[Subnuts]

My review of Tank I wrote for Amazon:

I keep saying I'm "not that interested" in tanks, but the more I study the subject, the more I find myself digging deeper into it. Being a fan of DK's books in general, I purchased this one out of curiosity and was pleasantly surprised. My copy came with prints of the M3A1 and StuG III, although I'm not sure if every copy comes with the same. For an $18 coffee table book, it's definitely a bit more in depth than you might expect.

Anyone who's purchased any of DK's other vehicle books (Train, Classic Car, Tractor, etc.) will find themselves in familiar territory. The photographs are mostly excellent, and the 15 "feature tank" spreads have some wonderfully detailed close-ups of interior and exterior features. As I've come to expect from the DK, the two and four-page spreads are attractively laid out. Although most tank references focus mainly on World War II, this book does an excellent job covering the main eras of tank development in an equitable fashion. World War I through 1939, World War II, and the Cold War to the present each receive about the same number of pages. Along with tanks, a surprisingly healthy chunk of this book is devoted to other kinds of armored vehicles, such as assault guns, armored cars, scout cars, and counterinsurgency vehicles. The majority of the vehicles come from the Bovington Tank Museum, so there's definitely a bit of a British bias here. Thankfully, there are plenty of vehicles from other nations, and some really obscure tanks, to balance things out. There's also an excellent reference section in the back, with explanations of different types of armor-piercing shells, suspension systems, engines, etc. work, and a handy glossary.

My main disappointment is how stingy most of the individual vehicle descriptions are. Except for the 15 "feature tanks," each receives a couple sentences, along with the year they entered service, country, weight, engine, and main armament. I understand that books like this are intended as "gateway drugs" to more serious study. Considering that tanks are trade-offs between mobility, firepower, and protection, it's odd to see nothing about maximum speed, range (on road and cross-country), or armor thickness. The text will occasionally mention that a tank had "poor mobility" or was "well armored," but there's a disappointing lack of statistical data.

Some moments of shallowness aside, this book is an excellent value for money, and should fascinate anyone with an interest in tanks. I'm not sure if it's really "definitive," but it's definitely more fun to browse through than the stodgy military references I usually prefer to study.