George Forty – författare

This fully-updated book is an authoritative directory of tanks and their immediate derivatives, such as tank destroyers and armoured recovery vehicles. It begins with a history of tank design and evolution from its first action at Flers during World War I and its dominance on the battlefields of Europe in World War II to the powerful fighting machines of the 20th and 21st century seen in more recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. There then follows two directories: 1914-1945 and 1946 to the Present Day. Focusing on some 230 tanks, each entry includes a description and history with a specification panel detailing the tank's crew, weight, dimensions, armament, armour, powerplant and performance. The tanks are wonderfully illustrated with over 650 photographs, many of which are from the famous Tank Museum at Bovington, Dorset, UK, and never previously published in one volume.

Updated and extended for the new 2025 edition. Now an impressive 576 pages, this book is an authoritative history and directory of tanks and their immediate derivatives, such as ARVs (armoured recovery vehicles), tank destroyers, command versions, bridgelayers, mine-clearers and other Funnies, and AFVs such as armoured cars, armoured personnel carriers and self-propelled artillery, covering a vast range of wheeled, tracked and semi-tracked vehicles. This unique volume, with over 1200 wartime and museum photographs, brings together the most significant tanks and AFVs in military history. The tank was developed as a means of transporting firepower around the battlefield, while armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) give tactical support to the tank. This book is an authoritative history and directory of tanks and their immediate derivatives, such as armoured recovery vehicles, tank destroyers, command versions, bridgelayers, mine-clearers and other "Funnies". It also explores a wide range of AFVs, such as armoured cars, armoured personnel carriers and self-propelled artillery, covering wheeled, tracked and semi-tracked vehicles. From their first appearance to their present-day roles, the development of each vehicle is discussed in depth. All of the major conflicts around the world are examined, such as the Somme, Blitzkrieg, El Alamein, Kursk, D-Day, Korea, Vietnam, Arab-Israeli conflicts, and the Iran-Iraq and Gulf wars. The book also features substantial A to Z directories of over 400 vehicles, from the world's first tank - the No. 1 Lincoln Machine "Little Willie" - to the contemporary M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank and Varta APC, as well as madcap ideas such as those developed by the British for the Home Guard. This unique volume, illustrated with over 1200 wartime and museum photographs, brings together all the most significant tanks and AFVs that have played important roles in military history.

The battles in North Africa hold a unique place in the history of World War II. Praised in Parliament and the British press, German commander Erwin Rommel achieved near-mythical status as a general. The fighting was seen as one of few “clean” wars fought by the Nazis, marked by mutual respect between the opponents. And the desert setting was dramatic: blistering daytime heat and plummeting temperatures at nights, abrasive sandstorms and flash floods, from Egypt’s Qattara Depression to Tunisia’s Atlas Mountains—an arena that still bore the marks of battles as far back as Roman times where Scipio had fought Hannibal. The weather and terrain produced a fearsome place to fight a war.This is also the theater in which the U.S. forces made their first significant appearance in the battles against Hitler, where the men who would lead in Normandy came together from American and British forces, resulting in a victory that saw a quarter of a million German and Italian soldiers captured.Richly illustrated, this completely revised edition of George Forty’s classic work provides an eyewitness account of what it was like to fight and survive in the desert, examines the importance of intelligence and codebreaking, and reassesses Rommel’s reputation as a battlefield commander.

Major General Rea Leakey was one of the Royal Tank Regiment’s greatest heroes of the Second World War. As a young tank commander, he fought Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the Western Desert of Egypt, before becoming trapped for six months in the siege of Tobruk and temporarily joining the Australian infantry as an honorary Lance Corporal. He later returned to the European theatre in 1944 and served as a Churchill tank commander in Normandy, the Rhine and Germany. Despite it being strictly forbidden, Leakey kept a diary throughout his soldiering career. Based on this valuable account, Leakey’s Luck documents Leakey’s wartime service in its entirety, and offers a view of the war through the eyes of a man who was there at the ‘sharp end’. Many of his exploits were hair-raising, some even too fantastic to believe. Incredibly, Leakey’s luck held out throughout the war, and he remained in the British Army until retirement in 1968.

The only part of the British Isles that can answer the question 'What was it like to be invaded and occupied in World War 2?’ are the holiday islands of Jersey, Alderney, Guernsey and Sark. Left undefended in 1940, they fell like ripe plums into German hands.Thereafter they were turned into the most heavily defended parts of the Nazi Atlantic Wall, with massive fortifications, gun emplacements and underground storage tunnels. An army of foreign 'slave workers' was brought in as well as the 27,000 German troops (known as the 'Canada Division' as it was widely assumed that they would eventually become POWs!)Amid the routine of occupation came periods of danger and action from raiding parties. After D-Day the German garrison was cut off and 'the Hunger winter' resulted. In May 1945 the Germans surrendered amid much rejoicing.

In the week after the D-Day landings, British and Canadian forces in the east were ordered to pin down as many German troops as possible to take the pressure off the Americans. This book describes the attempted capture of Villers-Bocage and Evrecy as well as Lingevres and Les Verrieres.