Tanks (up to 1945) - USSR: Illustrated History Books & Guides

British Tanks of the Red Army

This book provides a clear history of British tanks used by the Soviet Union from the Russian Civil War to the end of World War II.
It begins with the first, hostile meeting between British armoured vehicles and the Red Army, when Britain supplied surplus tanks to the White Army. After the Red victory, captured Mark V heavy tanks and medium Whippet and Hornet tanks were taken into RKKA service.
During the 1920s, the Soviet Union examined British export designs, and in 1931 began licensed production of the Vickers Mk.E as the T-26.

In 1941, the German invasion caused severe Soviet tank losses, leading the Red Army to seek foreign vehicles once more. A major aid programme began in August, and on 29 September 1941 the first shipment of 20 British tanks sailed for Arkhangelsk. They arrived in time for the Battle of Moscow, and continued deliveries ensured that British vehicles served with Soviet units until the end of the war.
Types used included Matilda, Valentine, Churchill and Tetrarch tanks.

The author, Peter Samsonov, explains their service history, battlefield performance and the views of the Red Army crews who operated them.

Product details

Author:	Peter Samsonov
Details:	144 pages, 9.7 x 7.1 x 0.31 in (24.5 x 18 x 0.8 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	extensively illustrated
Language:	English
Publisher:	Mortons Media Group (GB, 2024)
ISBN:	9781911704065

BT Fast Tank : The Red Army's Cavalry Tank 1931-45 (Osprey)

When the Red Army needed to mechanize its cavalry branch in the 1930s, the BT fast tank was its solution. Based on the American Christie high-speed tank, the Red Army began a program to adapt the design to its own needs.

Early versions were mechanically unreliable and poorly armed but by the mid-1930s, the BT-5 emerged, armed with an excellent dual-purpose 45mm gun. It saw its combat debut in the Spanish Civil War in 1937 and was later used in the border battles with the Japanese Kwangtung Army in the late 1930s. The final production series, the BT-7, was the most refined version of the family.

One of the most common types in Red Army service in the first years of the Second World War, BT tanks saw extensive combat in Poland, Finland, and the opening phases of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 and latterly during the 1945 campaign against the Japanese in Manchuria - this is the story of their design and development history.

Contents: Introduction - Design and Development - Operational Use - Analysis and Conclusion - Bibliography - Index.

Product details

Author:	Steven Zaloga
Details:	48 pages, 9.8 x 7.3 x 0.2 in (25 x 18.5 x 0.5 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	40 b&w and 7 color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Osprey Publishing (GB, 2016)
Series:	New Vanguard (237)
ISBN:	9781472810656

Captured Tanks under the German Flag - Russian Battle Tanks

Germany used many types of Russian battle tanks captured during WWII, and this book gives an accurate account in both photographs and text.

Product details

Author:	Werner Regenberg, Horst Scheibert
Details:	48 pages, 8.25 x 10.4 x 0.12 in (21 x 26.5 x 0.3 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	b&w photos, drawings
Language:	English
Publisher:	Schiffer Publishing Ltd (USA, 2004)
ISBN:	9780887402012

Panzer 38(t) vs BT-7 : Barbarossa 1941 (Osprey)

The tank battles in the Soviet Union during the summer of 1941 were the largest in World War II, exceeding even the more famous Prokhorovka encounter during the Kursk campaign. Indeed, they were the largest tank battles ever fought.

This book examines two evenly matched competitors in this conflict, the German Panzer 38(t) and the Soviet BT-7. Both were of similar size, armed with guns of comparable firepower, and had foreign roots - the Panzer 38(t) was a Czechoslovak design and the BT-7 was an evolution of the American Christie tank.

With full-colour artwork and archive and present-day photography, this absorbing study assesses the strengths and limitations of these two types against the wider background of armoured doctrine in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa.

Product details

Author:	Steven J. Zaloga
Details:	80 pages, 9.8 x 7.3 x 0.28 in (25 x 18.5 x 0.7 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	30 b&w and 40 color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Osprey Publishing (GB, 2017)
Series:	Duel
ISBN:	9781472817136

Red Army Tanks of World War II : A Guide to Armoured Fighting Vehicles of the Red Army

An authoritative history of Soviet armoured forces before 1945, detailing their development, tactics and equipment from the early days of the tank arm in the 1920s, through the purges of the late 1930s and the German invasion in 1941, to the epic tank battle of Kursk, and eventual victory in the streets of Berlin.

The growth and development of Stalin's armoured might is illustrated with 170 rare black-and-white photographs, some of which have never been previously published. These include images of tank training in the 1920s and 1930s, photographs taken on active service, and pictures of the major tank battles of the war. The photographs are complemented by detailed artworks of Soviet tanks and exhaustive specifications.

A must for any enthusiast, Red Army Tanks of World War II is the definitive study of the equipment and tactics of the Soviet armoured forces that defeated the might of Hitler's Wehrmacht.

A previous edition was published with the title "Russian Tanks of World War II".

Product details

Author:	Tim Bean
Details:	176 pages, 11.2 x 8.5 in (28.5 x 21.5 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	170 b&w photos, profile illustrations in color
Language:	English
Publisher:	Amber Books Ltd (GB, 2017)
ISBN:	9781782744924

Russian Tanks of World War II : 1939-1945 - Tanks, Self-propelled Guns

Organised chronologically by type, Russian Tanks of World War II offers a highly-illustrated guide to the main armoured fighting vehicles used by the Red Army during World War II.

The book offers a comprehensive survey of Soviet AFVs, from the pre-war T-18 light tank and BT fast tank series to the heavy Joseph Stalin tanks and self- propelled guns of the final months of the war.
All the major and many minor tanks are featured, including every significant variation of the T-26 light tank, KV series and T-34 to see action on the Eastern Front.

There are also chapters on the many types of self-propelled guns developed by Soviet industry, as well as Allied Lend-Lease AFVs, such as the British Churchill and Valentine tanks and American Sherman and Stuart tanks. Each featured profile includes authentic markings and colour schemes, while every separate model is accompanied by exhaustive specifications.

Packed with 120 newly-commissioned, full-colour artworks with exhaustive specifications, Russian Tanks of World War II is a key reference guide for military modellers and World War II enthusiasts.

Pages of the book "Russian Tanks of World War II : 1939-1945 - Tanks, Self-propelled Guns"

Product details

Author:	Stephen Hart
Details:	128 pages, 8.25 x 6.7 in (21 x 17 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	20 b&w photos, 120 profile illustrations in color
Language:	English
Publisher:	Amber Books Ltd (GB, 2017)
ISBN:	9781782744757

Soviet Lend-Lease Tanks of World War II (Osprey)

The Red Army suffered such catastrophic losses of armor in the summer of 1941 that they begged Britain and the United States to send tanks. The first batches arrived in late 1941, just in time to take part in the defense of Moscow.
The supplies of British tanks encompassed a very wide range of types including the Matilda, Churchill, and Valentine and even a few Tetrarch airborne tanks.
American tanks included the M3 (Stuart) light tank and M3 (Lee) medium tank and the M4 Sherman tank, which became so common in 1944-45 that entire Soviet tank corps were equipped with the type.
With these Western tanks, the Soviets were finally able to beat back the German tide in the East.

This study examines the different types of tanks shipped to the Soviet Union during the war, Soviet assessments of their merits and problems, and combat accounts of their use in Soviet service using full color artwork, contemporary photographs and detailed cut-away illustrations.

Product details

Author:	Steven J. Zaloga
Details:	48 pages, 9.8 x 7.3 x 0.16 in (25 x 18.5 x 0.4 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	b&w photos, drawings in color
Language:	English
Publisher:	Osprey Publishing (GB, 2017)
Series:	New Vanguard (247)
ISBN:	9781472818133

Stalin's Armour, 1941-1945 - Soviet Tanks at War

Stalin's purge of army officers in the late 1930s and disputes about tank tactics meant that Soviet armoured forces were in disarray when Hitler invaded in 1941. As a result, during Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht's 3,200 panzers ran circles round the Red Army's tank force of almost 20,000 - thousands of Soviet tanks were disabled or destroyed.
Yet within two years of this disaster the Red Army's tank arm had regained its confidence and numbers and was in a position to help turn the tide and liberate the Soviet Union.

This is the remarkable story Anthony Tucker-Jones relates in this concise, highly illustrated history of the part played by Soviet armour in the war on the Eastern Front. Chapters cover each phase of the conflict, from Barbarossa, through the battles at Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk to the massive, tank-led offensives that drove the Wehrmacht back to Berlin.
Technical and design developments are covered, but so are changes in tactics and the role of the tanks in the integrated all-arms force that crushed German opposition.

Product details

Author:	Anthony Tucker-Jones
Details:	256 pages, 9 x 6.5 x 1.1 in (24 x 16.5 x 2.8 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	70 b&w photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Ltd (GB, 2021)
ISBN:	9781526777935

T-26 Light Tank - Backbone of the Red Army (Osprey)

The T-26 was the first major Soviet armour program of the 1930s, beginning as a license-built version of the British Vickers 6-ton export tank. Although the T-26 retained the basic Vickers hull and suspension, the Red Army began to make extensive changes to the turret and armament, starting with the addition of a 45mm tank gun in 1933.
The T-26 was built in larger numbers than any other tank prior to World War II. Indeed, more T-26 tanks were manufactured than the combined tank production of Germany, France, Britain, and the United States in 1931-40.

This book surveys the development of the T-26 as well as its combat record in the Spanish Civil War, the war in China, the border wars with Poland and Finland in 1939-40, and the disastrous battles of 1941 during Operation Barbarossa.

Contents: Introduction - Design & Development - Operational History - Bibliography - Index.

Product details

Author:	Steven J. Zaloga
Details:	48 pages, 9.8 x 7.3 x 0.2 in (25 x 18.5 x 0.5 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	photos and drawings (in b&w and color)
Language:	English
Publisher:	Osprey Publishing (GB, 2015)
Series:	New Vanguard (218)
ISBN:	9781472806253

T-60 Small Tank & Variants (Red Machines 1)

The T-60 small tank was the third most numerous tank-type built in the Soviet Union during the 1941-45 "Great Patriotic War", behind only the T-34 medium tank and the SU-76 self propelled gun in terms of production output.
Though often maligned in later years as being under-armed and weakly armoured, the T-60 performed a crucial role during the difficult years of 1941-42 when Soviet manufacturing plants struggled to replace combat losses at the front.

The history of the T-60 is the history of a single tank type, set against a background of the initial months immediately following the launch of "Operation Barbarossa" on 22nd June 1941, with staggering losses of territory, troops and equipment at the front and the consequent Soviet struggle to maintain production at a time when the main Soviet military production facilities were being evacuated on rails to the Urals and Siberia beyond.

Product details

Author:	James Kinnear, Yuri Pasholok
Details:	176 pages, 11.2 x 8.5 x 0.63 in (28.5 x 21.5 x 1.6 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	250+ b&w and 8 color photos, 8 profile illustrations in color
Language:	English
Publisher:	Canfora Grafisk Form (S, 2017)
ISBN:	9789198232561

Tanks of the USSR 1917-1945 (Fact File)

Chronological overview of all tanks used by the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1945. Although initially limited to reconstructing and developing Western European armored vehicles, an independent line of powerful and easy-to-produce models had been established by 1939.

Per type this book features a photo, a description and technical data.

English edition of the German Typenkompass book "Panzer der UdSSR - 1917-1945".

Product details

Author:	Alexander Lüdeke
Details:	128 pages, 8.5 x 5.5 in (21.5 x 14 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	many b&w and color photos
Language:	English
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Ltd (GB, 2017)
Series:	Fact File
ISBN:	9781473891371

Die Waffen der Roten Armee - Panzer 1939-1945

The USSR was relatively late in adopting tank weapons, but then it was so consistent that by the mid-1930s it already had more tanks than the rest of the world. After the first battles, which were catastrophic for the Soviets, the Red Army finally surprised not only its enemy with modern armored fighting vehicle developments.

Pages of the book "Die Waffen der Roten Armee - Panzer 1939-1945"

In the second volume on the weapons of the Red Army in World War II, Victor Schunkow provides a complete overview of the armored vehicles of the former Soviet Union - from the heavy KV-1 to the medium T-34 and the Tiger rival IS-2.

Product details

Author:	Victor Schunkow
Details:	240 pages, 9 x 6.7 in (24 x 17 cm), hardback
Illustrations:	300 b&w and color photos
Language:	German
Publisher:	Motorbuch Verlag (D, 2020)
ISBN:	9783613043329

Panzer der UdSSR - 1917-1945 (Typenkompass)

During World War II, the Soviets introduced the T 34, the most successful battle tank of its time. Because the leadership of the USSR planned to overrun the Western European states with massive tank advances as far as the Atlantic coast in the event of a conflict with NATO, it massively expanded its tank force in the decades to come.

Pages of the book "Panzer der UdSSR - 1917-1945"

Alexander Lüdeke portrays all the important Soviet tank models that were built from 1945 until the end of the Cold War. Illustrated by many images, the advantages, disadvantages and special features of the individual types are clearly documented.
Each type is presented using a photo, a historical description and a technical data sheet.

Product details

Author:	Alexander Lüdeke
Details:	128 pages, 8.1 x 5.5 in (20.5 x 14 cm), paperback
Illustrations:	100 b&w and 48 color photos, 44 drawings
Language:	German
Publisher:	Motorbuch Verlag (D, 2017)
Series:	Typenkompass
ISBN:	9783613039940