Tank

Heavy Metal at War

Philip Kaplan

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781510702608
• eBook ISBN: 9781510702615
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

From monster to master, discover the history of the tank in this heavily illustrated book. When the first tank weapon appeared on the killing fields of World War I, it was as if ancient superstitions were reborn in the modern industrial world. Soldiers on both sides of the war had never seen such monstrous, rolling machines that could withstand the bullets hurled at them.While the tank may have lost some of the mystical aura it first carried onto the battlefield, it is still one of the most fearsome tools of warfare. Modern tanks have evolved significantly from their ponderous forefathers of the Great War; they now race across the battlefield at forty miles per hour wielding massive main guns and are specifically designed to withstand even the most savage attacks.Explore the history of this great war-machine in Philip Kaplan's Tank, a lavishly illustrated book that tracks the tank's development and action over the decades since they first appeared on the Somme in 1916 through the Gulf War of 1991. From the earliest armored chariots to the most high-tech monsters of today, discover what makes these machines the masters of the battlefield.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

TANK MAN

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master.

—George Washington

The tank is more than a killing machine, more than a battlefield menace. In many parts of the world since the Second World War, tanks on the streets have often been the first sign of violent political change, a military coup or the imposition of a repressive regime.

Politicians have long recognized the value of the tank in the intimidation and repression of civilian populations. Its awesome appearance can be traumatizing, especially in an ordinary urban context. Patrick Wright, author of Tank, a superb cultural history of the weapon, comments: “People talk about the tank as a rational instrument of warfare—you get lots of them, then you mass them together and you advance—but it’s always had a symbolic dimension as well. It is a monstrous object that crawls towards you and you don’t know what it can do to you, but it scares you almost to death. It would be quite wrong to ignore this. The symbolic force of this weapon makes it very well attuned to modern peacekeeping-type operations. It may take two months to get it there, but if you put a tank on a bridge things tend to settle down.”

In the last half of the twentieth century, ordinary citizens of several nations faced invading tanks and, for a while at least, stood their ground in defiance of clearly overwhelming force and fear.

On 4 November 1956, Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy spoke to his people in a dramatic radio broadcast as Soviet armor assaulted Budapest: “Soviet troops attacked our capital with the obvious purpose to overthrow the legitimate Hungarian government. Our troops are fighting. The government is in its place.”

Shortly after the death of Premier Josef Stalin in 1953, the Soviet leadership became aware of a growing disenchantment with the oppressive communist system in the satellite nations, Hungary being a prime example. The Soviets ordered the hardline Hungarian Communist Party boss, Matyás Rakosi, to Moscow for consultation. He was directed to relax the pressures then being applied by his regime on Hungary’s industry and collective farms, to soften his “reign of terror” approach, and to work toward a higher living standard for his people. Finally, he was required to ordain fellow communist Imre Nagy as the new Prime Minister. Nagy was a moderate with considerable popular support. He was known for opposing the communist policies of terror and forced industrialization and collectivization. He was a reformer who wanted to liberalize communism in his country, but without any major shift toward capitalism. He began his program in July with what he called “the new stage in building socialism.”

In little more than a year after the death of Stalin, the Soviet flirtation with a more relaxed form of communism appeared to be ending as hardline policies came back into vogue. In Hungary, Rakosi saw the opportunity to regain his former stature and embarked on a program to de-stabilize Nagy’s government. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Travelling Fortress
• Wipers
• Panzer Man
• Blitzkrieg
• Chariots of Fire
• The Russian Front
• Desert Foxes and Rats
• Invasion
• Towards the Rhine
• Getting Sharp
• The Not So Pacific
• Gulf and Middle East
• Images of War: Vietnam
• Tank Stoppers
• Tank Man