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A remarkable World War II survival story and combat memoir by “an indestructible wartime tank commander” (The Telegraph). In campaign after campaign, from the defense of Calais in 1940 to the defeat of Germany in 1945, Bill Close served as a tank commander in Britain’s Royal Tank Regiment—and he survived. His tanks were hit eleven times by enemy shellfire and he bailed out. He was wounded three times. He finished the war as one of the most experienced and resourceful of British tank commanders, and in later life, he set down his wartime experiences in graphic detail. His book is not only an extraordinary memoir; it is also a compelling account of the exploits of the Royal Tank Regiment throughout the conflict. As a record of the day-to-day experience of the tank crew of seventy-five years ago—of the conditions they faced and the battles they fought—it has rarely been equaled.
A vivid firsthand account of armored warfare by a WWII Soviet tank commander. What was it like to command a T-34 tank on the Eastern Front during the Second World War? How were tank operations organized and carried out, what was the actual experience of combat, and what were the qualities that made the difference between success and failure? And what were the chances of survival? Vasiliy Pavlovich Bryukhov’s vivid, detailed, and gripping memoir of his wartime service gives a fascinating and authentic insight into these questions. It also provides an accurate, unsentimental record of the day-to-day life of a tankman whose unit fought in the forefront of the Red Army throughout the conflict across the western Soviet Union and into eastern Europe. His first-hand eyewitness account is a memorable personal story that provides a powerful insight into the reality of tank warfare seventy-five years ago.
Author : R. Sheppard Publisher : Pool of London Press Page : 144 pages File Size : 44,7 Mb Release : 2016-08-19 Category : History ISBN : 9781910860274
The Tank Commander Pocket Manual by R. Sheppard Pdf
From the pioneering tactics and terror of the Blitzkrieg assault, through the carnage of Barbarossa, Kursk, the Desert War, and the Normandy Bocage and the Battle of the Bulge, there were perhaps no more unsettling and merciless positions to occupy in the Second World War than that of a tank commander. This new book puts the reader at the very heart of this “hell on wheels” and presents all of the original information required to perform this most dangerous of wartime battlefield roles. From training manuals and war office memorandums to combat reports and first-hand accounts, The Tank Commander Pocket Manual sits you in the turret position of commander of some of the most fearsome land vehicles. These include the Soviet T-34, the German Panther and its nemesis the American Sherman, the terrifying Tiger I as well as tank variants including flamethrowers and tank destroyers such as the Allied M10 and the StuG III. Original documents, diagrams, technical drawings and reports have been collated and compiled from archives and collections to include original Russian, German and English angles on the commander’s many roles including how to ‘run’ the rest of the crew of this most decisive weapon of the Second World War. • Published to mark the centenary of the tank • Rare, previously unpublished documents • Attractively produced in cloth-bound retro-styled case R Shepherd has worked for many years in military publishing for leading companies such as Casemate and Osprey, and has compiled a number of books. Pool of London Pocket Manuals The new Pocket-Manual series from the Pool of London Press presents some of the most iconic military, naval and transport machines from the last 100 years by means of compiling the original documents, confidential memos, plans and artworks that contributed to their celebrated history. This approach allows the modern reader both to have an excellent understanding of the development of these extremely influential aircraft, AFVs, ships, automobiles and trains, but also provides the unique opportunity for further interpretation through the study of many previously unpublished original documents, diagrams and illustrations. Every volume in the series is skillfully compiled and researched by the leading experts in their field who also provide a lengthy contextualizing introduction. Superbly priced, retro-styled to their historical period, and beautifully hard-bound in debossed cloth, the Pool of London Pockets sell as self-purchase, gift and are excellently suited to book trade as well as to museum stores and heritage outlets across the world.
Praying for Slack: A Marine Corps Tank Commander in Viet Nam by Robert E. Peavey Pdf
Two different wars were fought in Vietnam, the jungle-and-booby-trap one down south, and the WWII-like one up on the DMZ. "I was one of a handful whose Vietnam tour was evenly split between the First and Third Marine Divisions, and saw, firsthand, the difference 170 miles could make during the war's bloodiest year." Corporal Robert Peavey was a tank commander in I Corps (Eye Corps) on the DMZ when LBJ ordered a bombing halt over the North. His compelling first-hand account chronicles operations just south of the 'Z, operations that most Vietnam War histories have completely ignored. Peavey offers detailed, understandable explanations of combat strategy, strengths and shortcomings of standard-issue armament, and inter-service rivalries.
Bill Bellamy was a young officer in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars from 1943 to 1955. He served in 7th Armoured Division in the North West Europe campaign, landing in Normandy on D+3, fought throughout the Battle for Normandy and into the Low Countries as a troop leader in Cromwell tanks, and was latterly a member of the initial occupying force in Berlin in May 1945. Against the rules, Bill kept diaries and notes of his experiences. His account is fresh and open, and his descriptions of battle are vivid. He witnessed many of his contemporaries killed in action, and this life-altering experience clearly informs his narrative. The accounts of tank fighting in the leafy Normandy bocage in the height of summer, or in the iron hard fields of Holland in winter, are graphic and compelling.
With speed, violence, and deadly power, heavily armored tanks spearheaded the German blitzkrieg that stormed across Europe in 1939. Tracks rattling and engines roaring, these lethal machines engaged in some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, from the beaches of Normandy and the Ardennes Forest to the snow-encrusted Eastern Front. In this reprint of the hugely popular book, prolific author Franz Kurowski tells the gritty, action-packed stories of six of the most daring and successful officers ever to command Panzers, including Michael Wittmann, Hans Bolter, Hermann Bix, and others. Timelines mark the milestones of each officer's career.
The Silver Star–awarded marine chronicles his service in Iraq in this “transcendent memoir of military service and its personal consequences” (Ralph Peters, Lt. Col., ret., author of Looking For Trouble). In April, 2003, an AP photographer captured a striking image seen around the world of Gunny Sergeant Nick Popaditch smoking a victory cigar in his tank, the haunting statue of Saddam Hussein hovering in the background. Though immortalized in that moment as “The Cigar Marine,” Popaditch’s fighting was far from over. The following year, he fought heroically in the battle for Fallujah and suffered grievous head wounds that left him legally blind and partially deaf. But he faced the toughest fight of his life when he returned home: the battle to remain the man and Marine he was. At first, Nick fights to get back to where he was in Iraq-in the cupola of an M1A1 main battle tank, leading Marines in combat. As the seriousness and permanence of his disabilities become more evident, Nick fights to remain in the Corps in any capacity and help his brothers in arms. Then, following a medical retirement, he battles for rightful recognition and compensation for his disabilities. Throughout his harrowing ordeal, Nick fights to maintain his honor and loyalty, waging all these battles the same way—the Marine way—because anything less would be a betrayal of all he holds dear.
In this military memoir, a Soviet Red Army officer recounts his experience fighting against Nazi Germany along the Eastern Front in World War II. The day after Vasiliy Krysov finished school, on June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and provoked a war of unparalleled extent and cruelty. For the next three years, as a tank commander, Krysov fought against the German panzers in some of the most intense and destructive armored engagements in history, including those at Stalingrad, Kursk, and Knigsberg. This is the remarkable story of his war. As the commander of a heavy tank, a self-propelled gun—a tank destroyer—and a T-34, he fought his way westward across Russia, the Ukraine, and Poland against a skillful and determined enemy that had previously never known defeat. Krysov repeatedly faced tough SS panzer divisions, like the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Panzer Division in the Bruilov-Fastov area in 1943, and the SS Das Wiking Panzer Division in Poland in 1944. Krysov was at Kursk and participated in a counterattack at Ponyri. The ruthlessness of this long and bitter campaign is vividly depicted in his narrative, as is the enormous scale and complexity of the fighting. Honestly, and with an extraordinary clarity of recall, he describes confrontations with German Tiger and Panther tanks and deadly anti-tank guns. He was wounded four times, his crewmen and his commanding officers were killed, but he was fated to survive and record his experience of combat. His memoirs give a compelling insight into the reality of tank warfare on the Eastern Front.
The Ml Abrams has proved itself to be the finest main battle tank in the World since its introduction into US Army service in 1981. It combines the ultimate balance between firepower, mobility and protection as demonstrated by its superior performance during the two Gulf Wars and in Afghanistan. It routed the Soviet equipment of Saddam Hussein's army and today remains the yardstick by which friends' and foes' MBTs are judged. Its versatility and continual modernisation of weaponry armour and engineering guarantees that the MI Abrams will remain the US Army's spearpoint for years to come. Expert author Michael Green has produced a comprehensive collection of images and highly informed text.
“This unique memoir tells the story of one of the field-grade officers whose martial skills sustained the Third Reich against a world in arms.”—Library Journal Panzer Commander is one of the classic memoirs of the Second World War. A professional soldier, Hans von Luck joined the Panzerwaffe in its earliest days, where he served under Erwin Rommel, and went on to fight in the Blitzkrieg in Poland, France and the Soviet Union. He then served with the Afrika Korps in the Western Desert and tells of the sometimes chivalrous relationship with the British 8th Army. After the collapse in Africa, he returned to Europe and fought throughout the Normandy campaign and was responsible for the failure of the British breakout attempt, Operation Goodwood. He then took part in the final desperate battles on the Eastern Front. Captured by the Soviets at the end of the war, he was held for five years in a prison camp in the Caucasus. After the war, he formed friendships with those who had been his opponents during it, including Major John Howard, who had led the capture of Pegasus Bridge in Normandy. With a new preface by the author’s widow, this unique and valuable account of one man’s war and its aftermath is required reading for all those interested in the Second World War. “One of the few books that MUST be part of any library . . . It is vivid and engaging. It paints the finest of verbal pictures and it does so without demonstrations of ego . . . it is one of the building blocks of knowledge that creates the palace of history.”—Firetrench
Bill Bellamy was a young officer in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars from 1943 to 1955. He served in 7th Armoured Division in the North West Europe campaign, landing in Normandy on D+3, fought throughout the Battle for Normandy and into the Low Countries as a troop leader in Cromwell tanks, and was latterly a member of the initial occupying force in Berlin in May 1945. Against the rules, Bill kept diaries and notes of his experiences. His account is fresh and open, and his descriptions of battle are vivid. He witnessed many of his contemporaries killed in action, and this life-altering experience clearly informs his narrative. The accounts of tank fighting in the leafy Normandy bocage in the height of summer, or in the iron hard fields of Holland in winter, are graphic and compelling.
Commanding the Red Army's Sherman Tanks by Dmitri? Fedorovich Loza Pdf
Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitriy Loza has carefully crafted his World War II experiences with U.S.-provided Sherman tanks into a highly readable memoir. Between the fall of 1943 and August 1945, Loza fought in the Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. He commanded a tank battalion during much of this period and had three Shermans shot out from under him. Loza's unit participated in such well-known combat actions as the Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy Operation, the Jassy-Kishenev Operation, and the battles for Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. Following the German surrender, Loza's unit was sent to Mongolia, where it participated in the arduous trek across the Gobi Desert to attack the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria. This is the first available detailed examination of the Red Army's exploitation of U.S. war matiriel during World War II and one of the first genuine memoirs available from the Russian front. Loza also provides firsthand testimony on tactical command decisions, group objectives and how they were accomplished, and Soviet use of combat equipment and intelligence. Only after the collapse of the USSR and concomitant relaxing of prohibitions against publication of materials related to the Lend-Lease Program there could this account be made available Dmitriy Loza served as an instructor at the Frunze Academy after the war, retiring in 1967 with the rank of colonel. He resides in Moscow. James F. Gebhardt, now a defense contractor at Fort Leavenworth, is a Vietnam veteran. He is the author of Blood on the Shores: Soviet Naval Commandos in World War II.
Tank Warfare, 1939–1945 by Simon Forty,Jonathan Forty Pdf
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
