The Tanks: History of the Royal Tank Regiment, 1945-75

London: Arms & Armour. Very Good/Good. 1979. Hard Cover. 8vo 0853682933 Dust jacket rubbed to top and tail of spine, tiny closed tear, unclipped. Original black cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. Previous owner'ss book plate and ownership name and date on fffep. 104 pages with 36 illustrations and 8 maps. This is the story of Britain's armoured forces from the end of the Second World War to the late seventies-an age of turbulent change in which the Royal Tank Regiment had to cope with difficult wars and 'confrontations' as well as technological and tactical revolutions in warfare. Involved in the forefront of nearly all the trouble spots of the Cold and 'Limited' Wars, the Regiment has been on active service in such far-flung places as Palestine, Hong Kong, Korea, the Suez Canal zone, Akabar, India, Malaysia, East Africa, Aden and Cyprus. Active service in Northern Ireland continues. Written by Kenneth Macksey, himself a former member of the Royal Tank Regiment and author of many books on tank warfare and military history, this book continues, and brings up to date, the story begun by Sir Basil Liddell Hart in The Tanks, volumes I and II. As never before in its history, the British Army found itself compelled in peacetime to match its military effort to the standards of a welfare state and an affluent society, to fight its wars, maintain equipment that was more complex than any before, and react to a wide diversity of challenges-while coping with the administrative problems associated with families, a high standard of living and problems of recruiting such as the men of the 1920s and 1930s would have found inconceivable. The Royal Tank Regiment's part in this evolution is doubly interesting because it has been as intricately involved as all the other units of the Army (and, in addition, has found itself in the lead as instigator) in many other fields, such as the development of the tank (which is still the dominant battlefield weapon), the introduction of guided weapons and the battlefield employment of armed helicopters-all of which, along with other inventions, go to make up a substantial and revealing section of this book. .