Camp Colt to Desert Storm
The History of U.S. Armored Forces
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This history of American armored warfare through the twentieth century “boasts some of the best available analysis of mobile war as practiced by the US" (Publishers Weekly).
Camp Colt to Desert Storm is the only complete history of US armed forces from the advent of the tank in battle during World War I to the campaign to drive Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991. With comprehensive analysis, it traces the development of doctrine for operations at the tactical and operational levels of war and assesses how this fighting doctrine translates into the development of equipment.
Beginning with the Army’s first tank school, Camp Colt in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, this volume examines how armored warfare effected and was influenced by the evolution of twentieth-century combat. The tank revolutionized the battlefield in World War II. In the years since, developments such as nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, computer assisted firing, and satellite navigation have continued to transform armored warfare’s role in combat.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
No comprehensive account of U.S. armor doctrine, technology and practice has ever been written. This anthology takes a long step toward filling that gap. University of Cincinnati history professor Hoffmann (The Super Sixth) and retired general Starry (Mounted Combat in Vietnam) outline the synergies among political, operational and material factors that shape American approaches to the tank in battle. While the contributors all uphold high intellectual standards, the work would have been improved by a stronger defining concept and firmer editorial control. The Korean War is given almost as much text space as the WWII European theater. The chapters on the Patton, Abrams and Bradley systems focus on design and procurement in mind-numbing administrative detail. These, however, are minor problems in a book that boasts some of the best available analyses of mobile war as practiced by the U.S. At the top of the list is Christopher Gabel's essay on WWII armor operations in Europe, a model for its balanced evaluation of American strengths and weaknesses. Stephen Borque's analysis of armor in Desert Storm is also a masterful operational narrative. In back-to-back chapters, Dale Wilson and Tim Nenninger combine for an overview of American armor from 1917 to 1939. A definitive chronicle in one voice remains to be written, but this edited collection will stand as a valuable resource for military historians.
