TANK WARFARE IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR - An Oral History by Forty, George

Constable, London, 1998. UK first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2, FINE/FINE CONDITION, 248 pages, illus, notes.---------------------------------------- Ever since the tank first burst its way onto the battlefield its combined characteristics of firepower, protection and mobility have made it a truly formidable weapon system. In the Second World War tanks were responsible for the lion's share of success in the ground battle wherever they were properly employed. However, a tank is only as good as its crew, who are required to live and fight in the confines of a noisy, uncomfortable mobile armoured 'box', crammed with explosives and fuel, knowing that they could at any moment be blown to pieces. Lieutenant Colonel George Forty, who himself served for 32 years in the Royal Tank Regiment and was then Curator of the world-famous Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset, has collected together a wide range of first-hand accounts from the crewmen of both allied and Axis powers.------------------------------------------------------------------- Their experiences cover such diverse areas of wartime life as joining up, training, first action and first time wounded as well as operations and the everyday tasks concerned with living on a tank and manning it in action. Many of the accounts collected here are deceptively humorous, typifying the bravado shown by soldiers in the face of danger, and many of them are deeply moving. A broad range of photographs illustrate all aspects of life on board a tank and combine with the memories of the men to make Tank Warfare in the Second World War a fascinating read.