British and American Tanks of World War Two

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View books by Peter Chamberlain, Chris Ellis.

Excellent and Under-rated - Rated
It is not quite as good as their equivelent book on German AFV's, but my copy was fortunately proof read except for 1 minor error. The amount of technical and historical information you get for your money is possibly the best on allied afv's currently on the market. Its only flaw is the missing detailed arrangement of armour as found in the german companion.

Not as good as the German book - Rated
This work is thorough in it's coverage and does exactly what it says on the tin. However it is deficient in several areas.

All armour measurements are listed in the simplified maximum/minimum manner rather than the more detailed front/side/rear & turret/superstructure/hull/mantlet shown in the sister book on German vehicles. Similarly references are made throughout the book to up armoured vehicles or applique armour but measurements are not given.

In matters of production the page layout is nowhere near as user friendly as the German book; in fact it is hard work to read and it is riddled with errors and has clearly not been properly proof read (The famous German 55mm A/T gun for example)

The appendix covering weapons is poorly written and does not compare performance at the same ranges neither is it tabulated so it is of little use for comparison purposes.

The book appears in many areas to be rushed and unplanned.

On the positve side the explanation of production is very thorough and there is an excellent selction of photgraphs.

A good read for someone ignorant of the full range of allied Tanks on the Western front and Med but not of much use to the more informed and certainly not the encylopedic reference book the German work is.

A good piece of work - but the tanks a bleak - Rated
Peter Chamberlain, Chris Ellis have also produced the German equivalent which holds a huge amount of vehicles at an amazing level of detail (where did they manage to get all that info), however....

In contrast "British and American Tanks of World War Two: The Complete Illustrated History of British, American and Commonwealth Tanks" was quite disappointing, but to absolutely no fault of either Peter or Chris who, again have done an excellently detailed piece of work.

After having reviewed both German and Russian tanks it becomes apparent that the attempts made by the British and Americans are quite 'pathetic' in comparison. When looking at the conflict in as a whole this would make perfect sense as both America's and England's key requirement (and subsequent strength) lay in the Air force and the Navy.

If they had included the Russian tanks this could have really been an interesting read.... but they didn't. Pitty.

Plenty of tech. and historical data and loads of pictures - Rated
Each tank seems to be covered,with a generic specification and extra details per variant.

Each tank has a development story and production notes and details of design improvements, but no deployment history.

You do get quite alot pictures of the tanks and the variants, some in combat.