Steven J. Zaloga

Very good overview of the T-90 model, including technical details, weaponry and various derived combat, artillery and engineering vehicles (it was interesting to read how BMPT Terminator was originally designed in the 1980s but brought back to drawing tables and production following Chechen wars).

Also well presented are competitions between various tank production factories first in USSR and then Russia. We are given list of lots of prototypes that never went too far and decisions that influenced introduction of T-90 as a new MBT.

Interesting booklet, recommended to people interested in tanks and combat vehicles in general.… (mehr)

While this book was good general overview of the last Cold War generation of tanks I think it's primary purpose to be a tank index to be used to purchase rest of Osprey books on those specific tank types.

That being said, book does give very interesting highlights when it comes to combat technology that marked this period in armor development and differences between USSR and NATO approaches to tank design and development.

Again, interesting but very .... as I said index-like content to point out which Osprey books exist on the subject so you can get them and get the actual "meat" of the story.… (mehr)

When I first started reading military history as a kid in the mid-1960s, the cult of air power and the United States Air Force was still in full swing, but even then, the 1943 raid on Ploesti seemed to inspire reservations, if only for the heavy casualties incurred. Flash forward to the mid-21st century, and this whole exercise seems even more dubious, as one now has access to intelligence information that was denied to the first generation of authors who wrote about this raid.

What it mostly comes down to is radio, as the commanders of the raid mandated radio silence as a means of gaining surprise, thus forfeiting hands-on control, not realizing that the German air defense system was aware that the American force was on its way basically the moment Operation "Tidal Wave" crossed into the Balkans from North Africa. The result being that a third of the force was lost, everyone was decorated for their gallantry, and the commander of IX Bomber Command was made a scapegoat and sent back to the United States. Whatever else was learned from this action, it's that the Axis oil industry could only be shut down with sustained effort; not a big one-time raid. Apart from that this is another excellent number in one of the best series that Osprey has come up in recent years.… (mehr)

Although I probably should have read Zaloga's number in this series on Operation "Tidal Wave" first, this is a crisp analysis of the gutting of the German war effort in 1944-1945 by shutting off the fuel, while at the same time grinding the Luftwaffe into powder. I became more interested in this booklet once I found out that Zaloga's day job involves air defense technology and analysis, and he covers matters of command and control, and what actually worked, as much as he does the course of the campaign. I wrapped up this work feeling more depressed by the pity of it all than I normally do: Whatever else strategic air war is it's a brutal slug-fest, and Zaloga does a good job of telling the story with numbers.… (mehr)