The British Army's Challenger II Main Battle Tank is one of the most awesome war machines ever built. In March 2003, three Squadrons of Challenger 2s from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, part of Britain's 7th Armoured Brigade, the fabled Desert Rats, gathered in Southern Iraq to prepare for battle.The Army's newest Big Guns were going to war for the first time. But Operation TELIC was a war which the Challenger 2, designed to operate in the fog and mud of the Central European Plain, had never been expected to fight. And one that would quickly break every rule of tank warfare including the golden maxim: never take a tank into a town. In Main Battle Tank, author Niall Edworthy, granted unprecedented access to the Scots DGs, tells the story of an extraordinary chapter in the history of British Army. From the terrifying rescue of a stricken Challenger 2 and countless nerve-shredding raids into Basra and Az Zubyar, to the biggest tank engagement fought by the British since the end of WWII, Main Battle Tank is the brutal, blistering true story of a war that tested man and machine to the bloody limit.

Provides an in-depth look at the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, with detailed cross-section diagrams, photographs, and additional facts and information.

This ambitious entry in R.P. Hunnicutt's 10-volume compendium of American tank history details the development of the Patton tanks, including the M60 series as well as other vehicles based on the tank chassis or employing other elements of the tank's design. First developed in the period between WWII and the Korean War, various iterations of the Patton armored military vehicle have served as a crucial component of American military operations in all manner of engagements. Hunnicutt spares no detail as he examines the origins and deployment of the M46 and M47 in the early days of the Cold War and for the duration of the Korean War. As the conflict escalated, increasing numbers of Patton tanks were deployed in Korea and many remained after the armistice to protect the tenuous agreement. Developed to replace the M47 Patton and M4 Sherman, the M48 Patton main battle tank boasted a variety of technical improvements and was relied upon heavily throughout the Vietnam War, with over 600 individual tanks deployed alongside U.S. forces during the war. Hunnicutt provides detailed technical information about these vehicles and their role in the U.S. Army and Marines. The M60 product-improved descendant of the Patton tanks and its many variations is also treated with exacting detail by Hunnicutt, who takes us through the numerous and important variations on the Patton design. Spanning the history of America's most widely used main battle tank, Hunnicutt's "Patton" is an absolute must-have for anyone interested in the history of the American military. Richard Pearce Hunnicutt (1926-2011) enlisted in the 7th Infantry Division in 1944 and in 1945 was promoted to sergeant and awarded the Silver Star for his heroic actions. After WWII, Hunnicutt earned a Masters in engineering from Stanford University under the GI Bill. In addition to being one of the most respected metallurgists in California, Hunnicutt wrote the definitive 10-volume history of the development and employment of American armored vehicles. As a tank historian and leading expert in the field, Hunnicutt was one of the founders of the US Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD and was a close friend and frequent contributor to the Patton Museum at Fort Knox, KY.

Entering service in the early 1960s, the M60 tank was in production for 23 years and formed the backbone of US Army and Marine armoured units during the Cold War. Over 15,000 were built in four basic models: the M60, M60A1, M60A2, and the M60A3. Although the M60 had been phased out of US Army service by the time Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, M60s were amongst the first Allied tanks to enter Kuwait City with the US Marines. This book examines the design and deployment of the M60, a very widely used vehicle that is still in service today.

The T-55 is one of the most iconic weapons created by the Soviets during the Cold War and also one of the most widely deployed weapons in history. Like its younger brother, the T-54, the T-55 enjoyed a long career in the Red Army and even into the early days of the reformed Russian Army. Under their control it saw very little combat use or deployments, but it was widely sold to other nations and participated in many of the wars and combat operations from the mid-1960s to the present. The T-55 has been employed in almost every conflict in the Middle East and Africa from its introduction into service. Even today the tank is still employed by both sides in the Syrian Civil War, and they are also in service with Kurdish forces in the struggle against ISIS in the northern part of Iraq. Containing more than 400 stunning contemporary and modern photographs, and written by two experts on Soviet armour, this authoritative book tells the complete story of the T-55, one of the most widely produced tanks of all time.

A highly illustrated study of the T-54 Main Battle Tank and its variants that formed the backbone of the Soviet Army during the years of the Cold War. The menacing silhouette of the T-54 tank prowling down streets of Eastern European capitals or roaring across fields in massive exercises remains one of the most enduring images of Soviet power in the early years of the Cold War. Its sleek and unmistakable shape was a warning to any nation that wanted to stand against the USSR. Yet all of this masked a flawed, outdated design, and when T-54s began to clash with the Western armoured vehicles in proxy wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, they were found to be on the losing side of many of the battles. Containing over 500 stunning contemporary and modern photographs, and written by two experts on Soviet armour, this authoritative book tells the complete story of the T-54, one of the most widely produced tanks of all time, including many previously unheard of variants.

In 1963 West Germany and the United States signed an agreement to develop the best tank in the world the MBT/KPz-70. Though by 1970 this project was stopped, West Germany used the components created for the MBT/KPz-70 to develop a new main battle tank the Leopard 2. Since 1979, when the first Leopard 2 rolled off the production line, the Leopard 2 has undergone various modifications, and has been exported to various European countries. Enhanced by Osprey's signature colour plates and cutaway artwork, this book examines the development of the Leopard 2 from the first batch to its evolution into the improved Leopard 2 A5, detailing its features and variants.