7051: U S Tank Battles in North Africa and Italy 1942-1945 (Concord - Armor at War Series)

The North African campaign was the baptism of fire for the US Army in the European theater. The campaigns in Tunisia, Sicily, and on the Italian mainland were the prelude to the main campaigns in northwest Europe and were the primary focus of US Army operations from November 1942 to June 1944. Armor played a significant role in the Tunisian campaign, but only a supporting role in the fighting in Italy where the mountainous terrain limited the deployment of tanks. Some idea of the relative scale of armor fighting in Italy can be appreciated from the number of units deployed. There were 15 armored divisions and 37 separate tank battalions deployed in northwest Europe by 1945 while there was never more than one armored division and 8 separate tank battalions in Italy. A companion volume to "US Tank Battles in France" and "US Tank Battles in Germany", this book is filled with crisp photos from the US Army Signal Corps archive. Of interest is photos of destroyed German and Italian tanks, American recovery vehicle, prime movers, treadway bridge layer, multiple rocket launcher, and all types of Shermans. The color plates include interesting French and Italian tanks with their colorful markings.