Leopard tanks - Duitsland: boeken - historie, typen en techniek

In dem vorliegenden Band wird der Kampfpanzer Leopard 1 in umfassender Weise behandelt. Der KPz Leopard 1 hat sich als erstes deutsches Panzerprojekt im Nachkriegszeitraum als ein sehr erfolgreiches Produkt erwiesen und wurde ab den 70er Jahren von 13 Nationen genutzt.
Der Autor wurde als Reserveoffizier in der Panzertruppe u.a. auf dem KPz Leopard 1 ausgebildet und kennt daher das Fahrzeug mit allen seinen Facetten aus der Praxis.

In dem Band wird der komplette Werdegang des Fahrzeugs - von der Entwicklung über die Serie und Nutzung bis hin zur Aussonderung - beschrieben. Hinzu kommen ausführliche Betrachtungen zu den Komponenten und zu Ausrüstungsteilen des Fahrzeugs.
Zahlreiche Bilder - darunter viele bislang unveröffentlichte Aufnahmen des Autors aus dessen Zeit auf dem KPz Leopard 1 - vervollständigen die Textteile und führen zu einem hohen Informationswert dieses Bandes.

The Leopard 1 family of vehicles became the first fully-German developed series of armoured combat vehicles to be built since the end of the Second World War. Using the German-built version of the British L7 105mm gun the Leopard focused on firepower and with its impressive cross-country performance it was unmatched by most other tank designs of the era.

Michael Shackleton and Mike Cecil consider the design, development, anatomy and operational service of the Leopard 1 in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Croatia, Kosova and Somalia.

Development of the Leopard 1 can be traced back to November 1956, when the operational requirement for a new battle tank was formulated by the Federal German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr). Originally a Franco-German project, the tank under design was named the 'Standard-Panzer'. The French later dropped out, however, and on 1 October 1963 the 'Standard' tank was officially named 'Leopard', an appropriate choice considering Germany's wartime pedigree with the formidable Tiger and Panther.

This book traces the development and service record of the Leopard 1, detailing its control systems, modifications and variants.

Contents: Design and Development - Series Production - First Modernisation - Second Modernisation - Upgrading the Leopard I - Inside the Leopard I A5 - The Leopard I in Foreign Service - Variants.

In 1963 West Germany and the United States signed an agreement to develop the best tank in the world - the MBT/KPz-70. Though by 1970 this project was stopped, West Germany used the components created for the MBT/KPz-70 to develop a new main battle tank - the Leopard 2. Since 1979, when the first Leopard 2 rolled off the production line, the Leopard 2 has undergone various modifications, and has been exported to various European countries.
Enhanced by Osprey's signature colour plates and cutaway artwork, this book examines the development of the Leopard 2 from the first batch to its evolution into the improved Leopard 2 A5, detailing its features and variants.

Contents: Design and Development - The Leopard 2 AV - Series Production - Inside the Leopard 2A4 - The Improved Leopard 2 - The Leopard 2 in Foreign Service - Swedish Leopard 2.