From an internationally acclaimed expert in the field comes a detailed, analytical and comprehensive account of the worldwide evolution of tanks, from their inception a century ago to the present day. With new ideas stemming from the latest academic research, this study presents a reappraisal of the development of tanks and their evolution during World War I and how the surge in technological development during World War II and the subsequent Cold War drove tank developments in Europe and America, transforming tanks into fast, resilient and powerful fighting machines. From the primitive, bizarre-looking Mark V to the Matilda and from the menacing King Tiger to the superlative M1 Abrams, Professor Ogorkiewicz shows how tanks gradually acquired the enhanced capabilities that enabled them to become what they are today - the core of combined-arms, mechanized warfare.

Author Biography

From 1972 to 2006 Professor Richard Ogorkiewicz was an independent member of several boards and committees of the Defence Scientific Advisory Council of the Ministry of Defence. Since 1979 he has been lecturing on armoured vehicles to Army Command and Staff at the Royal Military College of Science, now part of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, and since 1988 has been a Visiting Professor there. He is the author of three books on armoured vehicles. Since 1988 he has been consulting editor of IHS International Defence Review, contributing to it numerous articles on armoured vehicles, and since 1993 has also been a trustee of the national Tank Museum at Bovington.