Kategoria BISAC: History >> Military - Vehicles - Land

The Russian T-34 was the most influential tank design of World War II, with its sloping armour, heavy hitting firepower and rapid mobility. It first saw combat in the summer of 1941, and its qualities soon set it apart from other medium tanks of the period. However, its battlefield superiority did not last long, and it was soon matched by German designs such as the Panther. Several models, designated by years, were produced between 1940 and 1943, featuring changes such as upgunning (model 1941) and redesigning the turret (model 1943). More T-34s were produced by the Allies than any other...

The SA-2, nicknamed Red SAM, is the most widely used air defense missile in history, most famous for nearly sparking a nuclear exchange between the USSR and America when one brought down a U-2 spy plane in 1960. Deployed widely against American aircraft in Vietnam the SA-2 has seen service in North Korea, Egypt, and various world conflicts including the 2003 Gulf War and remains in service today despite its aging 50-year-old technology.

Using rare interviews and accounts from the Russian designers of the weapon, and supported by photographs and color artwork, Steven J Zaloga examines...

The concept of the Sturmgeschutz III started well before the war when the German army announced the need for a self-propelled 75mm gun to be used for infantry support. By 1938, several '0-Serie' prototype vehicles were produced on earlier style Panzer IIIB chassis by Daimler-Benz. The manufacture of the first 30 production vehicles (StuG III Ausf. A) that went into combat in the invasion of France were made at the Alkett factory in Berlin. As the war progressed, the StuG III was continuously improved with variants A through E, and then given a longer, more powerful gun starting with the...

Over the last 30 years, the "technical" or armed pick-up truck has become arguably the most ubiquitous military land vehicle of modern warfare.

Harking back to the armed Jeeps and Chevrolet trucks of the SAS and Long Range Desert Group in North Africa in the World War II, the world's first insurgent technicals were those of the Sahrawi People's Liberation Army in Algeria in the late 1970s, followed by the Chadian use of technical in the so-called Toyota War against Libya. Since then, technicals have seen use in Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, as well as being used by Western...