Customer Reviews

British Anti-tank Artillery 1939-45 (New Vanguard)

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I own quite a number of the osprey books, usually I can find something in them to justify the purchase price, however this one is just plain bad, only three guns are discussed at all, the 2pdr, the 6pdr, and the 17pdr. Even here there are no tables for the different types of ammunition, a very cursory developement history, no comparison to foreign designs (except to say that the American 57mm M1 is a copy of the 6pdr, true but not relevant) The lack of a developement history and especially a discussion on what lead to the decision on building a 2pdr and later 6pdr gun was especially dissapointing. While it has problems Ian Hogg's Allied Artillery of WWII is a much better value.

This subject coverage in this book is somewhat erratic. Some aspects of these guns is highly detailed and technical (i.e., "overkill" on the type of rifling for each gun), but there are notable gaps in coverage of some basics. The specs do not include information such as overall gun length (including trails), width, height, and rate of fire. A bit disappointing for a book that I had hoped would provide more comprehensive information.

The tank was one of the signature weapons of World War II; hence the interest in defending against the tank. While tanks have been described in many books, that has not been the case for anti-tank guns. This book covers the range of anti-tank guns used by the British in World War II as well as several which were developed but not used (32 lbr gun and recoilless guns).

The book follows the standard Osprey New Vanguard format. In general, the topic is well covered and the color plates are nice. The book would have benefited from less wordy descriptions of the guns filled with arcane terminology and some nice line drawings which show as well as tell. Also the layout is weak. The photos of a type of gun are not necessarily near the textual description of that gun.

The book is worth purchasing if the subject interests you, but the author and publisher could have done a better job.