Tank - Heavy Metal At War

Originally Released under the title of 'Chariots Of Fire'. When the first primitive Armoured Fighting Vehicles or as their better known 'Tanks' first appeared in 1916 to support the New Zealand Division during The Great War, it was hardly an auspicious beginning - all were either destroyed or abandoned only a few minutes into the battle. The Armoured Units of The Great War were by and large equipped with ungainly machines prone to nearly constant breakdowns that due to their lack of manoeuvrability and speed could be easily picked off by Artillery Gunners. This poor utilisation of Armoured units in The Great War continued until an Australian Jewish Staff Officer put together what some still consider to this day to be one of the best planned operations of the entire war. The battle of Le Hamel in July 1918 only took an incredible 90 minutes to envelop the well defended German positions by the mainly Australian and New Zealand Infantry force attacking them. Described afterwards by stunned British Staff Officers in their own headquarters as being 'Monash's Masterpiece' (after the force commander) it pointed to the future battle tactics of today. For the first time Artillery used a creeping barrage which the Infantry advanced closely behind, troops directed aircraft using semaphore flags onto targets to attack and Tanks broke through the German Defensive lines which Infantry went onto exploit to good effect. During the Second World War Tanks continually proved their worth in all kinds of terrain and conditions from the Jungles of Malaya through to the deserts of North Africa, and on numerous occasions proved to be the difference between victory and defeat. Since 1945 Armoured units have served in all the major postwar battlefields including Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, and in Philip Kaplan's Tank - illustrated with archival images - we get an in depth history of this war winning weapon from 1916 - 1991.