Free eBook Armoured Firepower: The Development of Tank Armament 1939-45 download

I rated this three stars due to the numerous technical errors. I bought it mainly as a reference work which means the technical errors inside give doubt to the accuracy of any details. Someone unconcerned with accurate technical details might give it a higher rating. It does contain a good deal of information often not detailed in other books.

The first few pages marked with Roman numerals from IX to XVII consist of a glossary of terms (abbreviations), list of illustrations, and introduction which briefly explains warfare and the rise of the tank, and Leonardo da Vinci's famous tank design. The other 1 to 260 numbered pages provide the bulk of the work; after the blank page at 245 the rest is a bibliography and index.

A number of black and white illustrations of gun parts, ammunition, tanks, basic turret components, sighting markings, the very basic layout of various recoil systems are included. Cutaway illustrations are provided of some items. As are numerous black and white photos of the vehicles that carried them and components, some spanning 2 pages.

This is not an encyclopedia. Armor penetration quotes are not included. They vary by source anyway, but the author could have compiled and contrasted various quotes and as well as the real-life results.

Chapter One “Tank Development up to 1939” starts with World War One (the First World War) and goes into a good bit of detail concerning British, French, and German tank development, mentioning the design process, numbers produced, needs for training facilities. The explanation of the British male and female versions is perhaps conjecture as a different source indicates that while the males also carried machine guns it was felt there were not enough to handle large numbers of German infantry. He does, though, mention the “supply tanks” and “salvage tanks” (recovery). The version of the French FT tank with the 75mm S gun is not mentioned.

The interwar period is discussed including failures to envision the role of the tank on the future battlefield. Towards the end of the chapter the author mentions the fact that the British had the Naval 6-pounder in World War I and conjectures the British did not improve it for the Second World War, perhaps because of inter-branch rivalry. The weapon developed was designed to improve performance, etc.

Chapter Two “Tank Design and Firepower” explains cannon and projectiles at a basic level (or advanced level for the basic reader), including a chart on railway loading gauges and their theoretical effect on design and basic cannon concepts.

Then the author provides a chapter each on British, German, Soviet and American Tank Armament (3, 4, 5, 6). Chapter Seven covers ammunition types and basic details, and chapter eight Fire Control Systems. Chapters A to E cover (A) British weapons; (B) Self Propelled German artillery listed out but not detailed; (C) German tank weapons; (D) Soviet Tank weapons; and (E) American Tank weapons. The 75mm howitzer as used on the M8 HMC is not mentioned. Machine guns and small automatic cannon like the British, German and Soviet 20mm are also detailed. Each weapon has basic statistics in metric and pounds/inches/feet etc.: caliber, length overall, length of bore, weight of the gun (not for British weapons) weight of a few select projectiles, muzzle velocity, a date (year) into service. Coverage can vary some by nation, such as a lack of gun weight for the British entries or provision of a cartridge case number for the German weapons but not other countries.

Interestingly enough the author does not try to demonize General Lesley McNair and the Army Ground Forces for “delaying” the development and production of the U.S. M26 Pershing. That old wives tale (or more accurately blatant lie) has been spread by other authors: as he notes, the issue was that the decision to allow the development of the T25/T26 came too late and the AGF's own efforts concentrated on preventing/delaying production, which failed. Little mention is made in most discussions concerning the time (months) needed to develop what was in essence an entirely new tank and how the best to be expected when starting in May 1943 was finalized types in May 1944 and production and issue at best in late 1944 and more like 1945. It only took some 19 to 21 months to get the M3 and then M4 medium tanks designed and in production, starting with the M2 medium for a basis. Work on the simpler, lighter M24 began in April 1943 and issue did not begin until November 1944 and actual receipts in December 1944.

Errors are quite common. Both writers and ordinary people have in turn quoted some of these bad facts without pausing to consider them.

Page 176: The actual performance of most HEAT projectiles was below 2 times the caliber, and the designers could only fantasize about performance of 3.5 times the caliber. Page 180 shows a poor design for a HEAT round - the fuse in the nose would risk being damaged by the impact and perhaps interfere with the function itself (the text mentions the base detonating fuze).

Page 225 an overall length of 136 inches is given for the 77mm which is only 45 calibers while the bore length of “49” calibers (which is closer to 50) and hence is a wrong number.

No mention of the Ordnance, QF, 3.7-in CS Mortar being named a “mortar” to differentiate it from the 3.7-inch infantry howitzer.

The bore lengths of all the U.S. cannon in caliber are wrong; the numbers are closer to the overall length. The overall length of the 105mm Howitzer M4 is completely wrong.

The U.S. had great success with the 37mm canister shot (pg. 176).

The U.S. only used APDS ammunition when the British supplied 6-pounder APDS rounds, otherwise was forced to use HVAP ammunition (APCR with an aerodynamic sheath) because the Army Ground Forces did not approve of the discarding sabot due to possible injury to nearby troops. The British did not develop the “squeeze bore” APCNR (per pages 183-185) but rather took the concept from the German 28/20 squeeze bore cannon encountered in North Africa.

The U.S. 90mm was superior to the German 88mm KwK36 and related family of Flak cannon. The 8.8cm KwK43, Pak43 and Flak43 were superior to it, though.

This book has various bits of useful information, but also a number of technical details that will make the reader look like a fool if they quote them.

While advertised as a book on AFV weaponry, this is really just a standard history of tank development of the war years. Its jacket boasts of "five highly detailed appendices" (1 for each of the main countries covered) yet none of them carry the armor penetration of the weapons. I found it amazing how little information could be packed in 250 pages. If you are looking for a book on weaponry, Chant's "World Encyclopedia of the Tank" has essentially all the information contained in "Armoured Firepower" and contains info on all tanks, from WW1 through the present. It is a much better buy.