British Tank Development.

Yes, Sir Thomas Inskip Minister for Co-ordination of Defence defined Britains military priorities in December 1937 as defence of Britain from air attack, then defence of Britains trade routes, then defence of overseas territories and only last that of a commitment to the continent.

 

This policy was inspired by Basil Liddell-Hart and his book "The British Way in Warfare". Liddell-Hart was a confident of both Neville Chamberlain and the Secretary of State for War, Lesilie Hore-Belisha during this period.

 

What books on this subject do people recommend?

 

Don't I know it! This arrived today:



That should keep me busy for a while.

Regards

Tom

 

L-H was a serious drag on the war effort. Orwell thought so and said so in a review of the British Way in Warfare (Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell, II, 246-49). "Disgusted by the spectacle of Passchendaele, Captain Liddell Hart seems to have ended by believing that wars can be won on the defensive or without fighting--and even, indeed, that a war is better half-won than won outright. That holds good only when your enemy thinks likewise, a state of affairs which disappeared when Europe ceased to be ruled by an aristocracy (ibid., p.249)"

 

I am not an expert on this subject, but you could begin with Death by Design by Peter Beale and The Great Tank Scandal by David Fletcher. The classic critical view of the M4 Sherman tank, the most important of US vehicles supplied to Britain, is Death Traps by Belton Cooper--an extremely flawed but often cited work. You should also consult more recent works on US-designed tanks by Steven Zaloga and the excellent online work by the Chieftain (right name Nicholas Moran). For late war British armor and its tactics and battlefield performance, see John Buckley's excellent British Armour in Normandy. There are innumerable technical guides of varying reliability. The most comprehensive of the earlier guides is probably Chamberlain and Ellis, British and American Tanks of WWII. Many websites and recent books on individual vehicles have superseded C&E, but as far as I am aware nobody has yet produced a single volume hard copy work summarizing the latest technical scholarship. Other valuable works are mentioned in this thread, including the technical studies of individual vehicles by our esteemed Don Juan.

 

In addition to those books suggested above by TTH, I would like to add EVERYTHING WORKED LIKE CLOCKWORK: The Mechanization of British Regular and Household Cavalry 1918-1942, by Roger Salmon, if you are looking at the mechanization phase.

 

Thank you for the recommendations, I will see which of those books I can get my hands on!

 

In fairness to Baz, he was part of a wider movement whose other main pole was Julian Corbett. There's a study of Corbett and his views here, which I haven't read, but could be of interest to some on here.

 

This book is the best place to start, imho.

 

Coming out recommending Death Traps and Death By Design is... a bold move. At very least, L Allen, you should understand that you are buying books which are very much NOT giving a balanced perspective. It's more like "the case for the prosecution" as they would say in an American legal drama.

 

It's a good book.

 

I am not an expert on this subject, but you could begin with Death by Design by Peter Beale and The Great Tank Scandal by David Fletcher. The classic critical view of the M4 Sherman tank, the most important of US vehicles supplied to Britain, is Death Traps by Belton Cooper--an extremely flawed but often cited work. You should also consult more recent works on US-designed tanks by Steven Zaloga and the excellent online work by the Chieftain (AKA Nicholas Moran). For late war British armor and its tactics and battlefield performance, see John Buckley's excellent British Armour in Normandy. There are innumerable technical guides of varying reliability. The most comprehensive of the earlier guides is probably Chamberlain and Ellis, British and American Tanks of WWII. Many websites and recent books on individual vehicles have superseded C&E, but as far as I am aware nobody has yet produced a single volume hard copy volume summarizing the latest technical scholarship. Other valuable works are mentioned in this thread, including the technical studies of individual vehicles by our esteemed Don Juan.

I mentioned the above books precisely because they are not balanced. They are nonetheless helpful in understanding the controversy.

 

Thank you all for the recommendations, my extensive backlog just got larger. I have heard of Death Traps before and its rather biased portrayal of the Sherman if it is the book I think it is. I think I will start with Don Juans recommendation and see where it takes me.

 

Been quite a while since I've read it, but I seem to recall him doing a decent service to restore Liddell Hart's reputation as far as influence on interwar German thought by using periodicals that were overlooked or ignored by earlier critics. It's a short book, but recommended.