Men Ideas And Tanks

Download or read book Men, Ideas, and Tanks written by J. P. Harris and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Men, ideas and tanks reviews the development of British military ideas on armoured forces from 1903 to 1939. Great Britain was the nation which first developed the tank, first used it in action and first gained dramatic results by employment. The British continued to be world leaders in the field of mechanised warfare until the early 1930s. Now available in paperback for the first time, J. P. Harris original work offers new interpretations of the early history of British armoured forces and explains why Great Britain had lost the lead by the outbreak of the Second World War. This work will be of interest to all those concerned with British military history in the first half of the twentieth century, with the history of mechanised warfare and with the history of military thought.

Download or read book Band of Brigands written by Christy Campbell and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2008 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Tanks were one of the great but unknown, and unreliable, innovations of World War I. Manned by a motley 'band of brigands', amongst them mechanics, plumbers, motorcyclists, circus performers and polar explorers, they were developed in great secrecy, prepared as a surprise advantage for the frontline of trench warfare. The men of the British Tank Corps went on to see battle at its most brutal. Tasked with crushing and burning the enemy to carve a path for the infantry, they fought in stifling armoured boxes packed with petrol and explosives, aware that at any moment a shell-hit might incinerate them all. Christy Campbell, former defence correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph tells properly for the first time the remarkable and harrowing story of how the first men in tanks went to war."--Cover

Download or read book Tank Men written by Robert Kershaw and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2009-04-16 with total page 743 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I thought Tank Men was a triumph ...it is a really fine piece of work' - Richard Holmes 'Some of the eye witness accounts Kershaw has collected for this comprehensive review of tank warfare have the power to chill the reader to the bone. This is warfare at the sharp end' --NOTTINGHAM EVENING POST The First World War saw the birth of an extraordinary fighting machine that has fascinated three generations: the tank. In Tank Men, ex-soldier and military historian Robert Kershaw brings to life the grime, the grease and the fury of a tank battle through the voices of ordinary men and women who lived and fought in those fearsome machines. Drawing on vivid, newly researched personal testimony from the crucial battles of the First and Second World Wars, this is military history at its very best.

Download or read book A New Excalibur written by A J Smithers and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of a mobile strong-point, out of which the tank developed, probably occurred to most minds after our first experience of attacking strongly entrenched positions; I first heard it suggested by an Intelligence Corps officer as early as the Battle of the Aisne....the suggestion of using the 'Caterpillar tractor, which has been experimented with at Aldershot in 1914, immediately arose....but it was so obvious a development that it must have occurred simultaneously in many regiments and staff messes.' Thus stated Jphn Charteris, Sir Douglas Haig's Director of Military Intelligence Obvious development it may have been, but the birth and infancy of the tank were nevertheless weighed down by the by a truly remarkable burden of handicaps in which the endeavour to solve the enormous number of technical problems which the construction of such a vehicle presented at times to pale into insignificance compared with the endless squabbles between the headstrong band of 'midwives' and 'monthly nurses' who gathered in it's nursery. It is essentially upon this ill-associated bunch of intevnters, engineers, soldiers and politicians which Jack Smithers concentrates on this fascinating study of the vehicle which was born out of the stalemate of the Western Front in the First World War. As is inevitable in almost any work of history set in the first half of the century , the figure of Winston Churchill looms large in the foreground, but the role that he played in this instance is remarkable even by his standard when it is remembered that at the crucial time he was First Lord of the Admiralty and theoretically had nothing to do with warfare on land. Foremost amongst the leading actors in the drama come Sir Eustance Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, Sor Earnest Swinton, Bertie Stern, Sir William Tritton and Walter Gordon Wilson. Of the last- few named will have heard, but as the author says, 'but for him there would have been no tank. Not, at any rate, in 1916.' This is the first exhaustive study of the men behind the earliest tanks and to quote the author again, 'they quarrelled-furiously at times- is hardly surprising, for these were strong-willed men and great matters were at stake. Who was right and who was wrong hardly matters There is honour enough for all of them.' The story of their quarrels and the machines they produced combine, under Smithers' skill full pen, to make a remarkable and compelling study.

Download or read book Spanish Civil War Tanks written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tanks used during the Spanish Civil War are not often examined in any great detail, and are often labeled as little more than test vehicles in a convenient proving ground before World War II. But, with groundbreaking research, armor expert Steven J Zaloga has taken a fresh look at the tanks deployed in Spain, examining how future tanks and armored tactics were shaped and honed by the crews' experiences, and how Germany was able to benefit from these lessons while their Soviet opponents were not. Based on recently uncovered records of Soviet tankers in Spain and rare archival accounts, this book describes the various tanks deployed in Spain, including the PzKpfw I and the T-26.

Download or read book Britain and the Middle East in the 1930's written by Michael J. Cohen and published by Springer. This book was released on 1992-06-18 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chapters in this book focus on the security of the British position in the Middle East between 1935 and 1939. In 1935 Britain was still able to rush reinforcements to the Middle East to forestall hostilities towards Egypt. However, by 1939 the international situation had changed irrevocably.

Download or read book Mechanised Force written by David Fletcher and published by Stationery Office Books (TSO). This book was released on 1991 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the Tank Corps from 1919 up until the time when, as the Royal Tank Regiment, it went to war again in 1939. The book chronicles the events and innovations of the years between the wars.