Tanks - WW II - Great Britain: books

British Battle Tanks : British-Made Tanks of World War II

Plagued by unreliable vehicles and poorly thought-out doctrine, the early years of World War II were years of struggle for Britain's tank corps. Relying on tanks built in the late 1930s, and those designed and built with limited resources in the opening years of the war, they battled valiantly against an opponent well versed in the arts of armoured warfare.

This book is the second of a multi-volume history of British tanks by renowned British armour expert David Fletcher MBE. It covers the development and use of the Matilda, Crusader, and Valentine tanks that pushed back the Axis in North Africa, the much-improved Churchill that fought with distinction from North Africa to Normandy, and the excellent Cromwell tank of 1944-45.
It also looks at Britain's super-heavy tank projects, the TOG1 and TOG2, and the Tortoise heavy assault tank, designed to smash through the toughest of battlefield conditions, but never put into production.

British Battle Tanks : US-made Tanks of World War II

The idea of British soldiers using American tanks was not viewed with a great deal of enthusiasm by the British Army. They perceived American tanks as being crudely made, mechanically unsophisticated and impossible to fight in.
However, once British crews got used to them and learned to cope with some of their difficulties, such as limited fuel capacity and unfamiliar fighting techniques, they started to see them in a far more positive light, in particular their innate reliability and simplicity of maintenance.

This book, the last in a three-part series on British Battle Tanks by armour expert David Fletcher, concentrates on World War II and studies American tanks in British service, some of which were modified in ways peculiar to the British.
It shows how the number of these tanks increased to the point that they virtually dominated, as well describing some types, such as the T14 and M26 Pershing, which were supplied but never used in British service.

British Light Tanks 1927-45 - Marks I-VI (Osprey)

Presents the study of British light tanks of the Second World War. The author draws upon a vast and comprehensive body of archival information and research to explore their technical characteristics and combat performance.
The title focuses largely on the very widely used Mark VI, but also covers all the variants that preceded it. The type was truly ubiquitous, equipping the British Army in France, the Western Desert regions, Norway, Sumatra, Persia and India.

This book chronicles various experiments and improvisations carried out on the design of these tanks. It ends with coverage of the final model, the Mark VIC, and details of the experimental Lloyd airborne light tank of 1942, which has a number of features in common with the better-known Vickers-Armstrongs designs. Augmented by original photographs and technical drawings, this title is essential for anybody interested in the development of British armoured vehicles.

Contents: Introduction - Design and Development - Operational History - Conclusion and Analysis.

Churchill & Co - Entwicklung, Technik, Einsatz

In Zeiten der deutschen Luftangriffe auf England löste der Sturmpanzer Churchill ab 1941 seinen Vorgänger Matilda II ab. Ihm zugrunde lag allerdings kein modernes Panzerkonzept. Das führte zu ständigen Problemen mit Motor, Getriebe und Laufwerk, was nicht zu einer Erhöhung seiner Beliebtheit bei der Truppe beitrug.
Dank ständiger Nachbesserungen und Umbauten konnte sich der Churchill dennoch behaupten und wurde erst 1952 ausgemustert.

Nigel Montgomery bietet dem Leser in diesem Band alle Informationen zum "Churchill" wie auch den weiteren Panzerkampfwagen in britischen Diensten.

Deutsche Übersetzung des Haynes Buches "Churchill Tank Manual".

British Armoured Divisions and Their Commanders, 1939-1945

A total of eleven British armoured divisions were formed during the 1939-1945 war but, as this highly informative book reveals, just eight saw action.
In 1940 only 1st Armoured Division faced the German blitzkrieg and it was in the North African desert that armoured divisions came into their own. The terrain was ideal and six such divisions of Eighth Army fought Rommel's Panzers into submission.
Three were disbanded prior to the invasion of Sicily and Italy. The campaign from D-Day onwards saw the Guards Armoured, 7th Armoured (the Desert Rats), 11th and Percy Hobart's 79th Armoured Division in the thick of the action.

Of particular interest are the men who commanded these elite formations and the way their characters contributed to the outcome of operations. While some, such as Dick McCreery, went onto greater heights, others did not make the grade; the stakes were high. A number, such as 'Pip' Roberts, were just perfectly suited in the role.

Written by a leading military historian, this book describes many fascinating aspects of armoured warfare from its uncertain beginnings, through the development of tactics and the evolving tank design. Due to British deficiencies, reliance had to be placed on US Grants and Shermans, with the Comet coming late and the Centurion too late.
The combination of gripping historical narrative and well researched fact make this an invaluable and highly readable work on the contribution of British Armoured Divisions to victory in the Second World War.

Desert Rats (Osprey)

Formed in September 1941 from the Western Desert Force, British 8th Army (comprising British, Commonwealth, Free French and Polish troops) went on to wage a lengthy, hard-fought campaign against Axis forces across the deserts of North Africa.
The Desert War was unlike any other fought by the British Army, involving highly mobile operations covering vast distances. The hot, unforgiving climate in which the troops lived and fought was almost as troublesome as the enemy. During its two-year period of service in North Africa, 8th Army underwent major changes in organization, equipment and training to accustom it to desert warfare.

Contents: Introduction - Combat mission - Unit organization - Doctrine and training - Weapons and equipment - Command, control, communications, and intelligence - Combat operations - Chronology - Select bibliography - Abbreviations - Index.

Chobham Armour - Cold War British Armoured Vehicle Development

Through much of World War II British tanks and armored vehicles were outmatched by the German tanks they encountered and this led to the British Army placing much emphasis on ensuring that the same situation would not arise again if the Cold War turned hot. The task of developing the Main Battle Tanks and supporting armored vehicles to out-range and quickly destroy the Soviet threat fell to the scientists and engineers at the Fighting Vehicle Research and Development Establishment on Chobham Common near to Chertsey, UK. It was the design authority for all British Military vehicles for most of the period.

This is a comprehensive overview of the work of the Military Vehicles Research and Development Establishment on Chobham Common, which provided armored vehicles for the British Army from 1945 to its close in 2004. Military vehicle and equipment expert William Suttie draws extensively on official MOD reports to tell the story of the development of the British Cold War armor, such as the Centurion, Chieftain, Challenger, and many other wheeled and tracked armored vehicles that served the British Army of The Rhine.
The vehicles developed at the Chertsey site were never used for their intended purpose on the plains of North-west Germany, but have proved their worth in British operations in places like Korea, Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as in the hands of other users around the world.

The Tank Factory : British Military Vehicle Development and the Chobham Establishment

Despite being the inventor of the tank and responsible for campaign-winning tactics, by the start of the Second World War the United Kingdom had fallen well behind other nations in the design and build of armoured vehicles.

Here, William Suttie uncovers the history of tank design from a government perspective and the decisions and failures that led to that state of affairs, and details the formation of the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment at Chertsey.
Known as the Tank Factory, the Chertsey establishment sought to ensure that the United Kingdom became world-leading in the field of military vehicle research and design, and that the British Army would never be underprotected or outgunned again.

Drawing on unpublished sources and photographs, this fascinating book reveals the establishment's history, its groundbreaking research and its inventions and designs, including first-hand insights from those who worked there.