed. This is the dramatic process that Simon and Jonathan Forty chronicle in this heavily illustrated history. They describe the fundamentals of pre-war tank design and compare the theories formulated in the 1930s as to how they should be used in battle. Then they show how the harsh experience of the German blitzkrieg campaigns in Poland, France, and the Soviet Union compelled the Western Allies to reconsider their equipment, organization, and tactics—and how the Germans responded to the Allied challenge. The speed of progress is demonstrated in the selection of over 180 archive photographs which record, as only photographs can, the conditions of war on each battle front. They also give a vivid impression of what armored warfare was like for the tank crews of 75 years ago. “The images in the book are excellent and inspire diorama ideas for modelers.” —IPMS/USA

A fascinating and detailed insight into tank warfare, from introduction during World War I to the war in Vietnam. After its introduction during the First World War, the tank revolutionised warfare, and proved to be a terrifying and efficient machine of war. Kenneth Macksey provides a study of the policy-makers and tank strategists, the technical and tactical development, as well as presenting the story of the tank on the battlefield the split-second decisions, the battle-weary crews and the endless mud in this fascinating and detailed account of tank warfare.