T-34: The Red Army's Legendary Medium Tank

It could be said that the T-34 was the tank that won the Second World War. In total 57,000 were produced between 1941 and 1945. Stalin's tank factories outstripped Hitler's by a factor of three to one, and production of the T-34 also exceeded that of the famed American M4 Sherman. Not only did this output swamp German panzer production, the T-34 was a robust no frills war-winning design - easy to manufacture and reliable. Its sloping armour was innovative at the time and its wide tracks suited it to off-road warfare. Crucially it required little maintenance in comparison to German tanks, and its chassis was used as the basis for a range of assault guns, the SU-85, SU-100 and SU-122. Anthony Tucker-Jones's photographic history of this exceptional armoured vehicle follows its story through the course of the war, from its combat debut against the Wehrmacht during Operation Barbarossa, through the Red Army's defeats and retreats of 1941 and 1942 to the tide-turning victories at Stalingrad and Kursk and on through the long, rapid Soviet advance across Ukraine and Byelorussia to Berlin. As well as a range of rare archive photographs and photographs of a surviving example of the T-34, the book features specially commissioned colour illustrations. AUTHOR: Anthony Tucker-Jones is a former Defence Intelligence Officer and a widely published expert on regional conflicts and counter-terrorism. He is author of over a dozen books including the Rise of Militant Islam and is security and terrorism correspondent for intersec - The Journal of International Security. He has freelanced for Channel 4 News and writes regular analysis for Defencemanagement.com and Publicserviceeurope.com. He holds an MA in International Relations and Strategic Studies. For further information his website can be found at www.atuckerjones.com. 200 illustrations