Shows tanks, armored cars, command vehicles, carriers, and reconnaissance vehicles used by the Allied and Axis powers and recounts the development and use of each vehicle

Contains fine scale drawings of German AFVs covering the time period of the Blitzkrieg across Europe through the greatest tank battle in history, Kursk. Multiple angles provide a level of detail for the 8-wheeled Armored Car, Sd. Kfz. Panzer I Tank, Sd. Kfz. Panzer II Tank, Sd. Kfz. Panzer 35 T Tank, Sd. Kfz. Panzer IIIm Sd. Kfz. Armored Halftrack, and dozens more.

Filled with fine-scale drawings of Germany's late war armored vehicles including: • Pz. Kpfw. V Panther Tank • Pz. Kpfw. VI Tiger I and II • Pz. Jager Elephant Tank Destroyer • Sd.Kfz. 234/2 "Puma" Armored Car • Jagdtiger with Henschel suspension • And dozens more . . .

Filled with fine-scale drawings of Australian, Belgian, Canadian, Czech, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, and South African armored vehicles, including: • Centauro Tank Destroyer (Italy) • TKS Light Reconnaissance Tank (Poland) • Ram "Kangaroo" Personnel Carrier (Canada) • Renault R-35 Light Tank (France) • Type 3 Chi-nu Heavy Tank (Japan) • Scorpion AC1 Cruiser Tank (Australia) • TACAM R-2 Tank Hunter (Romania) • And many, many more . . .

At the start of the campaign on the Eastern Front, in the earliest days of Operation Barbarossa, it was the German armour that swept all in front of it as the Wehrmacht drove eastwards in an unrelenting advance on Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad. The ill-prepared and under-resourced Russian forces were forced to retreat. Gradually, the balance of the war swung in favour of the Russian forces, whose strength both in numbers and equipment proved decisive in the ultimate defeat of the German forces in the east. Critical in the Soviet victory was its armour; tanks such as the T-34 proving the equal, if not better than, some of the tanks available to the Germans. This authoritative history of the Soviet forces before and during World War 2, reveals the development of their tactics in the early post-revolutionary era right through to the ultimate victory in Berlin in May 1945. The dramatic struggle of the tank crews against the German advance is told through some 200 contemporary photographs, many of which have never been seen before.The photographs include images of tank training in the 1920s and 1930s, on active service, and many compelling pictures from some of the major tank battles of the day. Over the past five years, aided by the opening up of archives in Russia previously closed to western experts, there has been a massive growth in interest in the events that occurred on the Eastern Front. Russian Tanks is an important addition to the literature currently available, exploring as it does, the vitally important Soviet armour of the period.