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G'day, just started Reading "Tank Men" by Robert Kershaw. Just a few chapters in, but already I'm calling it recommended reading for micro-armour enthusiasts.
Maybe this post could begin a bit of a book review and discussion forum, I'm sure its been done before, I didn't look.

So far the book is intriguing, it heavily references a number personal accounts, from the top echelon leaders such as Guderian, Montgomery, Von Luck etc, to the lowly tanker of Britain, Germany, Russia and the U.S. So far I have read through the Polish and beginning of the French campaign. Any student of armoured warfare would know the basic reasons why the German Panzers were able to defeat the arguably superior French and English tanks in that conflict, but it has been amazing to read about the practical application of these tactics in the confusion and terror of Blitzkrieg by the men on both sides. Details like intercom, coordination within the crew and between tanks plus the extensive training the Germans received compared to their opposition are explained in detail by the men who were there, great stuff, again highly recommended.

I would recommend 'Brazen Chariots' bu Robert Crisp. As I recall, Crisp was a troop commander in the Royal Tank Regiment during Operation Crusader. He gives an excellent description of tank war from inside the turret, along with accounts of life in the Eight Army when they were out of combat.There isn't much on the operational or strategic level, I had the impression the author had very little idea of what higher command had in mind. I also had the impression that the British officers viewed tank warfare as a fox hunt were the fox got to shoot back.
Groundlber

Robert Crisp also wrote a book about his experiences in Greece, which preceeded the North African Campaign. This is titled, "The Gods were Neutral." I would recommend reading both this and "Brazen Chariots." I found his personal opinions concerning the quality of British tanks of the time (especially the tendency for tracks to become detatched at most inconvenient times) to be informative.

Don S.

Yeah, Crisp is referenced quite heavily in Tank Men, sounds like they will be good reading also.

Crisp also played Cricket for South Africa what a legend.

There is some interesting stuff about anti-tank guns. The rules I play take into account "fire orders", i.e. which guns/tanks can fire first (a good example is penalising 'one man turret tanks, as they had a high workload, hence why many of the French tanks got smashed by lighter armed early war panzers), also the visibility out of tanks 'buttoned up' vs those with commaders hatches open etc. In the book "tank men", the tankers had great difficulty against anti-guns, due to the fact they could never see them and the gunners were able to react quicker than the tankers.

In many of the miniatures rules, anti-tank guns are often quite vunerable, as tanks just have to pump in a HE round and it is all over.

Probably nothing new to the esteemed wargamers on this forum, but I thought I would go into what was being discussed in the book "Tank Men".

Out

re: "In many of the miniatures rules, anti-tank guns are often quite vunerable, as tanks just have to pump in a HE round and it is all over."

Most early-war British tanks were armed with 2-pdr. This had no HE round. A fraction of most types (identified as "CS") were armed with a light howitzer which could fire HE, smoke, etc, but was useless in an anti-armour role.

By comparison, the 37mm used by the US at the time had HE and canister (which the Marines used to good effect in SW Pacific).

Don S.

Excellent point Sir.

I think a lot of the rules do cover this aspect as well. In the army lists a good set of rules will indicate which weapons are capable of firing smoke, HE rounds etc.

Again the book goes into some detail about the fact that the Poms in North Africa were really vulnerable against the DAK anti-tank screens due to the limitations of the 2 Pndr, until the US Grant came in at some strength, when they could then use the 75mm to engage with HE at decent ranges.

After Crisp discusses the effectiveness of the German anti-tank guns, there is a later action were his unit has a battery of 2lber AT guns attached to it. As I recall, his reaction was "What are we supposed to do with these"? I would think that after being reamed by the Germans several times, the survivors of the British units might think about adjusting their tactics.
Still, the fact I remember so much of the book after not having read it for many years shows the book was a great read.
Groundlber

Sounds interesting. So much went on in that massive conflict, there are so many interesting stories out there. I like reading about some of the more obscure battles that went on, no less amazing or mind blowing, just not on the scale of a D-Day or Kursk, which have been written about 1000 times.

I found this on PDF, here is an online copy of an interesting document some of you may have seen. Actually this online copy is better quality than the PDF I have on my computer.

http://www.allworldwars.com/Small-Unit- ... ussia.html

I read Tank Men this year and would also recommend it. Although it seems the first half of the book was excellent, then petered out in the second as he started to address topics that affected every soldier not just things particular to tank men. The coverage after D-day was almost nil compared to earlier.

I would also recommend T-34 in Action froom Stackpole. Great first hand accounts from the Russian side, and at a great price.

I have both the documents in books fortm.

The one with Singling has the title "Small unit actions" and was published in 1986 by the War Department historical Division

The one on German small unit actions was published in 1988 by the Center of Military History, U.S. Army

I don't know if it was the same department that just changed name.