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BT Fast Tank: The Red Army's Cavalry Tank 1931-45
Contributor(s): Zaloga, Steven J. (Author), Morshead, Henry (Illustrator)
ISBN: 1472810651     ISBN-13: 9781472810656
Publisher: Osprey Publishing (UK)
OUR PRICE:   $18.00  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: August 2016
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- History | Military - World War Ii
- History | Russia & The Former Soviet Union
- History | Military - Weapons
Series: New Vanguard
Physical Information: 0.2" H x 7.1" W x 9.5" (0.35 lbs) 48 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 1930's
- Chronological Period - 1940's
- Cultural Region - Russia
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

When the Red Army needed to mechanize its cavalry branch in the 1930s, the BT fast tank was its solution. Channeling the American Christie high-speed tank, the Red Army began a program to adapt the design to its own needs. Early versions were mechanically unreliable and poorly armed, but by the mid-1930s, the BT-5 emerged, armed with an excellent dual-purpose 45mm gun. It saw its combat debut in the Spanish Civil War in 1937 and was later used in the border battles with the Japanese Kwantung Army in the late 1930s. The final production series, the BT-7, was the most refined version of the family.

One of the most common types in Red Army service at the beginning of the Second World War, BT tanks saw extensive combat in Poland, Finland, the opening phases of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, and the 1945 campaign against the Japanese in Manchuria. This is the story of their design and development history.


Contributor Bio(s): Zaloga, Steven J.: - Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in History from Union College and his MA from Columbia University. He has worked as an analyst in the aerospace industry for over two decades, covering missile systems and the international arms trade, and has served with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federal think tank. He is the author of numerous books on military technology and military history, with an accent on the US Army in World War II as well as Russia and the former Soviet Union.