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(The Tank War: The British Band of Brothers – One Tank Regiment's World War II) [By: Urban, Mark] [Apr, 2014]
From evacuation from Tobruk in 1940 to the final dash to Hamburg in 1945, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment were at the frontline in both Europe and beyond during the years of the Second World War. Theirs was a war that saw them travel to Africa as part of the Desert Rats, before returning to the continent for the Normandy landings. Wherever they went, the notoriety of the 'Filthy Fifth' grew - revelling in their unkempt reputation and fighting by their own rules, whatever their superiors' orders. In fascinating detail, The Tank War explains how Britain had lost its advantage in tank warfare by the start of the Second War, but that shifts in tactics and leadership methods more than regained the lost ground. Overturning the received wisdom of much Second World War history, Mark Urban shows how the regiment's great advances were every bit the equal of the more recognised feats of the German Panzer divisions. Drawing on a wealth of research, from interviews with surviving members to a treasure trove of rarely used archive material, Mark Urban has produced a unflinchingly honest, unsentimental account of the 5th RTR's wartime experiences. Capturing both characters in their crew and exploring the strategy behind their success, The Tank War is not the story of an elite unit, but something more a regular unit of average men, thrust into war, who pulled together to achieve extraordinary things.
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First published March 1, 2013
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About the author
Mark Urban
29 books75 followersMark Urban is a British journalist, author and broadcaster, and is currently the Diplomatic Editor for BBC Two's Newsnight.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 13, 2013
Every summer, a new crop of World War 2 books appears, mainly by Max Hastings, usually refighting the same campaigns. There’s been little original research and writing since Antony Beevor plundered the former Soviet archives and retold the stories of Stalingrad and the mass rapes of Berlin. However, this book by Mark Urban – a former Army reservist – is worthy of attention.
It tells the story of 5RTR, a tank regiment, from Dunkirk to VE day. There are some similarities with Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers in terms of the portrayal of personalities, relationships, military life and ordeals throughout a campaign, but this spans most of the war, due to the lower attrition rate in armoured formations. Urban makes the sobering point that few infantrymen survive repeated campaigns.
What is compelling about this book is the way it dispels a long-prevailing myth about the war – that British armour and tactics were consistently inferior to the German panzer forces. This book is fascinating for technical geeks and armchair generals and a welcome antidote to the deluge of Band of Brother imitations and the Wehrmacht-worship of Max Hastings. Probably the only WW2 book I’ll bother reading this year.
It tells the story of 5RTR, a tank regiment, from Dunkirk to VE day. There are some similarities with Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers in terms of the portrayal of personalities, relationships, military life and ordeals throughout a campaign, but this spans most of the war, due to the lower attrition rate in armoured formations. Urban makes the sobering point that few infantrymen survive repeated campaigns.
What is compelling about this book is the way it dispels a long-prevailing myth about the war – that British armour and tactics were consistently inferior to the German panzer forces. This book is fascinating for technical geeks and armchair generals and a welcome antidote to the deluge of Band of Brother imitations and the Wehrmacht-worship of Max Hastings. Probably the only WW2 book I’ll bother reading this year.
April 26, 2016
throughout is an excellent journey with the 5th royal tank regiment from dunkirk to Egypt, Normandy to Germany showing the regiments challenges and accomplishments throughout the war, also showing the human side to a mechanical war. a great read for anyone who is interested in the second world war and armoured vehicles
July 11, 2024
Very well researched book with lots of additional information you don't get from other historical books covering WW2
March 9, 2022
A fantastic analysis of British armoured warfare, from 1939 to 1945, through the prism of 5th Royal Tank Regiment which, after Dunkirk, was part of the famous 7th Armoured Division in the desert, Italy and NW Europe, from D-Day to Hamburg. Very readable, it covers aspects of tactics and technology but is really brought to life by the handful of individuals who are followed throughout the war. Urban has really done a huge amount of original research, with interviews and using diaries, letters and official documents. It's certainly a 'warts and all' account, and a reminder that not all men in khaki were heroes and an awful lot of them were 'browned off and bloody minded' much of the time! It's a splendid and moving tribute to the men of 5/RTR - 'The Filthy Fifth'.
September 6, 2017
Another fascinating account of war leant vibrancy by drawing on diaries, conversations and other first hand accounts from the men who fought from France to Africa, to Italy to France and then to Germany itself.
Urban's approach adds a thread of masterful storytelling, interwoven with sharply analytical history. He highlights six particularly colourful characters, warns us in advance of the range of fates that will befall them - yet not telling us who suffers what - and so adds an air of mystery to a readable and enthralling book.
As with other war histories I have read recently, I am struck by the elements of individual heroism and determination, compromised by institutional incompetence, and amateurishness.
As with many other innovations, the British who invented the tank (and also the dreadnought, the battlecruiser, the jet engine, the aircraft carrier) allowed others to pick up the baton of a new idea and run almost out of sight with it.
The tactics and machinery of the RTR at the start of the war were woefully inadequate to meet the Germans, indeed the British tanks that appear in the story are an embarrassment - such that even the relatively undergunned, weakly armoured, and dangerously inflammable Sherman tanks were more loved - with the prized reliability - by the tankies than anything British industry could produce until the advent of the Cromwell just twelve months from the war's end.
Urban's tale however, focuses on the people and the relationships, often fraught sometimes mutinous as the tankies first become desert rats and then the filthy fifth. It is, as Urban puts it, a tale of a Band of Brothers as close knit as any of Nelson's captains or Henry V's soldiers.
This book is a refreshing antidote to the simple heroism of so many war films that I watched as a youth. War was a grubby, chancy business, a mudspattered slugfest where ordinary people did heroic deeds yet still remained ordinary people, changed yes, damaged often (both mentally and physically) but special no - or at least not superhumanly so. They were survivors. Urban tells their story brilliantly.
Urban's approach adds a thread of masterful storytelling, interwoven with sharply analytical history. He highlights six particularly colourful characters, warns us in advance of the range of fates that will befall them - yet not telling us who suffers what - and so adds an air of mystery to a readable and enthralling book.
As with other war histories I have read recently, I am struck by the elements of individual heroism and determination, compromised by institutional incompetence, and amateurishness.
As with many other innovations, the British who invented the tank (and also the dreadnought, the battlecruiser, the jet engine, the aircraft carrier) allowed others to pick up the baton of a new idea and run almost out of sight with it.
The tactics and machinery of the RTR at the start of the war were woefully inadequate to meet the Germans, indeed the British tanks that appear in the story are an embarrassment - such that even the relatively undergunned, weakly armoured, and dangerously inflammable Sherman tanks were more loved - with the prized reliability - by the tankies than anything British industry could produce until the advent of the Cromwell just twelve months from the war's end.
Urban's tale however, focuses on the people and the relationships, often fraught sometimes mutinous as the tankies first become desert rats and then the filthy fifth. It is, as Urban puts it, a tale of a Band of Brothers as close knit as any of Nelson's captains or Henry V's soldiers.
This book is a refreshing antidote to the simple heroism of so many war films that I watched as a youth. War was a grubby, chancy business, a mudspattered slugfest where ordinary people did heroic deeds yet still remained ordinary people, changed yes, damaged often (both mentally and physically) but special no - or at least not superhumanly so. They were survivors. Urban tells their story brilliantly.
September 23, 2018
I've read a few other Urban books (namely his work on the Royal Welch Fusilers and the 95th Rifles), so I was interested to see how he covered WWII.
This is a fantastic book, focusing on one British tank regiment from the retreat in France in 1940, all the way through to the final victory in Europe. All the standard fare of a war story is here, with military ordeals on campaign, relationships that bloom between fighting men, and the fun and antics they get up to when on leave. This also shows a human side to mechanised warfare, and it's emotional when you read about the fates that befall the men that you've been reading about since the start of the book. I think the people in this book survive longer than soldiers in Urban's other work, as the deaths in an armoured regiment were significantly less than the average infantry regiment during the war.
Urban also dispels a tiresome myth about the war - the myth that British armoured forces were inferior to the Germans. They weren't. Read this and you'll find out exactly why.
This is a fantastic book, focusing on one British tank regiment from the retreat in France in 1940, all the way through to the final victory in Europe. All the standard fare of a war story is here, with military ordeals on campaign, relationships that bloom between fighting men, and the fun and antics they get up to when on leave. This also shows a human side to mechanised warfare, and it's emotional when you read about the fates that befall the men that you've been reading about since the start of the book. I think the people in this book survive longer than soldiers in Urban's other work, as the deaths in an armoured regiment were significantly less than the average infantry regiment during the war.
Urban also dispels a tiresome myth about the war - the myth that British armoured forces were inferior to the Germans. They weren't. Read this and you'll find out exactly why.
February 25, 2020
Surprise Xmas present, this is an excellent book. Telling the story of the 5 Royal Tank Regiment from the Fall of France in 1940 through to the end of the war in Germany. It is a well researched and balanced account of men on the unit, the good times and the bad, focussing on a handful, not all making it through to the peace. The author has used interviews, personal diaries, the official unit war diary, other Allied accounts AND German battle reports to try and present an accurate story and I was impressed with a number of his evidenced conclusions that dispel popular historical myths eg. the Battle of Villers-Bocage, which sometimes make you wonder how the Germans didn't win the war given the popular picture of British ineptitude (the detailed facts show this a completely erroneous picture). Mark Urban's ability or merge the unit and war history with the personal of individual soldiers is excellent and it is a top read, even if you only have a passing knowledge of the war and how it unfolded. Highly recommended (I'd give it six stars if I could).
October 1, 2017
This is roughly analogous to Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" except told from the point of view of a British Royal Tank Regiment from the earliest days in France 1940 up through the end of the war.
Far and away the most interesting sections were about how some of the tankers "mutinied" against going back into battle under perceived (and probably true) incompetent commanders. After seeing so many of their comrades dead in battles across North Africa due to command mistakes (vainglorious and otherwise), the veteran NCO tankers managed to actually get certain officers transferred out of the regiment.
There is also a refreshingly honest portrayal of the inadequate equipment the regiment used until finally being (partially) equipped with a tank with a gun capable of destroying Panthers and Tigers.
Like any story of a unit on the front line, you realize that the chances of surviving from the war's inception to its end are practically zero - and the men knew that, hence after North Africa, many opted for transfer into training units.
Well-written and with an abundance of maps that generally covered most of the actions depicted in the narrative, this book is worth reading to get more insight into the British Army.
Far and away the most interesting sections were about how some of the tankers "mutinied" against going back into battle under perceived (and probably true) incompetent commanders. After seeing so many of their comrades dead in battles across North Africa due to command mistakes (vainglorious and otherwise), the veteran NCO tankers managed to actually get certain officers transferred out of the regiment.
There is also a refreshingly honest portrayal of the inadequate equipment the regiment used until finally being (partially) equipped with a tank with a gun capable of destroying Panthers and Tigers.
Like any story of a unit on the front line, you realize that the chances of surviving from the war's inception to its end are practically zero - and the men knew that, hence after North Africa, many opted for transfer into training units.
Well-written and with an abundance of maps that generally covered most of the actions depicted in the narrative, this book is worth reading to get more insight into the British Army.
October 7, 2017
The Tank War is a look at the 5th Royal Tank Regiment of the Desert Rats, from their first fights in World War Two to their last: more specifically, it follows a number of men who fought throughout the war, their campaigns and thoughts throughout.
A detailed, human and excellently unbiased account of a WW2 regiment throughout the war, Mark Urban's book about the 'Filthy Fifth' shows their journey from the deserts of Egypt to the final battles in Germany in 1945. In many cases the book is evocative, tense and, towards the end, emotional as the last few casualties of the war fall.
The book's problems have little to do with the author or the creation of the book so much as a simple fact of war - the different battalions, regiments and squadrons is confusing for a laymen throughout, and can often descend the narrative into a confusing mess of names and numbers. That aside, the book never completely loses its cohesion, and it is a gripping and engaging tale throughout.
A detailed, human and excellently unbiased account of a WW2 regiment throughout the war, Mark Urban's book about the 'Filthy Fifth' shows their journey from the deserts of Egypt to the final battles in Germany in 1945. In many cases the book is evocative, tense and, towards the end, emotional as the last few casualties of the war fall.
The book's problems have little to do with the author or the creation of the book so much as a simple fact of war - the different battalions, regiments and squadrons is confusing for a laymen throughout, and can often descend the narrative into a confusing mess of names and numbers. That aside, the book never completely loses its cohesion, and it is a gripping and engaging tale throughout.
June 10, 2017
I have an interest in military history (having served in the US Army back in the day), so when I saw this book at a local bookstore, I picked it up. I haven't read many books about the role of tanks in warfare, and especially about a tank unit that served throughout World War II. I found "The Tank War" to be an excellent work of military history, showing how the 5th Royal Tank Regiment performed it's various missions, the tactics used, and the tanks the unit fought in. If you have even a smidgen of interest in tank warfare, I highly recommend this book.
March 25, 2021
Billed as a British armour version of Band of Brothers this book doesn't quite live up to that tag, but is quite interesting nevertheless. Some great detail on the battles the 5th Royal Tank Regiment fought in, day-to-day life within the unit and the lives of some individuals within the unit. This makes for a decent level of engagement with the unit and the individuals described.
A must-read for anyone interested in tank warfare.
A must-read for anyone interested in tank warfare.
December 10, 2022
Having watched numerous WWII documentaries. This book gives a better insight, of what actually happened in the tank regiments. Particularly that of the 5th Royal Tank Regiment, from France in 1940 to Africa (41 - 43), Italy (43) and finally to Northern Europe in 1944 - 45. This book is a fascinating read as the writer, has interviewed those who took part in the various campaigns. It pulls no punches, you have been warned.
February 24, 2019
An okay account of British tank regiments in WWII. The author tried to make it a personal account in the way Stephen Ambrose did with Band of Brothers, but the stories of the tank soldiers are not told in the same coherent way. I learned a lot about the British tank forces and this book made me interested in learning more.
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April 6, 2021I purchased this book for Christmas from the Bovington Tank Museum website. I am very glad that I did. This book was really good. I had not read a lot about the British Tank battles during WW2 except for Brazen Chariots by Robert Crisp and this book helped my understanding of those great battles and them brave men who fought them immensely. Really recommend.
August 14, 2024
A great book. A fascinating blending of individual stories, to map out what happened through the war years.
At times not pretty, again like in the Battle of the Atlantic, so many mistakes, yet it was the ordinary men, that courageously stuck at it, that pressed on, passed on their experience to help others continue, from 1939 to 1945.
At times not pretty, again like in the Battle of the Atlantic, so many mistakes, yet it was the ordinary men, that courageously stuck at it, that pressed on, passed on their experience to help others continue, from 1939 to 1945.
October 7, 2020
This book tells an amazing story about the men who fought inside the machines of World War 2 and the bons they formed during the war. The miseries and joys of it are told in great and compelling detail. An amazing WWII read for those interested in the human factor of the war.
June 20, 2020
Good general book well worth reading
September 1, 2021
An editorial triumph
A humbling read of sacrifice and triumph on a human level- normally lost when describing such epic scale historical events.
A humbling read of sacrifice and triumph on a human level- normally lost when describing such epic scale historical events.
April 14, 2024
Simply one of the best books in recent memory that charts a single unit’s war. Visceral, honest and touching, Urban’s historical work is excellent.
May 21, 2024
Recall this as a solid book that really emphasised the danger versus antitank weapons.
October 29, 2024
Excellent little potted history
If you like Mark Urban's other unit histories you'll get on well with this. A good story about a otherwise unknown unit.
If you like Mark Urban's other unit histories you'll get on well with this. A good story about a otherwise unknown unit.
December 26, 2025
Fantastic book on 5th RTR "Filthy Fifth"
Very good for those interested in ww2 and the many human errors and triumphs in an awfully machine war
Very good for those interested in ww2 and the many human errors and triumphs in an awfully machine war
December 11, 2014
World War II tank warfare seen through the experiences of 5 RTR. Urban chose 5 RTR because it was in action in many theatres throughout the war, including France 1940, North Africa, Italy and North West Europe. This also means that you read about experiences of a progression of different tank types supplied to 5 RTR during the war. Starting with A10 and A13 Cruiser tanks, the unit was re-equipped with Crusaders, M3 Stuarts, M3 Grants, M4 Shermans and Cromwells as the war progressed, and this together with experiences of enemy types encountered makes for interesting reading. A list of 369 citations and an extensive bibliography tell you that Mark Urban has researched the subject well, and the 40 photographs that accompany the text are nicely chosen. The text, as well as great detail of the actions, also covers problems resulting from personality clashes, discipline, and even cowardice at times. This makes it even more readable, because it seems so represent the types of experiences of British tank units. If you are interested in WWII British tanks and tankies, you will enjoy this book.
January 30, 2014
An excellent book, Mark Urban has certainly done his research.
This is an very even-handed look at the campaigns fought by the 5th Royal Tank Regiment, form the retreat through France in 1940 until they ended up in Germany in 1945. If you expect a simple account of heroic deeds then you'll be mistaken; Mark Urban shows these men as fallible human-beings, men who could be difficult to command, and deals fairly with stories of men suffering "combat stress" or PTSD and abandoned their vehicles in the face of the enemy. I think that the book deals with events as they were and doesn't spend much time passing judgement on a any particular person or action.
The book could do with more maps, and some of the maps are badly positioned, being at the end of a sequence of action, rather than at the start of the section they are supposed to illustrate.
This is an very even-handed look at the campaigns fought by the 5th Royal Tank Regiment, form the retreat through France in 1940 until they ended up in Germany in 1945. If you expect a simple account of heroic deeds then you'll be mistaken; Mark Urban shows these men as fallible human-beings, men who could be difficult to command, and deals fairly with stories of men suffering "combat stress" or PTSD and abandoned their vehicles in the face of the enemy. I think that the book deals with events as they were and doesn't spend much time passing judgement on a any particular person or action.
The book could do with more maps, and some of the maps are badly positioned, being at the end of a sequence of action, rather than at the start of the section they are supposed to illustrate.
December 9, 2013
A wonderful insight into the war fought by the tank crews of WWII. There are no punches pulled and I felt I was given the true story of the incredibly brave men who went into battle in their tanks. Anyone interested in the second world war should read this.
February 5, 2015
Like all the previous books I have read by the author, this is highly readable and entertaining history book. I particularly enjoyed the fact that it includes the experiences of men at all levels of the command structure.
April 20, 2016
Great book although I wouldn't refer to it as exactly like "Band of Brothers" it comes pretty close. The book charts 5 RTR from Dunkirk through to victory and is well researched and not shy of giving praise to supporting units that worked with the filthy fifth!
Well written and a great read!
Well written and a great read!
November 21, 2014
A very balanced look at the strains and stresses faced by one of the key British fighting formations of World War 2.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews