Tanks at War

Tanks at War was compiled by the pseudonymous "Factus" and published by Bernards during the Second World War as a guide to recognising armoured fighting vehicles, friend or foe, at a time when any soldier or Home Guardsman might have to tell one from another at a glance.

Arranged by nation, it describes about eighty tanks and armoured cars: American types including the Stuart, Lee, Grant and Sherman; British vehicles from the Beaverette and Humber armoured cars and the Bren carrier to the Matilda, Valentine, Churchill, Covenanter and Crusader; the Canadian Ram; Czechoslovak, French, German, Italian and Japanese designs, among them the Somua, the Char B and the German Pz.Kw. I to IV; and Russian vehicles including the T.34 and the KV heavy tanks. Each entry gives a drawing of the vehicle with its dimensions, weight, crew, armament, speed and range, and a note on how to recognise it.

The book ends with an essay on the recognition of armoured fighting vehicles, a practical piece on the art of tank destruction, a key drawing naming the parts of a tank, and the original errata and new modifications.

A vivid record of how Britain taught its soldiers to identify the armour of the Second World War, it will appeal to modellers, collectors and students of armoured warfare.