A remarkable World War II survival story and combat memoir by “an indestructible wartime tank commander” (The Telegraph). In campaign after campaign, from the defense of Calais in 1940 to the defeat of Germany in 1945, Bill Close served as a tank commander in Britain’s Royal Tank Regiment—and he survived. His tanks were hit eleven times by enemy shellfire and he bailed out. He was wounded three times. He finished the war as one of the most experienced and resourceful of British tank commanders, and in later life, he set down his wartime experiences in graphic detail. His book is not only an extraordinary memoir; it is also a compelling account of the exploits of the Royal Tank Regiment throughout the conflict. As a record of the day-to-day experience of the tank crew of seventy-five years ago—of the conditions they faced and the battles they fought—it has rarely been equaled.

Bill Bellamy was a young officer in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars from 1943 to 1955. He served in 7th Armoured Division in the North West Europe campaign, landing in Normandy on D+3, fought throughout the Battle for Normandy and into the Low Countries as a troop leader in Cromwell tanks, and was latterly a member of the initial occupying force in Berlin in May 1945. Against the rules, Bill kept diaries and notes of his experiences. His account is fresh and open, and his descriptions of battle are vivid. He witnessed many of his contemporaries killed in action, and this life-altering experience clearly informs his narrative. The accounts of tank fighting in the leafy Normandy bocage in the height of summer, or in the iron hard fields of Holland in winter, are graphic and compelling.

The Silver Star–awarded marine chronicles his service in Iraq in this “transcendent memoir of military service and its personal consequences” (Ralph Peters, Lt. Col., ret., author of Looking For Trouble). In April, 2003, an AP photographer captured a striking image seen around the world of Gunny Sergeant Nick Popaditch smoking a victory cigar in his tank, the haunting statue of Saddam Hussein hovering in the background. Though immortalized in that moment as “The Cigar Marine,” Popaditch’s fighting was far from over. The following year, he fought heroically in the battle for Fallujah and suffered grievous head wounds that left him legally blind and partially deaf. But he faced the toughest fight of his life when he returned home: the battle to remain the man and Marine he was. At first, Nick fights to get back to where he was in Iraq-in the cupola of an M1A1 main battle tank, leading Marines in combat. As the seriousness and permanence of his disabilities become more evident, Nick fights to remain in the Corps in any capacity and help his brothers in arms. Then, following a medical retirement, he battles for rightful recognition and compensation for his disabilities. Throughout his harrowing ordeal, Nick fights to maintain his honor and loyalty, waging all these battles the same way—the Marine way—because anything less would be a betrayal of all he holds dear.

Two different wars were fought in Vietnam, the jungle-and-booby-trap one down south, and the WWII-like one up on the DMZ. "I was one of a handful whose Vietnam tour was evenly split between the First and Third Marine Divisions, and saw, firsthand, the difference 170 miles could make during the war's bloodiest year." Corporal Robert Peavey was a tank commander in I Corps (Eye Corps) on the DMZ when LBJ ordered a bombing halt over the North. His compelling first-hand account chronicles operations just south of the 'Z, operations that most Vietnam War histories have completely ignored. Peavey offers detailed, understandable explanations of combat strategy, strengths and shortcomings of standard-issue armament, and inter-service rivalries.

From the pioneering tactics and terror of the Blitzkrieg assault, through the carnage of Barbarossa, Kursk, the Desert War, and the Normandy Bocage and the Battle of the Bulge, there were perhaps no more unsettling and merciless positions to occupy in the Second World War than that of a tank commander. This new book puts the reader at the very heart of this “hell on wheels” and presents all of the original information required to perform this most dangerous of wartime battlefield roles. From training manuals and war office memorandums to combat reports and first-hand accounts, The Tank Commander Pocket Manual sits you in the turret position of commander of some of the most fearsome land vehicles. These include the Soviet T-34, the German Panther and its nemesis the American Sherman, the terrifying Tiger I as well as tank variants including flamethrowers and tank destroyers such as the Allied M10 and the StuG III. Original documents, diagrams, technical drawings and reports have been collated and compiled from archives and collections to include original Russian, German and English angles on the commander’s many roles including how to ‘run’ the rest of the crew of this most decisive weapon of the Second World War. • Published to mark the centenary of the tank • Rare, previously unpublished documents • Attractively produced in cloth-bound retro-styled case R Shepherd has worked for many years in military publishing for leading companies such as Casemate and Osprey, and has compiled a number of books. Pool of London Pocket Manuals The new Pocket-Manual series from the Pool of London Press presents some of the most iconic military, naval and transport machines from the last 100 years by means of compiling the original documents, confidential memos, plans and artworks that contributed to their celebrated history. This approach allows the modern reader both to have an excellent understanding of the development of these extremely influential aircraft, AFVs, ships, automobiles and trains, but also provides the unique opportunity for further interpretation through the study of many previously unpublished original documents, diagrams and illustrations. Every volume in the series is skillfully compiled and researched by the leading experts in their field who also provide a lengthy contextualizing introduction. Superbly priced, retro-styled to their historical period, and beautifully hard-bound in debossed cloth, the Pool of London Pockets sell as self-purchase, gift and are excellently suited to book trade as well as to museum stores and heritage outlets across the world.

From the pioneering tactics and terror of the Blitzkrieg assault, through the carnage of Barbarossa, Kursk, the Desert War, and the Normandy Bocage and the Battle of the Bulge, there were perhaps no more unsettling and merciless positions to occupy in the Second World War than that of a tank commander. This new book puts the reader at the very heart of this “hell on wheels” and presents all of the original information required to perform this most dangerous of wartime battlefield roles. From training manuals and war office memorandums to combat reports and first-hand accounts, The Tank Commander Pocket Manual sits you in the turret position of commander of some of the most fearsome land vehicles. These include the Soviet T-34, the German Panther and its nemesis the American Sherman, the terrifying Tiger I as well as tank variants including flamethrowers and tank destroyers such as the Allied M10 and the StuG III. Original documents, diagrams, technical drawings and reports have been collated and compiled from archives and collections to include original Russian, German and English angles on the commander’s many roles including how to ‘run’ the rest of the crew of this most decisive weapon of the Second World War. • Published to mark the centenary of the tank • Rare, previously unpublished documents • Attractively produced in cloth-bound retro-styled case R Shepherd has worked for many years in military publishing for leading companies such as Casemate and Osprey, and has compiled a number of books. Pool of London Pocket Manuals The new Pocket-Manual series from the Pool of London Press presents some of the most iconic military, naval and transport machines from the last 100 years by means of compiling the original documents, confidential memos, plans and artworks that contributed to their celebrated history. This approach allows the modern reader both to have an excellent understanding of the development of these extremely influential aircraft, AFVs, ships, automobiles and trains, but also provides the unique opportunity for further interpretation through the study of many previously unpublished original documents, diagrams and illustrations. Every volume in the series is skillfully compiled and researched by the leading experts in their field who also provide a lengthy contextualizing introduction. Superbly priced, retro-styled to their historical period, and beautifully hard-bound in debossed cloth, the Pool of London Pockets sell as self-purchase, gift and are excellently suited to book trade as well as to museum stores and heritage outlets across the world.

A vivid firsthand account of armored warfare by a WWII Soviet tank commander. What was it like to command a T-34 tank on the Eastern Front during the Second World War? How were tank operations organized and carried out, what was the actual experience of combat, and what were the qualities that made the difference between success and failure? And what were the chances of survival? Vasiliy Pavlovich Bryukhov’s vivid, detailed, and gripping memoir of his wartime service gives a fascinating and authentic insight into these questions. It also provides an accurate, unsentimental record of the day-to-day life of a tankman whose unit fought in the forefront of the Red Army throughout the conflict across the western Soviet Union and into eastern Europe. His first-hand eyewitness account is a memorable personal story that provides a powerful insight into the reality of tank warfare seventy-five years ago.

In this military memoir, a Soviet Red Army officer recounts his experience fighting against Nazi Germany along the Eastern Front in World War II. The day after Vasiliy Krysov finished school, on June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and provoked a war of unparalleled extent and cruelty. For the next three years, as a tank commander, Krysov fought against the German panzers in some of the most intense and destructive armored engagements in history, including those at Stalingrad, Kursk, and Knigsberg. This is the remarkable story of his war. As the commander of a heavy tank, a self-propelled gun—a tank destroyer—and a T-34, he fought his way westward across Russia, the Ukraine, and Poland against a skillful and determined enemy that had previously never known defeat. Krysov repeatedly faced tough SS panzer divisions, like the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Panzer Division in the Bruilov-Fastov area in 1943, and the SS Das Wiking Panzer Division in Poland in 1944. Krysov was at Kursk and participated in a counterattack at Ponyri. The ruthlessness of this long and bitter campaign is vividly depicted in his narrative, as is the enormous scale and complexity of the fighting. Honestly, and with an extraordinary clarity of recall, he describes confrontations with German Tiger and Panther tanks and deadly anti-tank guns. He was wounded four times, his crewmen and his commanding officers were killed, but he was fated to survive and record his experience of combat. His memoirs give a compelling insight into the reality of tank warfare on the Eastern Front.

Stuart Crawford’s personal memoir traces a military career of 20 years in the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (Scotland’s Own). The narrative records his experiences between joining his Regiment as a young troop leader in West Germany though to his eventual resignation of his commission to stand for the Scottish Parliament when it was reinstated in 1999. In between times he attended two staff colleges, served under the UN banner in Cyprus, was a staff officer in HQ British Forces Middle East during the first Gulf War, and undertook a research fellowship at Glasgow University investigating and reporting on race relations within the British army. Although regarded in some circles as an iconoclast and maverick, he was destined for higher things when he took the decision to leave the army. Written in a humorous and occasional whimsical style, there are also many instances of criticism of army practices and discussion on the morality of war. As a keen amateur photographer at the time, the book is illustrated mainly by the author’s own photographs, many of which have not been published previously.