During the opening years of the Cold War, the Western Allies put their faith in the deterrent value of the nuclear weapons which at that stage they alone possessed. An unfortunate consequence of this was the running down of existing armoured formations to below the danger level, and in some armies techn ical development virtually ceased at the level it had reached at the end of World War II.
The Soviet Bloc, however, continued to maintain large armoured forces and carried on with the very successful pattern of development initiated during the war, producing large numbers of excellent tanks, self propelled guns, armoured personnel carriers and other AFVs.
The acquisition by Russia of the atomic bomb at once put the West at not only a numerical but also at a qualitative disadvantage, and this book shows how Western designers, after some poor beginnings, have produced vehicles which today are technically superior to those in service with the armies of the Warsaw Pact.
As well as dealing with the overall picture of the development of armoured warfare to the present day, Mr. Perrett shows how the categories of light, medium and heavy tanks, self-propelled artillery, tank destroyers, personnel carriers and armoured engineer vehicles have evolved or been abandoned in the light of an increasingly complex and potentially nuclear battlefield upon which lasers, aluminium armour and radio-controlled anti-tank missiles may become commonplace. ( )