Tank Craft

Pen and Sword Military, 2016. — 138 p. With production in excess of 55,000 the Sherman tank was eventually in service with most Allied armies of the Second World War and by the time of the Normandy landings was the mainstay of Britain\'s armoured battalions. In his second book in the TankCraft series, Dennis Oliver uses wartime photos and extensively researched, exquisitely...

Pen and Sword Military, 2017. — 64 p. Central to the German strategy of dealing with an Allied landing in France was the availability of a strong, mobile armored reserve. In June 1944, as part of this force, the Army in the West was able to deploy over 300 Panther tanks, perhaps the best armored fighting vehicle produced by Germany during the Second World War. British and...

Pen and Sword Military, 2017. — 64 p. Designed as a heavily armoured tank which could accompany infantry formations, the Churchill's ability to cross rough ground and climb seemingly unassailable hills became legendary. The tank first saw action in 1942 and the basic design was constantly re-worked and upgunned, culminating in the Mark VII version which was capable of taking on...

Pen and Sword Military, 2018. — 64 p. Von Kleist, one of Hitler’s best panzer leaders, described the T-34 as ‘The finest tank in the world’. There could have been no finer accolade from a commander whose panzer divisions experienced the full fury of its devastating attacks on the Eastern Front. Without doubt, the T-34 was one of the best tanks of all time, and in this volume in...

Pen and Sword Military, 2017. — 64 p. The Panzer IV – Panzerkampfwagen IV – was one the foremost German fighting vehicles of the Second World War, and this volume in the TankCraft series is an ideal introduction to it. With detailed captions, text and illustrations the book tells the story of the technical development of the Panzer IV and the numerous variants that went into...

Pen and Sword Military, 2018. — 64 p. The Panzer I and II played a significant part in the blitzkrieg campaigns that brought Germany such extraordinary success in the early years of the Second World War, and this highly illustrated volume in the Tank Craft series is the ideal introduction to them. The Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to manufacture tanks so the Panzer I had...

Pen and Sword Military, 2018. — 64 p. Combining the destructive firepower of the 88mm gun with the outstanding mobility of the Panther series, the Jagdpanther is quite probably the best-known tank destroyer of the Second World War. In the vehicle's first action on 30 July 1944, three Jagdpanthers managed to destroy eleven British tanks in a vicious two minute firefight near the...

Pen and Sword Military, 2018. — 64 p. Designed with the hard lessons of the North African campaign in mind, including the adoption of a dual-purpose gun capable of firing high-explosive and anti-tank rounds, the Cromwell was one of the most successful of the British cruiser tanks produced during the Second World War. The lack of heavy armour was made up for by the tank's high...

Pen and Sword Military, 2018. — 64 p. Designed with the hard lessons of the North African campaign in mind, including the adoption of a dual-purpose gun capable of firing high-explosive and anti-tank rounds, the Cromwell was one of the most successful of the British cruiser tanks produced during the Second World War. The lack of heavy armor was made up for by the tank's high...

Pen and Sword Military, 2018. — 64 p. When at Hitler’s insistence the first Tiger I tanks went into action in Tunisia in December 1942 they rapidly gained a formidable fighting reputation despite their lack of reliability and the small number deployed. With its heavy armour and 88mm gun, it outclassed all the Allied tanks then in service and forced the Allies to accelerate the...

Pen and Sword Military, 2018. — 64 p. Wartime photographs and carefully researched, exquisitely presented colour illustrations show in detail the types of Sherman – including the main variants – that played a vital role in Allied operations. As with all the books in the TankCraft series, a section of this work displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented...

Pen and Sword Military, 2019. — 64 p. In this heavily illustrated volume in the TankCraft series Dennis Oliver focuses on the Achilles – the British variant of the American M10 – which was one of the most important Allied tank destroyers of the Second World War. It played a key role in the armoured battles fought on the Western Front, in particular in France, the Low Countries,...

Pen and Sword Military, 2019. — 64 p. Tiger tanks were among the most-feared fighting vehicles of the Second World War and they gained almost legendary status, yet they never fulfilled their potential because they were not produced in sufficient numbers and the tide the war had turned against the German army by the time they were introduced. Often they were deployed in...

Pen and Sword Military, 2018. — 64 p. The fifty-ton British Centurion tank, developed during the darkest days of the Second World War, was designed to out-gun and out-perform the latest German tanks, such as the formidable Panzer V Panther. It was one of the most successful tanks ever produced, and this volume in the TankCraft series by Robert Jackson is the ideal introduction...

Pen and Sword Military, 2019. — 64 p. The British Chieftain – designed in the late 1950s as the replacement for the Centurion – was perhaps the best main battle tank in service with Nato during the 1960s and 1970s. Its 120mm rifled main gun and advanced armour made it one of the most formidable tanks of its time, and Robert Jackson’s book is an authoritative introduction to it....

Pen and Sword Military, 2019. — 64 p. During the Cold War, the T-54/55 series of tanks represented the most serious threat to Nato land forces in Europe. Available in huge quantities, it formed the core of the Warsaw Pact armoured warfare doctrine, which envisaged massed tank attacks against the weakest point in Nato’s front-line defences. Yet the T-54/55 could be stopped by...

Pen and Sword Military, 2019. — 64 p. Since its introduction in 1981, at the height of the Cold War, the Abrams main battle tank has been one of the most visible and iconic symbols of American military power, and it is the fascinating subject of this heavily illustrated historical and modelling guide in the TankCraft series by David Grummitt. Designed to meet head-on the massed...

Pen and Sword Military, 2019. — 64 p. In late 1944 and 1945 the Panther tank played an important role in Germany’s desperate efforts to stem the Allied advance on the Western Front. The Panther, perhaps the best armoured vehicle produced by Germany during the Second World War, was a key element in the Wehrmacht’s defensive tactics, in rearguard actions and counter-attacks, and...

Pen and Sword Military, 2019. — 64 p. In the last years of the Second World War the Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) and Sturmgeschütz IV (StuG IV) played a vital role as assault guns during the German army’s struggle to block the Allied advance on the Western Front. As the Wehrmacht’s tank forces declined, these armoured vehicles were thrown into every defensive operation. They...

Pen and Sword Military, 2019. — 64 p. The Tiger I tank, probably the most famous German armored vehicle of the Second World War, might have been a war-winning, breakthrough weapon if it had been produced in sufficient numbers and if it had been introduced earlier on the Eastern Front, before the balance of strength had tipped towards the Soviet Union. At the Battle of Kursk...

Pen and Sword Military, 2019. — 64 p. During the 1980s and early 1990s the Challenger 1 main battle tank played a central role in Britain’s armoured forces and it achieved remarkable success in combat, destroying around 300 Iraqi tanks in the Gulf War. With its advanced Chobham armour and hydropneumatic suspension system, it was one of the most sophisticated and effective...

Pen and Sword Military, 2020. — 64 p. The M48 Patton main battle tank was one of the most successful and longest-serving designs produced in the United States, and it is a popular subject with tank modellers and enthusiasts. When it came into service in 1949 it represented a significant advance on the Sherman and M47 which it replaced, and it formed the backbone of American...

Pen and Sword Military, 2020. — 64 p. In his latest book in the Tank Craft series, Dennis Oliver uses archive photographs and painstakingly researched, exquisitely presented color illustrations to examine the part these powerful tanks played in the Normandy battles and also the units that operated them. In spite of the relatively small numbers involved, the Tiger I and Tiger II...

Pen and Sword Military, 2020. — 64 p. Combining the destructive firepower of the 75mm gun with the mobility of the Pzkpfw IV medium tank , the Jagdpanzer IV was quite possibly the most effective tank destroyer of the Second World War. From early 1944 these vehicles were allocated to the anti-tank battalions of Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions and saw action in Normandy, the...

Pen and Sword Military, 2020. — 64 p. A complete guide of the German Army Light Tank, the Panzer III, using archive photos and extensively researched color illustrations. The Pzkpfw III tank was the mainstay of the Panzer divisions during the Blitzkrieg era, which could fairly be said to have ended with the Germans' failure to take Moscow in the winter of 1941. Although less...

Pen and Sword Military, 2020. — 64 p. When the Leopard 2, a third-generation main battle tank, first entered service with the Bundeswehr in 1979, at the height of the Cold War, it was indisputably the most advanced and potent tank in the world. During the last four decades it has undergone numerous upgrades and modifications to ensure it remains one of the most powerful tanks...

Pen and Sword Military, 2021. — 64 p. By 1944 the German army was on the defensive on all fronts and Allied bombing was putting increasing pressure on the nation's industrial output. Since the earliest days of the war the Germans had experimented with mounting anti-tank weapons on obsolete chassis and one of the most successful of these would prove to be the Jagdpanzer 38, more...

Pen and Sword Military, 2021. — 64 p. The Tiger I and Tiger II tanks are probably the most famous German armoured fighting vehicles of the Second World War and despite the relatively small numbers produced, the heavy Panzer units of the German Army played a key role in the battles fought in North Africa, Italy, the Western Front and particularly in the East. In the seventh and...

Pen and Sword Military, 2021. — 64 p. By the first weeks of 1945 the Eastern Front had been pushed back to the Carpathian mountain passes in the south and Warsaw on the Vistula River in the centre while in the north the German army was fighting in East Prussia. The Wehrmacht's armoured and mobile formations were now employed exclusively as fire brigades, rushed from one crisis...

Pen and Sword Military, 2021. — 64 p. During the summer of 1944 a series of massive Soviet offensives threatened to destroy the entire German army on the Eastern Front. As the Wehrmacht scrambled to hold what ground it could many formations simply disappeared and the available armoured units were used to plug the gaps in the frontline. One of the most important elements of the...

Pen and Sword Military, 2022. — 64 p. The British Scorpion and Scimitar are among the most successful armoured reconnaissance vehicles ever built and, almost fifty years after the initial design was introduced, updated versions are still in service today. These compact, manoeuvrable and fast-moving light tanks played a significant peace-keeping role in conflict zones around the...

Pen and Sword Military, 2022. — 68 p. The British Scorpion and Scimitar are among the most successful armoured reconnaissance vehicles ever built and, almost fifty years after the initial design was introduced, updated versions are still in service today. These compact, manoeuvrable and fast-moving light tanks played a significant peace-keeping role in conflict zones around the...

Pen and Sword Military, 2022. — 64 p. In July 1943 the German army launched what was to be its last major offensive on Soviet soil. Codenamed Operation Citadel, the attack had initially been scheduled to commence in May but was postponed by Hitler on a number of occasions to allow the divisions in the East to be reinforced and to ensure that the new Panther tanks could be...

Pen and Sword Military, 2022. — 64 p. The Pzkpfw Ill was the most effective tank available to the German army in North Africa during the battles of 1941. It outnumbered all the other types in service with the Afrikakorps at that time and when compared to the Pzkpfw I and Pzkpfw II designs it was a potent, modern weapons system. Although less heavily armoured than its British...

Pen and Sword Military, 2022. — 64 p. The M60 was a second-generation American main battle tank, the last in the line of Patton tanks that had first been developed at the end of World War. It entered operational service with the US Army in 1960 and some 15,000 M60s were manufactured by Chrysler at the Detroit Tank Arsenal Plant between then and when production ceased in 1983....

Pen and Sword Military, 2022. — 64 p. The Allied invasions of Sicily and the Italian mainland had been met with tenacious resistance by the Germans but the defence consisted for the most part of armoured units that were little different to those the British had faced in North Africa. But in early 1944, with the landings at Anzio and Nettuno and the attempt to bypass the German...

Pen and Sword Military, 2023. — 64 p. The Sherman tank served with most Allied armies during the Second World War and it is justly famous for the role it played in the Normandy landings and the subsequent drive into Germany. But the part played by the British commonwealth armoured units in the Italian campaign is less well known and in his latest volume in the TankCraft series...

Pen and Sword Military, 2023. — 64 p. The Pzkpfw III tank was the mainstay of the Panzer divisions during the Blitzkrieg era and made up the bulk of the armoured force sent to North Africa. Although less heavily armoured than many of its opponents it was sturdy and reliable and its main armament was the equal of any enemy weapon it was called upon to face. Operating in one of...

Pen and Sword Military, 2024. — 64 p. By 1943, confronted by heavier enemy tanks in increasing numbers, German field commanders were asking for a more potent tank destroyer, building on the success of the Sturmgeschütz programme. Coincidentally, at this time the Tiger II was well into the development stage and experiments were being undertaking with the huge 12.8cm L/55 gun,...

Pen and Sword Military, 2024. — 64 p. Originally developed to support the infantry formations of the Germany's armored divisions, the Pzkpfw IV medium tank was increasingly pressed into service as a tank killer as stronger and more well-armored enemy vehicles were encountered. By the end of 1943, despite the appearance of the Tiger and Panther, it could be said that the Pzkpfw...

Pen and Sword Military, 2024. — 64 p. Originally developed to support the infantry formations of the Germany's armored divisions, the Pzkpfw IV medium tank was increasingly pressed into service as a tank killer as stronger and more well-armored enemy vehicles were encountered. By the end of 1943, despite the appearance of the Tiger and Panther, it could be said that the Pzkpfw...