US Airborne Tanks, 1939–1945 Charles C Roberts JR. Frontline Books Pages: 152 Illustrations: Approximately 100 black and white illustrations ISBN: 9781526785022 Published: 2nd March 2021 'Tanks' plural is a bit of a misnomer, as it's about the Locust really. I mean, that's essentially the vehicle that fits the title. Enjoyed this one. A pretty breakneck run through of airborne armour in general, with an M22/Locust core. It has a slightly robotic authorial style, a touch clipped & descriptive, but that's no really bad thing in what's a technical sort of survey. Relies heavily on US 'TM' Technical manuals, but as the author is involved with a museum collection that shares his name ( ROBERTS ARMORY ) he's able to qualify most things with a comment or photograph taken from their own accessible example. (I think we can safely assume the M22 engine is a bit of a bastard to work on...) I'm sure it's a facility many writers would love to have & 'Roberts Collection' pics are very present. After a decent technical/descriptive run-through on Locust, he moves onto the 151st Airborne Tank Company & 28th Airborne Tank Battalion. I suspect this is where his real enthusiasm lies. Much of it is plainly a compilation/transcription of stuff from unit training diaries, but there's plenty of name detail & it's all accompanied by great contemporary serviceman's photos, with a detail or two on local mods to the machinery. It's a lightish book which I ploughed through in a morning. Touches on UK, Japanese & Russki efforts (Would love to see the 'after' picture of a Soviet Amphibious tank about to hit the water after dropping from a Tupolev...), but it's really one for the Locust-interested. It's not the dripping-with-exhaustive-detail book a certain member would produce , but it's a pretty worthy job in itself. (Just looked at Mr Roberts other books. Hadn't realised he'd done that Higgins Boat one. Might have to give that a whirl on the strength of this.) As a final comment - think we're living in some sort of golden age for book production values. I've had one dreadfully bound/reproduced book recently, but the vast majority of modern ones I've encountered, from 'Professional' to self-published are of a really decent quality. Nice picture reproduction, quality papers etc. There's the slight worry that it's a response to the pressure of digital versions (though it could also be that the need for crisp Kindle versions actually raises the print quality), but something has happened, and I like it. Cheers to Frontline Books for the review copy. ~A
Now recalled. Not quite 'after', but who wants to see a load of drowned/smashed Russki squaddies anyway...