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"British Anti-Tank Artillery 1939-45" by Osprey

Discussion in 'The Library' started by Ricky, Nov 8, 2005.

  1. Ricky

    Ricky Well-Known Member

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    Oddly, this book was something of a disappointment for me.

    It covers all the main AT Guns in use by or developed for the British Army between 1939-45:

    Hochkiss 25mm
    Bofors 37mm
    2pdr
    6pdr
    17pdr
    37pdr
    Various recoiless guns

    Some of which I did not know about.

    It talks a lot about their design, the carriages used, the continual upgrades while in service etc - even details the crew, their jobs & where they were positioned during firing.

    However, it lacks much in the way of 'combat history', and only the 2pdr has any kind of 'penetration data' given.

    Moreover, the various stats that are given (for example, muzzle velocity) are given in Imperial for the British guns (feet per second) and Metric for the Hotchkiss & Bofors (meters per second) making a quick & easy comparison extremely difficult.

    In summary - good for technical detail about the design & manufacture of the weapons (I learned what 'autofraggetting is!), ok-ish for a brief combat history, quite poor on statistics for the guns (aside from dimensional data).

    It does have lots of nice pictures though...
     
  2. Oli

    Oli New Member

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    Dimesional data and drawings are exactly what I'm after - must buy a copy.
    Does it include anything at all on Vickers HV 75mm, 10 pdr, 12 pdr, 55 pdr?
     
  3. Ricky

    Ricky Well-Known Member

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    Nope.

    It is entirely on towed AT guns.
    (Actually, the title is 'artillery' - I must alter it. :oops: )
     
  4. Skua

    Skua New Member

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    I haven't bought this book yet, but I'm planning to. The weaknesses you describe, Ricky, are typical for the New Vanguard series in my experience. But you know what you get, and it's usually good value for your money in any case.
     

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