Stalin's purge of army officers in the late 1930s and disputes about tank tactics meant that Soviet armoured forces were in disarray when Hitler invaded in 1941. As a result, during Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht's 3,200 panzers ran circles round the Red Army's tank force of almost 20,000 - thousands of Soviet tanks were disabled or destroyed.Yet within two years of this disaster the Red Army's tank arm had regained its confidence and numbers and was in a position to help turn the tide and liberate the Soviet Union. This is the remarkable story Anthony Tucker-Jones relates in this concise, highly illustrated history of the part played by Soviet armour in the war on the Eastern Front.Chapters cover each phase of the conflict, from Barbarossa, through the battles at Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk to the massive, tank-led offensives that drove the Wehrmacht back to Berlin. Technical and design developments are covered, but so are changes in tactics and the role of the tanks in the integrated all-arms force that crushed German opposition.

Indhold: Soviet Armour of the Great Patriotic War 1941 to 1945: bl.a. med kapitler om: Soviet tank design on the eve of war; Organization of the Soviet Armoured Force; The summer catastrophe; The T-34 medium tank; Light tanks; Tank unit organization; The KV heavy tank; Mechanized artilleru development; Katyusha rocket launchers; The SU-76 light mechanized gun; The SU-122 medium mechanized gun; The KV-7 mechanized gun; Mechanized artillery units; The German response; Tank destroyers; The Battle of Kursk; Orel; The T-34-85 medium tank; The IS-2 heavy tank; Heavy assault gun; Light mechanized guns; Tank destroyers of 1944; The T-44 medium tank; The K-90 amphibious tank; Light fighting vehicles; Airborne fighting vehicles; Engineer tanks; Flame-thrower tanks; Armoured recovery vehicles; Bridging tanks; Anti-aircraft vehicles; Artillery transporters; Armoured trains; Lend-lease tanks; Lend-lease armoured vehicles supplied to the Soviet Army; Soviet tanks in retrospect. Desuden er der oversigt over produktionen af sovjetiske kampvogne under krigen, og: Soviet Armoured Corps Order of Battle, 1942-1945.

With over 60 photos, this look at the role of Red Army tanks in Hitler’s defeat “will be of interest to modelers and military historians alike” (AMPS Indianapolis). Stalin’s purge of army officers in the late 1930s and disputes about tank tactics meant that Soviet armored forces were in disarray when Hitler invaded in 1941. As a result, during Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht’s 3,200 panzers ran circles round the Red Army’s tank force of almost 20,000—and thousands of Soviet tanks were disabled or destroyed. Yet within two years of this disaster the Red Army’s tank arm had regained its confidence and numbers and was in a position to help turn the tide and liberate the Soviet Union. This is the remarkable story Anthony Tucker-Jones relates in this concise, highly illustrated history of the part played by Soviet armor in the war on the Eastern Front. Chapters cover each phase of the conflict, from Barbarossa, through the battles at Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk to the massive, tank-led offensives that drove the Wehrmacht back to Berlin. Technical and design developments are covered, but so are changes in tactics and the role of the tanks in the integrated all-arms force that crushed German opposition.

About the evolution of the Soviet offensive doctrine during World War II. Where did this doctrine and armored formations that takes practice arise?. Why was the USSR as a nation which in 1940 developed a tank as advanced as the T-34?. 100 pages trying to answer these and other questions with a description of the principal armored vehicles and the formations in which were integrated from its beginnings in the Russian Empire until June 22, 1941.

The Soviet Union had already begun building an armored industry as early as the 1920s. Although initially limited to reconstructing and developing Western European armored vehicles, an independent line of powerful and easy-to-produce models had been established by 1939. Even after the Second World War, the USSR expanded its armament force considerably, even planning to cross western Europe in a massive armoured wave in the event of any conflict with NATO. In this book, Alexander Ldeke looks at all the important Soviet tanks that were built from 1917 up until the end of the Second World War

When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 the Red Army had four times as many tanks as the Wehrmacht and their tanks were seemingly superior, yet the Wehrmacht won the border battles with extraordinary ease the Red Armys tank force was pushed aside and for the most part annihilated. How was this victory achieved, and were the Soviet tanks really as well designed as is often believed? These are the basic questions Boris Kavalerchik answers in this absorbing study of the tanks and the tank tactics of the two armies that confronted each other at the start of the war on the Eastern Front. Drawing on technical and operational documents from Russian archives, many of which were classified until recently and are unknown to Western readers, he compares the strengths and weakness of the tanks and the different ways in which they were used by the opposing armies. His work will be essential reading for military historians who are interested in the development of armoured warfare and in this aspect of the struggle on the Eastern Front.