The Dark Age of Tanks: Britain's Lost Armour, 1945–1970

by David Lister

A British tank historian sheds new light on the UK’s Cold War era research and development of cutting-edge military vehicles and anti-tank weaponry.In the thirty years after the Second World War, the British army entered a period of intense technological development. Yet, due to the lack of surviving documentation, comparatively little is known about this period. What does survive, however, reveals the British Army’s struggle to use cutting edge technology to create weapons that could crush the Soviet Union's armed forces, all the while fighting against the demands of Her Majesty's Treasury.On this journey, the Army entertained ideas such as massive 183mm anti-tank guns, devastating rocket artillery, colossal anti-tank guided missiles, and micro-tanks operable by crews of only two. At one point, they were on the cusp of building hover tanks. This book explores a time period of increasing importance in military engineering history and brings much-needed light to the dark age of British tanks.

190 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 1, 2021

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting info but a disjointed presentation. The author also assumes a fair amount of background knowledge on the part of the reader.

One for specialists only.

[Shyue Chou Chuang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like his previous volume, "Forgotten Tanks and Guns of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s", this volume yields what Lister has uncovered in forgotten archives, in other words, primary research.

There is no real central narrative. The writer puts what he has uncovered in titled chapters that describe the vehicle type and they are brief. The only connecting narrative is that these are forgotten, which they largely are. It is maddening to read at times, as tantalising information remains out of reach as records were either lost or destroyed. The entries are fairly sketchy.