American Tanks & AFVs of World War II
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Author: Michael Green
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-78200-931-3
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 376
While much attention has been given to the German armored might of the Second World War, the American involvement is by no means small. It started the war with a meager order of tanks, only 329 light tanks in fact, but by the end of the war nearly 90,000 tanks had been built, more than England and Germany combined. These were not all just for the US, either, as US-made tanks found their way into the militaries of just about every Allied military. This book provides a comprehensive overview of all of these armored vehicles, from those early light tanks to the latest, most advanced tanks produced by the US during the war.
The book is broken down into specific sections that cover general large segments of the armored vehicle range. These include:
- Early Medium Tanks
- M4 Series Tanks
- Light Tanks
- Heavy Tanks
- Tank Destroyers
- Armored Cars
- Armored Half-Tracks
- Self-Propelled Artillery
- Landing Vehicles, Tracked
Each section then takes a look at their respective tanks, with a text writeup complemented by plenty of photographs. The latter are quite nice, being well printed with some in color.
While it would be easy to find more detailed texts on specific tanks, this book shines as a one-stop single reference on all the vehicles produced by the US during the war. As such, it is a great starting point for finding out about a particular vehicle. My thanks to Osprey for the review copy.