Chariots of Fire

The past 86 years since 1917 have seen the tank develop from a primitive experimental weapon devised to break the deadlock of trench warfare on the Western Front into a fearsomely sophisticated machine designed to dominate the battlefield. Over the same period, tank crews have ceased to be a band of intrepid pioneers and have become an elite arm whose units now boast battle honours ranging from Alamein to Kursk and from Korea to the Sinai. In this illustrated book Philip Kaplan tells the story of the tank's development and of the men who rode into battle on board their tanks, from the Somme in 1916 to the Gulf War of 1991. In doing so he draws upon the accounts - many previously unpublished - of veterans which vividly convey what it was like, for example, to drive in a British Mark II as it led an attack on a German position at Ypres in World War I, or how the commander of a Tiger tank single-handedly halted a British armoured thrust in Normandy in 1944. There are chapters on the Guderian, the great pioneer of armoured warfare whose panzers met their match in the shape of the formidable Russian T34. The Arab-Israeli wars of 1956, 1967 and 1972, especially the latter, which saw two of the largest and most bitterly fought tank battles in history, are also covered, as is the victorious drive on Kuwait by British and American tanks in 1991, when whole Iraqi armoured units were destroyed at long range with virtually no losses to the coalition forces. "Chariots of Fire" brings to life the experiences of tank crews both past and present, and the many unusual and dramatic photographs of men and machines convey a vivid impression of armoured warfare in the 20th century.