During the 1930s in the Soviet Union a remarkable range of auxiliary armoured vehicles were produced for the Red Army which have rarely had the attention they deserve, and Alexey Tarasov's photographic history is the ideal guide to them. These innovative designs demonstrate the diversity and innovation of the Soviet arms industry. Among them were armoured flails, ambulances, bridge-layers, flame-throwers and amphibious cars which prefigure similar designs made by western engineers during the Second World War. As this selection of rare photographs shows, Soviet designers were in many ways ahead of their time and it was short-sighted internal policy and the shortcomings of Soviet industry which led to the cancellation or postponement of many of these promising projects. As a result, when faced with Operation Barbarossa in 1941 the Red Army lacked the auxiliary armour that would have helped to stem the German advance. Alexey Tarasov's in-depth research and the rare photographs he has assembled give a fascinating insight into a little-known aspect of the history of Soviet armoured vehicles.
During the 1930s in the Soviet Union a remarkable range of auxiliary armoured vehicles were produced for the Red Army which have rarely had the attention they deserve, and Alexey Tarasov’s photographic history is the ideal guide to them. These innovative designs demonstrate the diversity and innovation of the Soviet arms industry. Among them were armoured flails, ambulances, bridge-layers, flame-throwers and amphibious cars which prefigure similar designs made by western engineers during the Second World War. As this selection of rare photographs shows, Soviet designers were in many ways ahead of their time and it was short-sighted internal policy and the shortcomings of Soviet industry which led to the cancellation or postponement of many of these promising projects. As a result, when faced with Operation Barbarossa in 1941 the Red Army lacked the auxiliary armour that would have helped to stem the German advance. Alexey Tarasov’s in-depth research and the rare photographs he has assembled give a fascinating insight into a little-known aspect of the history of Soviet armoured vehicles.
The armoured car has an important place in the early history of Soviet armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) – they were the most important AFV during the Russian Civil War and figured prominently in the mechanization of the Red Army that began in late 1929. The 1930s saw the development and production of a wide variety of armoured cars, which were used extensively in Soviet conflicts from then on. They saw service in the Spanish Civil War, in the 1939 Manchurian conflict with Japan, and in the occupation of the Baltic states and the invasion of Poland and Finland. Although many of its armoured cars were lost in the early months following the German invasion in June 1941, Russia continued with its armoured car development program, and the final model, the BA-64, was accepted for service in 1942 with over 9,000 built before production ended in 1946. This detailed book provides a survey of Russian armoured cars from 1936 to 1945, focusing on the history, design, and specifications of the wheeled armoured cars that entered series production, including the rail variants and tracked BA-30. Packed with photographs, cross-sections, and stunning battleplates, this is a comprehensive guide to some of the Red Army's fastest AFVs.
By 1920 the Red Army of Russia fielded an overwhelming array of armored cars, armored trains and tank detachments. These armored units played an important part in consolidating the newly won Bolshevik empire in the early 1920s; as a consequence of the fact that railways were the strategic arteries that essentially controlled Russia, armored trains have never played such a significant role in military history as they did in the Russian Civil War. This title details the management, construction, repair, personnel, training and combat of the Red Army's armored units on all fronts, including such famous vehicles as Trotsky's armored train.
Indhold: Soviet Armour of the Great Patriotic War 1941 to 1945: bl.a. med kapitler om: Soviet tank design on the eve of war; Organization of the Soviet Armoured Force; The summer catastrophe; The T-34 medium tank; Light tanks; Tank unit organization; The KV heavy tank; Mechanized artilleru development; Katyusha rocket launchers; The SU-76 light mechanized gun; The SU-122 medium mechanized gun; The KV-7 mechanized gun; Mechanized artillery units; The German response; Tank destroyers; The Battle of Kursk; Orel; The T-34-85 medium tank; The IS-2 heavy tank; Heavy assault gun; Light mechanized guns; Tank destroyers of 1944; The T-44 medium tank; The K-90 amphibious tank; Light fighting vehicles; Airborne fighting vehicles; Engineer tanks; Flame-thrower tanks; Armoured recovery vehicles; Bridging tanks; Anti-aircraft vehicles; Artillery transporters; Armoured trains; Lend-lease tanks; Lend-lease armoured vehicles supplied to the Soviet Army; Soviet tanks in retrospect. Desuden er der oversigt over produktionen af sovjetiske kampvogne under krigen, og: Soviet Armoured Corps Order of Battle, 1942-1945.
This book describes in excellent detail and striking photos, many unpublished, the development and amassing of Russias armored vehicles from World War I through World War II. Included in this text are those models that did not make it to production, and also the history behind Russias tank development, including the numerous foreign models that it based its designs on. This book is a superb reference for historians and modellers.
In a definitive new account of the Soviet Union at war, Alexander Hill charts the development, successes and failures of the Red Army from the industrialisation of the Soviet Union in the late 1920s through to the end of the Great Patriotic War in May 1945. Setting military strategy and operations within a broader context that includes national mobilisation on a staggering scale, the book presents a comprehensive account of the origins and course of the war from the perspective of this key Allied power. Drawing on the latest archival research and a wealth of eyewitness testimony, Hill portrays the Red Army at war from the perspective of senior leaders and men and women at the front line to reveal how the Red Army triumphed over the forces of Nazi Germany and her allies on the Eastern Front, and why it did so at such great cost.
Force Structure, Tactics, and Modernization of the Russian Ground Forces The mighty Soviet Army is no more. The feckless Russian Army that stumbled into Chechnya is no more. Today's Russian Army is modern, better manned, better equipped and designed for maneuver combat under nuclear-threatened conditions. This is your source for the tactics, equipment, force structure and theoretical underpinnings of a major Eurasian power. Here's what the experts are saying: "A superb baseline study for understanding how and why the modern Russian Army functions as it does. Essential for specialist and generalist alike." -Colonel (Ret) David M. Glantz, foremost Western author on the Soviet Union in World War II and Editor of The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. "Congratulations to Les Grau and Chuck Bartles on filling a gap which has yawned steadily wider since the end of the USSR. Their book addresses evolving Russian views on war, including the blurring of its nature and levels, and the consequent Russian approaches to the Ground Forces' force structuring, manning, equipping, and tactics. Confidence is conferred on the validity of their arguments and conclusions by copious footnoting, mostly from an impressive array of primary sources. It is this firm grounding in Russian military writings, coupled with the authors' understanding of war and the Russian way of thinking about it, that imparts such an authoritative tone to this impressive work." -Charles Dick, former Director of the Combat Studies Research Centre, Senior Fellow at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, author of the 1991 British Army Field Manual, Volume 2, A Treatise on Soviet Operational Art and author of From Victory to Stalemate The Western Front, Summer 1944 and From Defeat to Victory, The Eastern Front, Summer 1944. "Dr. Lester Grau's and Chuck Bartles' professional research on the Russian Armed Forces is widely read throughout the world and especially in Russia. Russia's Armed Forces have changed much since the large-scale reforms of 2008, which brought the Russian Army to the level of the world's other leading armies. The speed of reform combined with limited information about their core mechanisms represented a difficult challenge to the authors. They have done a great job and created a book which could be called an encyclopedia of the modern armed forces of Russia. They used their wisdom and talents to explore vital elements of the Russian military machine: the system of recruitment and training, structure of units of different levels, methods and tactics in defense and offence and even such little-known fields as the Arctic forces and the latest Russian combat robotics." -Dr. Vadim Kozyulin, Professor of Military Science and Project Director, Project on Asian Security, Emerging Technologies and Global Security Project PIR Center, Moscow. "Probably the best book on the Russian Armed Forces published in North America during the past ten years. A must read for all analysts and professionals following Russian affairs. A reliable account of the strong and weak aspects of the Russian Army. Provides the first look on what the Russian Ministry of Defense learned from best Western practices and then applied them on Russian soil." -Ruslan Pukhov, Director of the Moscow-based Centre for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) and member of the Public Council of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense. Author of Brothers Armed: Military Aspects of the Crisis in Ukraine, Russia's New Army, and The Tanks of August.
