This latest volume in Anthony Tucker-Jones's series of photographic histories of armoured warfare records in graphic detail the role played by tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery during the decisive campaign in northwest Europe in 1944-5. In a sequence of over 200 archive photographs he shows how American, British and Canadian and Polish armoured divisions spearheaded the assault on the Third Reich, and how the Wehrmacht mounted a desperate armoured defence. Tanks were required to operate in the dust of Normandy, the mud and waters of the Scheldt and Rhine rivers and the snows of the Ardennes and the forests of Germany. A succession of crucial armoured engagements was fought ? during the D-Day landings, Operation Goodwood and the struggle for the Bourguebus ridge, the Falaise pocket, the Seine crossing, Arnhem, the German attack in the Ardennes, the Rhine crossing, in the Reichswald and during the rearguard actions and the last-ditch tank battles fought by the panzers in the Ruhr before the German surrender. Anthony Tucker-Jones's photographic survey of the ultimate tank battles of the Second World War illustrates the range of armoured fighting vehicles that were developed during the conflict, and it features the specialised vehicles deployed in Europe for the first time such as the Buffalo, DUKW, Weasel and Terrapin. 180 illustrations
