Tanks: 100 years of evolution

Professor Richard Ogorkiewicz has been active in the field of tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles far longer than I have lived and I am retired! He is actually 89 years old 2015 and in his CV you will find among everything that he once worked together with Sir Basil Liddel Hart! There are few people in this field that has such a reputation and background as Professor Ogorkiewicz. He has now published "Tanks 100 Years of Evolution" that is probably his last book on the subject. It was impossible not to get it and read. Usually I do not buy books about tanks that are trying to cover the whole field. Having a rather large library on the subject I am looking for far more specialized books since there are so many books written for the beginners in the field. But this one was interesting because first of all it was written by Professor Ogorkiewicz and secondly it is sometimes interesting to take a step back and look at the overall picture. The Book covers tank development in the whole world from the late 1800 to a few years ago. Taking on such a huge field can be very difficult but in this case the book is a very good example of how it is done when it is done right. It was a pure joy to read from page one and to the end. Very often you will stop and reflect on various tanks that you might not have thought about for a very long time. It is easy for various writers when you write about tanks to list the general data for the tank like weight and armament and then leave it at that. But with the knowledge that Professor Ogorkiewicz has you get information that is hard to find. Examples of how the tank was to operate and what components that failed and made the tank a problem for the crew or what made it work better than expected. With his contacts and background he was often involved as an advisor in designing tanks and that means you have to have technical knowledge on everything from tracks to gun power. For me the highlights of the book came in the appendixes. Here he writes about system components and their history. Here are data that are sometimes impossible to find and it makes you think that this is not only an summary but also a book you will return to since the data is so hard to find in other sources. There are some pictures and of course you wish for more. The Number of photos in the book do not support the huge amount of different tanks in the text but having illustrations for everyone would have made this a far larger and far more expensive project. There are a few mistakes concerning some details and the wonderful typo of the weight of the Tiger tank (570 tons!) but it does not devalue the book. I would have loved to see the book as a 3000 pages bible but at 300 it is still a great product. I am very glad that Professor Ogorkiewicz has made the effort to once again share his huge knowledge. For everyone interested in the field, this is one of the books you should read.

Xmas present, compact but full of info

This is an excellent history of tanks beautifully recounted by an expert who is also a very good writer. My only gripe it the plates are difficult to find as so often with Kindle books. The descriptions by the author are very good, but the plates are essential for non-experts like me

There are many books that offer an overview of tank history and development, but this one is written by one of the paramount experts in his field, and it shows.This is an authoritative book (the author has met many of the key personalities), insights abound, and no more so than in the appendices where he reviews and summarises the major issues that face all tank developers: Gun power, protection and mobility. Whilst the bulk of the book is an summary history of tank development, the appendices provide the framework that allows the reader to appreciate why many tank design decisions came out the way they did. Well written, authoritative, insightful; if you have any interest in tanks then this should be on your reading list.

The book was for a present,and he really enjoys reading it!!

Ogorkiewicz cannot be faulted for his subject knowledge. He covers the history of tanks then has separate chapters dedicated to the development of main armament, engines and armour. However, after a while I felt I was getting too bogged down in the finer details being described of the immense variety and designs of tanks throughout the twentieth century. I began skipping from this book to others on my Kindle just for a rest and some light relief. The biggest problem I has was that all the illustrations were at the end of each 'era' i.e., there was nothing until the end of WW2, so I found myself frequently reaching for my tablet in order to see what any particular tank looked like, especially as with the variety included; pilot models, one off failures etc., they sounded interesting. This may be the way that it has to be laid out for the Kindle format, but it does become irritating. A very learned tome, but one for the dedicated armour buff.

Well written, informative and (perhaps surprisingly) a real page turner. Definately a great grounding in the subject. The photos dont really add much, but the clear and punchy prose is a real plus.

Great Primer if you know little about the development of tanks, nothing new if you are already fairly well read on the subject.

libro eccellente, da non perdere, certo l'edizione rilegata è nettamente più costosa ma un bel libro vale sempre la spesa.

The book definitely does its job well at describing the development and evolution of tanks. My only nitpick is with the lack of illustrations. There are photographs in the book but they are all bunched together in the middle of the book so you have to flip back and forth refer to them. I spotted two caption errors for the photographs which is a shame given the calibre of the author. For example, the photo of the Merkava 2D is described as a Merkava 3. This book would have been absolutely excellent if there were illustrations to accompany the description of the components and technology discussed in the text. In hindsight due to my own nitpick about the lack of illustrations, I would have chosen the Kindle version instead of the print version of the book.

Great book. Well researched by someone who knows their subject in great detail. Highly recommended.

In the first sentence of his new book, author Richard Ogorkiewicz states that "this book is the outcome of several years of study on the evolution of tanks." It's probably fair to say that the phrase "several years" is a gross understatement. No one has been studying and writing about tanks and armored warfare for as long as Richard Ogorkiewicz. His first book "Armor: the Development of Armored Forces" came out in 1960. This was followed by "Design and Development of Armored Vehicles" in 1968 and by the two volume set "Technology of Tanks" in 1991. This new book is in some ways a combination of the three previous works, updating and condensing them into a single volume. The book is approximately 300 pages, with the first half of the book devoted to early tank development and armored forces up through the Second World War. The second half of the book includes a description of postwar tank development organized by country. Russia, Germany, the USA, Britain and France get the most coverage, although other countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Israel and the tank producing countries of Asia get attention as well. This is followed by a substantial three part appendices focused on the technical developments associated with firepower, armor, and mobility. These appendices include a great deal of information regarding the technical aspects of tank design in a very easy to understand manner. As with his previous books, Ogorkiewicz's writing is clear and easy to read. Given the size of the topic addressed in 300 pages, the book moves along quite quickly. Despite this, even those very well versed with the topic are bound to learn something new. The one flaw of the book is the lack of illustrations. There are two sections of color photos, roughly 30 pages worth. While this sounds like a lot, the pictures cover only a small fraction of the vehicles mentioned in the text. Readers who do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of tank models would do well to keep an illustrated tank encyclopedia on hand while reading this book. Oddly, at least two of the photos are incorrectly labeled. One is of an early model US M60 tank that is incorrectly labeled an M60A1. The other is of the XM1 FSED pilot labeled as an M1A1 with 120mm gun. It is hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Ogorkiewicz to write a single volume history of the tank. He has been writing on the topic for more than half a century and has met and corresponded with some of the most notable figures in armor history. This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in tanks and armor history and at $25.95 is far more affordable than his older, long out of print works.

Ce livre se compose de deux parties : - une première partie décrivant l'histoire des chars dans tous les pays qui en ont développé et produit, de l'origine au début du 21è siècle . Dans un seul livre se trouvent ainsi rassemblées d'une façon exhaustive des informations que l'on ne pouvait trouver que dans de ouvrages séparés. Rien que pour ceci, le livre de Richard Ogorkiewicz est une référence. - des annexes qui analysent l'évolution dans le temps des trois caractéristiques techniques majeures d'un char : - la puissance de feu, - la protection, - la mobilité. Ces annexes qui représentent 25% du livre en font l'originalité et la valeur. Elles décrivent bien les problèmes auxquels les concepteurs de chars ont été confrontés et les réponses qu'ils ont trouvées. Elle complètent parfaitement la première partie. En résumé, ce livre est indispensable à tout amateur des blindés et de leur histoire. Son exhaustivité lui permettra de retrouver rapidement tout information historique ou technique. L'utilisation opérationnelle au combat des chars n'est toutefois pas l'objet du livre. This book consists of two parts: - A first section describing the history of tanks in all countries that have developed and produced them , from the origin to the early 21th century. In one book are thus gathered exhaustively information that could only be found in separate books. Just for this, the book of Richard Ogorkiewicz is a reference. - Annexes which analyze the evolution over time of the three major technical characteristics of a tank: - Firepower, - protection, - mobility. These annexes which represent 25% of the book make its originality and value. They describe well the problems the tank designers were faced with and the answers they have found. They perfectly complement the first part. In summary, this book is essential for any amateur of tanks and their history. Completeness enable him to quickly find any historical or technical information. The operational use in combat tanks is however not the subject of the book.