AMX-13 and AMX-30 tanks: books, versions and technology

The AMX 13 Light Tank : A Complete History (Images of War)

The AMX 13 was originally designed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. It represents French ambitions for national resurgence and withdrawal from wartime dependence on American military technology.
Being a light tank it was an ambitious and far sighted departure from conventional tank design and it found a ready export market as well as being a critical part in the French Army arsenal.

Its basic hull design lent itself to the development of a vast list of variants. French designers progressively modernised, and indeed reinvented, the AMX13 and enabled it to claim to be one of the most successful armoured vehicle programmes of the post-war period. It proved its worth in numerous small wars worldwide in the service of many countries.

This, the first commercially published work on the AMX13 in English, examines in detail the technical industrial and tactical story of this remarkably successful armoured fighting vehicle. The authoritative text is backed by an impressive selection of images.

Char AMX 30 - AMX 30B, AMX 30 B2 et dérivés

Du projet de la DEFA (Direction des études et fabrication d'armements, organisme étatique en charge des arsenaux) va naître l'AMX 30, un char très mobile, capable de combattre en ambiance NBC et doté d'un excellent canon de 105 mm de conception nationale. Les premiers AMX 30B entrent en service en 1967.
Leur châssis est à l'origine d'une famille complète d'engins dont certains sont encore en service aujourd'hui, en France et dans le monde.

C'est cette histoire que nous vous racontons à travers plus de deux cent cinquante photos et dessins techniques, depuis les origines jusqu'aux dernières évolutions en passant par les multiples dérivés.

AMX30 Main Battle Tank Manual - AMX30 B, AMX30 B2 and deratives (1960-2019) (Haynes Military Manual)

The AMX30 Char de Bataille was the standard French Main Battle Tank during the Cold War era. Initially the French and Germans attempted to develop a 'standard European tank' based on their experiences of the Second World War.
Both countries required a design that put mobility and firepower foremost at the expense of armour protection, but the joint collaboration failed to materialise with the result that the French produced the AMX30 and the Germans the Leopard 1.

The AMX30 was considerably lighter than its Anglo-Saxon contemporaries with a combat weight of 36 tonnes (hence its designation of AMX30). Again, unlike its NATO contemporaries that were armed with the British 105mm L7 gun, the AMX30 featured a smoothbore 105mm main armament firing a single type hollow-charge projectile - the OBUS-G - capable of defeating other battle tanks at normal combat ranges.

This book describes the development, construction and operation of the AMX30 family of vehicles.

AMX-30 Family

The AMX-30 was used as the basis for a range of armoured vehicles that have seen extensive service in the French army and elsewhere. In this Photosniper, which completes the study of the AMX-30 series by M.P. Robinson, the stories of France's specialized artillery and engineer variants are explained.

The AMX-30D recovery vehicle, the GCT and Au-F1 series of self-propelled guns, the AMX-30R Roland and AMX-30SA Shahine antiaircraft missile launchers, the AMX-30 Bitube DCA antiaircraft tank, the AMX-30H Bridgelayer and the EBG armoured engineers vehicle are all covered in text and photographs.

France's comprehensive rebuilding programs that resulted in the development of the Au-F1TA, of the improved EBG versions and of sophisticated mine clearing versions of the AMX-30B2 in the decades since the end of the Cold War are also described.

This work is an excellent reference for the modeler with over 180 photos; these include examples chosen from GIAT's archives, photos of vehicles in everyday service, vehicles seen on the parade ground and in the desert wastes of Iraq.

AMX-30 - Char de Bataille 1966-2006 (Volume 1)

The AMX-30 was France's principal battle tank for over 30 years and continues to serve the French Army in later forms even to this day.
In this first work of a two volume study examining the history of the AMX-30 battle tank, M.P. Robinson describes the development and introduction to service of this long serving weapon system.

Photographic coverage in Volume 1 is focused on the AMX-30B gun tank, its service life and the supporting vehicles that served alongside it in the Arme Blindée Cavalerie in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Over 150 colour and black and white photographs tell the story of this tank in its environment, as well as in detail, for the historian and modeller alike.