Axis Armoured Fighting Vehicles Of The Second World War

During the Second World War the Axis powers, most prolifically the Germans, deployed a vast array of armored fighting vehicles to support their tanks and infantry. These included tank destroyers, reconnaissance vehicles, flame-thrower vehicles, and self-propelled artillery pieces. Armored tank destroyers, such as the Marder series, the Nashorn, Jagdpanther, Jagdtiger and the turretless German Stu III series (based on the Panzer III medium tank), helped the Nazis overcome their shortage of tanks. Copying the Stu III series the Italians created the turretless Semovente da 75/18 assault gun and the Hungarians the turretless Zrinyi. In the role of self-propelled artillery the German fielded the Hummel, the Wespe and the Grille while the Brummbar and the Sturmtiger performed in the dedicated assault gun role. For armored reconnaissance German industry came up with a series of capable armored cars; examples were the eight-wheel Puma and the full-tracked Luchs reconnaissance tank. The Italians developed the impressive four-wheel Autoblinda armored cars. Specialized antiaircraft tanks such the Mobelwagen, Wirbelwind and the Ostwind gave some protection against the ever more powerful Allied air forces. This fine book covers all these variants and many more besides in words and rare images and will delight readers, collectors, model-makers and war-gamers.

Filled with fine-scale drawings of Australian, Belgian, Canadian, Czech, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, and South African armored vehicles, including: • Centauro Tank Destroyer (Italy) • TKS Light Reconnaissance Tank (Poland) • Ram "Kangaroo" Personnel Carrier (Canada) • Renault R-35 Light Tank (France) • Type 3 Chi-nu Heavy Tank (Japan) • Scorpion AC1 Cruiser Tank (Australia) • TACAM R-2 Tank Hunter (Romania) • And many, many more . . .

Shows tanks, armored cars, command vehicles, carriers, and reconnaissance vehicles used by the Allied and Axis powers and recounts the development and use of each vehicle

Filled with 1:72-scale drawings of armored vehicles from Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, and Romania.

Filled with 1:72-scale drawings of armored vehicles from the U.S., Britain, Canada, and Russia, including: M4 Sherman medium tank (U.S.) T1E3 Aunt Jemima mine exploder (U.S.) M18 Hellcat tank destroyer (U.S.) Mk VI Crusader cruiser tank (Britain) Crocodile flamethrower (Britain) Ram I cruiser tank (Canada) T-34 medium tank (Russia) SU-100 tank destroyer (Russia) And dozens more . . .

This pictorial history presents an in-depth study of the various tanks built and deployed by the Axis Alliance during WWII. Though Nazi Panzer tanks have become a ubiquitous symbol of Axis Alliance combat, the Japanese Army had more tanks than Germany in 1938. These included the Type 95 light tank and the Type 89 and 97 medium tanks. Other Axis powers, including Italy, Romania and Hungary also built their own tanks. The latter was responsible for the Toldi and Turan light tank series. In this informative collection of wartime photographs, military expert Michael Green discusses how the Axis powers drew on British and French tank designs in the period leading up to the Second World War. The Carden-Loyd tankette suspension was used as a model for the Panzer 1 series as well as the light Italian and Japanese tanks. German engineering talent then produced the ingenious designs of the Panzer II, III and IV series and, later in the War, the Panther Medium and Tiger heavy tanks.

This WWII history vividly captures the Hungarian tanks and military vehicles that fought in Central and Eastern Europe through rare wartime photographs. The Kingdom of Hungary emerged from the Great Depression as a staunch ally of Germany and Italy. In the Second World War, the Central European country not only organized its armed forces in support of the Axis Powers, but also developed its own military industry to supply weapons and equipment to its troops. The Hungarian military produced all kinds of weapons, vehicles and armored vehicles, although they were generally under-gunned and under-armored. This book explores Hungary's participation in the Second World War through superb photographs showcasing its varieties of armored fighting vehicles. Wartime images take the reader from the beginning of the USSR campaign all the way to the bloody Siege of Budapest and the last clashes in Austrian and Slovenian territory before the army's unconditional surrender.

This is the land equivalent of Jane's Battleships, a comprehensive encyclopaedia of all the combat vehicles of World War II from Somaliland to Japan. A nation-by-nation overview of each country's development of tanks and their involvement in World War II is before providing an A-Z of each army's tanks and fighting vehicles including armoured cars, personnel carriers, amphibious craft and mortar carriers. Quirkier profiles of vehicles such as the German TKS tankette are given.

Expert author Michael Green has compiled a full inventory of the armored fighting vehicles developed and deployed by the Allied armies during the six year war against Nazi Germany and her Axis partners.Tank destroyers included the US Army's M18 Hellcat and M36 Jackson, the British Archer and Achilles and the Soviets SU-85, SU-100 and SU-122.Self-propelled artillery vehicles provide indirect fire support. Examples of these were the British Bishop and Sexton, the US M7 Army Priest and The Red Armys SU-152 Beast Slayer.For reconnaissance the Allies fielded armored cars and scout cars such as the Daimler Dingo, the US M8 Greyhound and T17 Staghound, and the Russian BA-10, –20 and -64.AFVs such as the British full tracked Universal Carrier and US M3 halftracks were fitted with a range of weapon systems, such as mortars or machine guns.All these and many more AFVs are expertly described in words and captioned images in this comprehensive work which is the companion volume to the authors Allied Tanks of the Second World War.

Contains fine scale drawings of German AFVs covering the time period of the Blitzkrieg across Europe through the greatest tank battle in history, Kursk. Multiple angles provide a level of detail for the 8-wheeled Armored Car, Sd. Kfz. Panzer I Tank, Sd. Kfz. Panzer II Tank, Sd. Kfz. Panzer 35 T Tank, Sd. Kfz. Panzer IIIm Sd. Kfz. Armored Halftrack, and dozens more.