If you were to see a photograph of a 50‐year old car you would soon recognize it as such, but if it were a 50‐year old tank, few of us could be so discriminating. Gelbart’s book demonstrates that appearances are deceptive. Like the battleship of 100 years ago, the tank is subject to the inherent conflict between firepower, speed and armour, and each design has different priorities. Thus the Soviet Army (expecting to attack) emphasized speed, whereas the British (expecting to be on the defensive) preferred armour. Again, just as with battleships, there have been constant efforts to improve firepower and then protection, as a comparison of Gelbart’s volume with Norris’s demonstrates. When the size of guns, and the thickness of armour, both reached the limits of practicality, gunners resorted to shaped‐charge projectiles and armourers deserted steel for more exotic materials. For instance, the most modern tanks are fitted with armour which actually explodes outwards to disrupt incoming projectiles. The answer is a missile with two warheads, one to set off the explosive armour while the second penetrates the tank. And so on.
Both these volumes, written by professionally qualified authors, appear to be written in the main for professionally qualified readers, though the interested layman (as I can testify) would also profit by them. There is a glossary to help the faint‐hearted reader who does not know his APDS from his APFSDS. Every tank, and every anti‐tank weapon, in current service, whatever its age, is fully described, with as many performance indicators listed as possible; not only the more obvious features, such as calibre of guns, but more subtle ones such as the gradient a tank can overcome sideways. Photographs are also included, being left out only when the weapon is too secret for one to be had. Norris’s book lacks captions to the photographs, a confusing matter when several are present on the same page, and one which might be corrected in a future edition. There are practically no recognition diagrams, perhaps because most of the intended readers could see these elsewhere. Much stress is placed on up‐to‐date information, so much so that several weapons are included that have not seen service. Let us hope that many of these may never fire their guns in anger.
At a relatively moderate price, these books would be useful in any library where readers had an interest in military affairs, or simply wanted to know what the Government was spending their money on. But in this context, is it really true that the Trigat missiles cost £25,000,000 apiece?
