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Armored Champion: The Top Tanks of World War II, by Steven Zaloga
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Armor expert Zaloga enters the battle over the best tanks of World War II with this heavy-caliber blast of a book armed with more than forty years of research.Provocative but fact-based rankings of the tanks that fought the Second World WarBreaks the war into eight periods and declares Tanker's Choice and Commander's Choice for eachChampions include the German Panzer IV and Tiger, Soviet T-34, American Pershing, and a few surprisesCompares tanks' firepower, armor protection, and mobility as well as dependability, affordability, tactics, training, and overall combat performanceRelies on extensive documentation from archives, government studies, and published sources--much of which has never been published in English beforeSupported by dozens of charts and diagrams and hundreds of photos
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Product details
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Stackpole Books (May 15, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0811714373
ISBN-13: 978-0811714372
Product Dimensions:
8 x 0.9 x 10 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.6 out of 5 stars
57 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#676,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Overall, this is a well-researched, enjoyable read. It offers a far more nuanced view of armored warfare then many comparable works on WWII tanks. Zaloga has his usual excellent research and mixes it with informed opinion as well. Perhaps the best parts of the book are various tables and descriptions of studies that I’ve never seen published before, either online or in print. These are sure to provoke spirited debate and discussion. For example, an extensive study by the Russians ultimately rated a Panther Tank as 2.37, with a T-34-85 1.32 with a late model Panzer III rated as the baseline of 1 (Higher is “betterâ€, in this case). Or did you know that a British study gave the Panzer IV a rating of 1.0 rated a 75mm Sherman as a 1.1 (In this case, that means 1.1 75mm Sherman’s to match 1 Panzer IV.), a Cromwell a 1.35 and a 17pdr Sherman a .9 at 1000 yards? Fascinating stuff.He also adds some new wrinkles to some old debates. For example, he examines the mechanical availability for major types of tanks, but critically he points out that this is not static, the most reliable tank during one part of the war, may not show up so well later on (Although it usually still holds some advantage). For example, the superiority, reliability wise, of the Stug III over all three primary German tanks, (PzIV, Panther and Tiger I) in 1943 is so great that the question is not what tank the German’s should have been making, but why bother making anything other than Stug’s at all. The comparison in 1944 is much closer. Its also noteworthy that the abysmal early reliability of the Panther, while very bad, is at least at times not dramatically worse then the Tiger I (For example PzIV availability in late 1943 was 48%, Panther was 37%, Tiger I was 36%. Yes, that is bad, but they are all pretty bad, which surprised me.)Which leads to a few complaints. I would appreciate some better context for some of this data. For example, He mentions a British study regarding the IS-2, T-34-85 and Comet. Zaloga cites his source, (Assessment of Forms of Anti-Tank Defense, Effectiveness of British and Russian Tanks. AORG Report No. 11/51 August 1951.) The study concludes the IS-2 is slightly better then the Comet, which is slightly better the the T-34-85, not exactly controversial, but there are no details how its conclusions were derived. I’m confident the actual study is likely as interesting to read as a primer on federal tax law, but part of the reason I enjoy Zaloga’ s writing is that he does give informed opinion. In this case, since the Comet and IS-2 never faced each other, presumably this assessment would come from an analysis of mobility, firepower, protection, accuracy, effectiveness of the fighting compartment etc. Did it include crew survivability? Mechanical reliability and durability? Were they assessing an actual IS-2 Tank etc.? I don’t know, and I would have liked to hear more what he thought about the subject. Since this comparison is similar to what he is doing in this book, it would have been good to get his assessments on the conclusions made.Likewise, very useful tables are included throughout the book. Readers should be aware that these tables need to be read with the accompanying text. For example when discussing 3rd Army US losses during the Lorraine battles of Sept 1944, at location 3422 of the kindle edition, a table summarizes total US AFV losses as 148, but it only includes tanks, not the M10 and M18 GMC’s. However the accompanying text mentions that total losses for September were 200, including TDs. It also important to look carefully, some of the tables have some formatting issues. For example, a table detailing total German AFV losses in Lorraine for Sept 1944 lists a total of 341 total losses. It also lists US claims, but the formatting is off, it shows US claims as 186 under Panther, 421 under PzKpfw III and 607 under PzKpfw IV, with no claims at all for assault guns/JagPz etc. Obviously the 607 is the total number of claims (186+421), the 186 and 421 might represent claims for Tanks vs Assault guns, or for that matter claims by US tank crews vs US tank destroyers etc., or destroyed vs damaged, but it’s not clear. As the other reviewers have noted, some of the tables are a bit sloppy.I need to mention that Zaloga thankfully makes it clear when he is dealing with claims versus actual losses, a very helpful detail that is pretty much a prerequisite for any honest assessment of WWII combat vehicles.Other parts of the book appear rushed. For example the Stug is given a decent amount of coverage, as well as the way it was integrated into the German army, but there is barely a mention of US tank destroyers, which made anywhere from 10% to 20% of US armor strength.And finally there is really no conclusion, Zaloga reviews the tanks for each period from 1941-1945, but really does not have a concluding chapter where he reviews all the information presented and offers his overall assessment. I understand that a major point of the book is that there was no single best tank of the war, but I’m looking for more of a review of all the information supplied. Again, part of the value of a author like Zaloga is that his opinion is valuable, and I would have like to have heard more of it.Now that I'm reviewing what I've said, this sounds unduly harsh. Basically the only real issue with the book is that parts of it seemed rushed, the conclusion is really abbreviated, and some of the tables and formatting are sloppy. Critically, this is not a ~$10-15 Osprey book, at the list price of ~$30 I tend to expect a little more of these details to be ironed out. But ultimately I’d say this book, while required reading for AFV fans, is not as good as the superlative Armored Thunderbolt. I gave Thunderbolt 5 stars, so this gets 4.
I've been a fan of Steven Zaloga since I first started collecting books back in 1983. I have come to respect his writing and opinion. Armored Champion may be his best yet. It is a superb book for beginners since it addresses so many of the considerations needed when discussing tank vs tank combat. Firepower, protection, mobility, reliability, cost. This is not new, but how this information is presented is top notch as are the printing, paper and illustrations.Zaloga breaks it down by nation and by time period. He further breaks down analysis by what a tank crew would choose (expensive tank, world beaters) vs what a battlefield commander might choose vs what a nation would choose. Sometimes, those decisions are different and Zaloga outlines why. He supports his decisions with excellent tables, charts, clear B&W photographs and narrative. His choices are sometimes controversial, something he welcomes to promote discussion and differing views. The bibliography and appendix are detailed, helpful and come from many sources, foreign and domestic.For the more experienced reader, there are still many insights, details and facts to be gathered, the summaries of each nations tank development alone make this a worthwhile purchase. This is not a color photo walk around, it is a highly informative treatise on tank developmentThe reader's digest view of this book – buy it, it's an excellent collection to the library.
“Armored Champion: The Top Tanks of World War II†is the latest installment in the “Armored†series of hardcover books written by Steven Zaloga, published by Stackpole Books. While the first three of Zaloga’s “Armored†books focus on US armor of World War II, this latest book takes a broader look at the tanks used in that conflict, examining and declaring “the top tanks of World War II.†The idea of declaring the top tanks of the war is a bit of a departure from the authors previous works. At first glance it reminds one of the innumerable “top ten†cable TV documentaries and internet forum threads dedicated to such a premise. However, if anyone is qualified for the task of putting together such a list, Steven Zaloga must be at the top of the list due to his 40 years of research in the field and prodigious output as a writer.It’s fair to say that this is the first book of his that seems intended to generate controversy based on its premise and title. One has to wonder if this book is intended as Zaloga’s response to the internet generation’s predilection with lists and rankings. As far as this reviewer can tell, this is the first work by Zaloga in which he references online games such as “World of Tanks†and he also at one point uses the internet idiom of “Nazi fanboys†to describe admirers of SS Panzer ace Michael Wittman!Considering the premise of the book, Armored Champion could have been a true disaster in the hands of a less skilled author. Fortunately Zaloga avoids the trap that many fall into while evaluating WWII armor which is to overly fixate on the armor/mobility/firepower stats or to give into nationalistic bias. Zaloga is able to avoid these pitfalls by creating two different criteria by which to judge the tanks which he refers to as “tankers choice†and “commanders choice.†In a nutshell, “tankers choice†defines the tank that is the best combination of firepower, armor and mobility while “commanders choice†takes into account factors such as reliability, cost, availability and crew ergonomics and how they impact combat power. To put it into terms that would apply to your average internet forum discussion of tanks, “tankers choice†could be thought of as “gamers choice†since gamers generally want the most powerful vehicle available, while “commanders choice†could be thought of as “history buffs choice†since history buffs are most likely to ask “how did this tank help win the war?â€The book starts with a chapter laying out the ground rules for how the author will be judging the vehicles as well as an explanation of WWII tank basics. This section has just enough depth to give readers new to the topic enough background to follow the rest of the book. This is followed by eight separate chapters, each of which examines a specific time period or the war and ends with the author declaring his winning tanks for that period. The periods examined are the 1930s, the French 1940 campaign, Operation Barbarosa 1941, Russia 1942, Russia 1943, North Africa, Europe 1944 and Europe 1945. The text is accompanied by a large number of photos, charts and illustrations. Endnotes, bibliography and an appendix of wartime tank production figures are included at the end of the book. The book itself is a hard bound edition with glossy pages and good quality photo reproduction. The layout is clean and should be familiar to those that have any of Zaloga’s other “Armored†books by Stackpole.While Zaloga does not shy away from discussing some of the technical details of the vehicles covered in the book, those looking for descriptions of his champions at a “rivet counting†level should look elsewhere. This book is more focused on the overall picture of tank development in the period, delving into technical minutiae only when it serves to make the authors point. In fact, the section at the end of each chapter in which he declares his winners is often only a page or less. As to the authors picks, we will not reveal them here but only say that they all seem reasonable enough. That said, readers are certainly going to have their own opinions and the author himself states that some of the choices are open to debate. Fans of British tanks will be disappointed (if not surprised) to find that UK tanks fail to make the list. German tank fans will be happy to know that the Panzers make the list, although maybe not for the vehicles they might assume. Soviet tanks are well represented in the list. American vehicles make an appearance or two, despite the resoundingly poor representation they often get in modern popular culture.So what to make of Armored Champion? It’s a bit unlike any other book on tanks and armor, almost intentionally designed to be provocative. For readers new to the subject of tanks and armored fighting vehicles of World War II, it makes for a very handy introduction to the topic. Given the popularity of games such as World of Tanks, it’s probably fair to assume that there is a pretty good demand for such a product right now. For the experienced tank enthusiast, much that is in this book will be familiar. For such readers the primary appeal of this book will be the chance to consider Zaloga’s choices of the best tanks and then formulate their own counter-arguments. Armored Champion is a quality book and an entertaining one, although perhaps not an essential title in the same way as Zaloga’s previous masterpiece “Armored Thunderbolt.â€
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