The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Tanks and Fighting Vehicles: A Technical Directory of Major Combat Vehicles from World War I to the Present Day

251 Pages·1977·72.461 MB·English

by  Christopher F. Foss

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of theW orld's
•
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of theW orlds
AND
ftGBTING VEHICLES
A technical directory of major combat vehicles from World War I
to the present day
Chief author and consultant: Christopher f Foss
Published by Salamander Books Limited
LONDON
A Salamander Book The Authors
This edition published 1977 by Salamander Books Ltd. Consultant and Chief Author:
Salamander House. Christopher F. Foss
27 Old Gloucester Street, Christopher Foss has made a study of the
London WC1 N 3AF world's armored fighting vehicles over
United Kingdom several years and is recognized as a leading
authority on this and allied subjects. He is
©Salamander Books Ltd. 1977
currently Weapons Correspondent for
ISBN 0 86101 003 5 Defence magazine and has written hun
dreds of technical articles and commen
Sixth impression 1982 taries on military equipment for publications
throughout the world, including Armies
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a and Weapons, Armor, Battle, Defence
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, Africa, Defence Latin America and Defence
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
Materiel Great Britain. He also wrote some
permission of Salamander Books Limited.
of the Profile Publications series of booklets
AFV/Weapons Profiles. He has several
All correspondence concerning the content of this volume should be
addressed to Salamander Books Ltd. authoritative books to his credit already,
including Jane's World Armoured Fighting
Vehicles, Jane's Pocketbook of Modern
Credits
AFVs, Jane's Pocketbook of Towed Artil
lery, besides contributing annually to Jane's
Editor: Ray Bonds Infantry Weapons and Jane's Weapon
Systems. He is also author of four books in
Designers: Ian Reeve, Rod and Andrew Sutterby, C. Steer an Ian Allan series: Armoured Fighting
Vehicles of the World, Infantry Weapons of
Colour drawings: Profile Publications Ltd.,
the World (with T. J. Gander), Artillery of
Terry Hadler, Tom Brittain, Mike Roffe, David Palmer, John W. Wood
the World and Military Vehicles of the
Line drawings: Terry Hadler World. He also contributed to Salamander's
The Encyclopedia of Land Warfare in the
Filmset by SX Composing, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England 20th Century.
Colour reproduction by Paramount Lithe, Basildon, Essex, England
Tritone colour reproduction by Web Offset Reproductions,
32 Paul Street, London EC2, and
Adtype Ltd., 29 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1, England
Printed in Belgium by Henri Proost et Cie, Turnhout
John F. Milsom Colonel John Stafford Weeks Captain Geoffrey Tillotson, RAOC
Having been educated at a military public Colonel John Weeks is currently Project Geoffrey Tillotson, BSc(Hons) Applied
school and at the Portsmouth College of Manager, Infantry Weapons, British Minis Science, is currently an Ammunition Tech
Technology, John Milsom served with the try of Defence, and he is also a lecturer in nical Officer, British Army, responsible for
Scientific Civil Service of the British infantry weapons at RMCS Shrivenham, antitank guided missiles. His Army service
Ministry of Defence, where he was con England. Commissioned in July 1948, he has included duty in Germany, Denmark,
cerned with several military studies asso has served with the British Army in many Norway, and Kenya, and his avid interest in
ciated with armoured warfare and the parts of the world, including the Middle ordnance dates back more than 12 years.
tactical and scientific development of East, Far East, Mediterranean, Scandinavia,
weapon systems. This involved long terms USA and Western Europe. He is a military
of employment in war games and field adviser to the authoritative annual publica
trials. In the meantime he also began his tions, Jane's Weapon Systems, Jane's
career as a military historian and left the Infantry Weapons and Brassey's Infantry Richard M. Ogorkiewicz, MSc(Eng),
Civil Service to carry out this work full-time Weapons, and he has written several books ACGI. DIC, CEng, FIMechE
in 1972. Following a series of articles in himself, including Men Against Tanks, Richard M. Ogorkiewicz is a mechanical
various technical military publications, his Airborne Equipment, Infantry Weapons of engineer with an international reputation in
first book was published in 1970, entitled World War II and Military Small Arms of the field of the technology of armoured
Russian Tanks 1900-1970. He has since the Twentieth Century. He is also the fighting vehicles. During the past twenty
written several other books, including author of numerous articles on military eight years he has written extensively on the
German Half-Tracks of World War II, equipment in various publications, includ subject in professional journals throughout
German Armoured Cars of World War II, ing Ordnance, American Rifleman, British the world and is the author of two widely
German Military Transport of World War II, Army Review, War Monthly and Guns recognised text books-Armour and Design
Russian Tanks of World War II, Armoured Review. and Development of Fighting Vehicles. He
Fighting Vehicles, and The Crusader, has also lectured on the subject at the
besides a series of weapons handbooks, invitation of the military authorities of
several of the Profile Publications AFVI several countries, as far apart as the United
Weapons Profile series and numerous other States, Sweden and Brazil, and has been
booklets. His main specialist interest is the widely consulted on the design and
development of the mechanisation of development of tanks and other armoured
Soviet ground forces. fighting vehicles.
Editors Acknowledgements
A great many people have helped us to produce this book. They
include manufacturers of tanks and other armoured fighting
vehicles, defence organisations of many different countries,
military archives all over the world, and individuals who have
scoured their photographic collections on our behalf. We
sincerely thank them all.
The book is sectionalised into the nations in which the
armoured fighting vehicles were manufactured, and the nations
are arranged alphabetically. Within the sections the vehicles are
dealt with chronologically by year of entry into service,
although where it was not possible, within this strict order, to
give the vehicle the space it deserved, the order has been
slightly modified.
Ray Bonds
Contents
Foreword 8 Italy 142
Austria 10 Japan 150
Belgium 11 Netherlands 164
Brazil 11 Poland 166
Britain 12 South Africa 167
Canada 62 Soviet Union 168
Czechoslovakia 64 Sweden 201
France 66 Switzerland 207
Germany 98 United States of America 208
Hungary 141 lndea 246
Foreword
by Richard M. Orgorkiewicz, capable of performing other roles, such as close support of the
MSc(Eng), ACGI, DIC, CEng, FIMechE. infantry and the exploitation of breakthroughs, which horse
cavalry was no longer able to perform. A few far-sighted military
thinkers, like General Fuller and Captain Liddell Hart in Britain
The entry of armoured fighting vehicles on the world scene is and General Estienne in France, perceived that the potentialities of
generally associated with the appearance of tanks in the middle of tanks extended even further - to being the principal equipment of
World War I. In fact, the first use of tanks on the Western Front in future ground forces. They advocated, therefore, that armies be
1916 was preceded by the development of armoured cars, which reorganised around tanks. But tanks needed to be developed
started in 1900. Moreover, the broad concept of fighting vehicles further before such radical ideas could be put into effect.
may be traced as far back as the war-chariots, which were widely Considerable progress in the development of tanks did, in fact,
used in the Near East in the second millenium BC, or to the siege take place during the 1920s and early 1930s, as was shown by
vehicles used by the Assyrians in the 9th century BC. the much greater speed of tanks built by the Vickers-Armstrong
Nevertheless, the importance of armoured fighting vehicles dates company in Britain and by Christie in the United States. Progress
from the middle of World War I, when the first tanks were built in was also made towards new types of formations which would
Britain and in France in response to the contemporary tactical make more effective use of tanks. A major step in this direction was
problem of attacking enemy trench lines. They proved very the Experimental Mechanised Force which the British Army
successful in this, as the British tanks first showed at the battle of formed in 1927 and within 10 years several armies created new
Cambrai in 1917, and thus provided a means of breaking the formations based on tanks.
deadlock of trench warfare. The most successful of the new formations proved to be the
Once tanks were built, it was soon realised that they were also Panzer divisions of the German Army, which played a decisive
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