Anthony Tucker-Jones

I have to say I expected much more from this book. It is a period that was marked by numerous wars between two blocks, a trend that is starting up again, and was marked by breakthroughs in many military fields - from technology to combat applications.

And this is why I expected more. Unfortunately, this book looks like a set of notes for an actual book, not a complete book on the subject. Now, dont get me wrong, the amount of data about all of these wars is so big that it just can not be put inside a single book. But even as an overview, this book comes short because of chapter structures and some weird conclusions.

So, the good thing is that this is a rare book that lists all main wars fought during the period between the end of WW2 and the end of the first Cold War. It covers even some less known battlefields, like those between Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. This makes this book a very interesting and good reference book.

But the rest is where the book is not so good, in my opinion. So let's go in order.

Chapters have a strange structure. I know that not every war fought in this period included armored units, but if the chapter is about Israel's war of independence, why start the talk about the development of improved M60's and finally Merkava? Especially if you are covering all the other wars, including the invasion of Lebanon, where Merkava first came under the spotlight. So you either pick up area and then cover all wars from the area or (approach author used) you go chronologically year by year world-wide but you concentrate on the time period only, and dont rush ahead and constantly mix things up. This was rather dis-concentrating.

The author is clearly biased towards Israelis but does not say why the IDF was extremely successful in the day (not so lately). Haganah (and Irgun, to be honest) were trained by British authorities in a variety of, for the time, very advanced infantry tactics - prominent role played here by Orde Wingate of Chindit fame. Officers from the British forces were also led by religious goals because they saw their role as helping the return of Jewish people to Israel. This and very high discipline of the Jewish population created a highly militarized society. After WW2, a lot of diaspora came back to Israel, and here we are talking about people with years of combat experience in modern high intensity warfare. Basically, for all means and purposes, IDF had all the personnel - when they received combat equipment combat skill wise, they were leagues ahead of their enemies. So, it is not any Israeli specific feature here - they were lucky to have smart leadership and the right people at the right time and in the right place. If anyone doubts this, just look at the failures when fighting mostly infantry irregulars that have achieved the same level of militancy as Israel in the beginning - it does not go that easy anymore.

Some chapters are just briefly given. Angola, for example, is covered by a chapter that could have come from the Wikipedia for all means and purposes. Strikes from Namibia were very important for South Africa and included a lot of armored columns striking at Angolan positions. Cubans played a great role here, fighting the SA troops with their own tanks, armor, and air force units. This was a very hot war, so to say, very conventional and very controversial (especially when it comes to Cuito Cuanavale battle, because both sides say they won). But besides brief mention of SA's 32nd and 44th battalions and Cuban led forces, readers won't be any smarter about this conflict, other than that it happened.

The author is extremely biased to the Western nations. Besides considering Israelis masters of armored warfare (which, again, is weird because, for example, South Africans were also very good), everybody else was fighting "good but not good enough." If one were to look at descriptions of conflicts, one would think that the mere presence of Western armor was sufficient to turn the tide of battle. Which is bollocks as current events show.

When talking about various wars that included opposition to "the dictators" (Gaddafi for example) foreign military help (in case of Chad from France and US) is just hinted - although weapons were supplied and allied forces armed and provided with air cover and intelligence, this is all in the background, seemingly unimportant. And let us not forget, this also applies to Israel - weren't it for US arms supplies during all conflicts where Israel was involved, situation would be significantly different. Also when it comes to military help, USSR and China do it for control while US and West do it for - well it is not mentioned why because reader would think that only arms dealers in the world at the time were USSR, China and generally Eastern Bloc. Which is ridiculous. Where are weapon supplies to Iraq during the 1980s, to Iran before the revolution, weapon supplies to Egypt, Saudi Arabia? Again, this is a very strong bias, which is funny since all of these things are common knowledge to anyone interested in the period.

Comparison of combat vehicles (West vs East) is also done without context - Israel again being a case clearly showing this, if you do not have trained and combat experienced personnel you can ride the lightning but will be shot down. And let us not forget IDF used a lot of captured USSR equipment in follow-up wars. So, again, we have this heavy bias, but OK, at least it is consistent.

The book ends on some weird note. First, the author mentions the demise of the tank as a weapon in modern war. I guess because of rise of war on terror (meaning low intensity conflicts) but book is published in 2021 during the very hot civil war in Eastern Europe, new Nagorno Karabakh war and overall arms race between [again] West and East. The book seems to be written a long time ago and just published recently (this is why I say it looks more like collection of notes for a book and not the actual book). It just does not make sense. Even after 2022, the advent of lots of new types of ammunition tank remains and will remain only reliable way of approaching the area under fire (direct and indirect) and striking the enemy.

Second, for some reason, the author has a strong relation with T54/55 tank. If you read this book, I guarantee you won't be able to discern why. At one point it is good tank, on other it is not, but then it is Chinese (or Warsaw Pact) produced one's that are subpar, or maybe not [that bias is truly disturbing]- viewpoint changes so often that you start the wonder - what? And even if you take T54/55 as a most massively produced tank during the Cold War, what about Centurion tank and derivatives especially built in South Africa and Israel? These were main tanks that were utilized by Western forces, used much more than M60's and M48's, but I would not be surprised if you read this book and end up not knowing much about them. When it comes to USSR equipment, it is sturdy and functional, no matter what Western fans say. Even in current military conflict, they play an important role. If you want to read about the modern style mechanized warfare in Africa using this equipment from the perspective of Western forces, do read about EO and their campaigns.

All in all, it's a rather weird book. I think it was rushed to the press due to current events. I mean, would it be so difficult to at least give some graphics and vehicle pictures together with textual descriptions of armored vehicles in the book appendixes?

If you are interested in the reference book about major hot spots during Cold War this is good book because it describes events in very broad strokes, but with strange, and completely unnecessary, bias present that just ruins the narration.

For anything detailed, please refer to other books that are on the subject and give much more details on a specific conflict.… (mehr)

Unfortunately this is missing a description of the tank types involved and their abilities. For example the author mentioned the Hotchkiss tank which in fact was a small tank, lightly armed, sporting a tiny main gun in the same breath as a centurion tank which was a heavy behemoth with a large main gun. A reader that does not know the many, many tank types mentioned in this here book, will not be able to form a complete picture of the forces involved and the battles fought which the author selected from the French Indochina war to the 1991 Kuwait. All in all, there is otherwise plenty of information, if a bit dry. In conclusion it is more or less about the battles that tanks participated in then about why tanks were used or how specific tank types fared in those battles.… (mehr)

There’s an argument that lack of support for the Axis allies is one of the many reasons the Third Reich lost the Second World War. Although this is mostly intended as a book of photographs, there’s some support for that in the accompanying text; Germany was reluctant to transfer modern armor to the Bulgarians, Finns, Italians, Magyars, Slovaks, Spaniards, Romanians and Ukrainians until it was too little and too late. Thus when the Soviets smashed through around Stalingrad in 1942 the Axis allies had to try and stop T-34s with obsolete – recycled French R35s – and underarmed – Hungarian Turans and Italian L6/40s – tanks. At the very end, the Hungarians came up with some decent self-propelled guns and the Germans dished out a few Pz IVs. Since most of the Axis allies changed sides to try and get a deal from Stalin, this led to Hungarians fighting Romanians, both with German equipment.

As far as photographs go, there are plenty, so if you’re a military modeler and want to build a model Turan II or an L6/40, this will help. Only covers the Russian campaign, so there’s no mention of Italian armor in North Africa. There are no maps, which handicaps campaign and battle descriptions in the accompanying text, no references, and no bibliography. For a little more on Italian armor, see Iron Arm and for more on relations between Germany and the Axis allies see Germany and the Axis Powers.… (mehr)

Life and Death on the Eastern Front – A Rare Collection of Pictures

Anthony Tucker-Jones and Ian Stewart Spring have gathered a fine and disturbing collection of pictures. Pen and Sword have published a large number of books from the Eastern Front, but they are all in black and white. Now they publish the book in rare colour pictures from the time, these have not been coloured recently, from the very early colour film.

This book has been collated into three sections, starting with the invasion and the ground war, then the war from the skies, and finally behind the lines with the captured Prisoners, to the daily lives who were living under the Nazi yolk.

The colour pictures help to drive home the nature of the eastern front and how it could be cold, wet, and frozen in winter. While in winter it could be hot, and sometimes felt like there was nowhere to hide for soldiers. Staff cars covered in layers of mud almost all the panzer grey was covered.

There are plenty of pictures of German army and some of the redeployed armaments captured in France. An example such as the two-man French Chenillette d’Infanterie, which looks more like a toy than a killing machine, on a double page.

A great book and an interesting addition to any collection on the Easter Front.… (mehr)