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Description
The menacing silhouette of the T-54 tank prowling down streets of Eastern European capitals or roaring across fields in massive exercises remains one of the most enduring images of Soviet power in the early years of the Cold War. Its sleek and unmistakable shape was a warning to any nation that wanted to stand against the USSR.
Yet all of this masked a flawed, outdated design, and when T-54s began to clash with the Western armored vehicles in proxy wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East they were found to be on the losing side of many of the battles.
Containing 130 stunning contemporary and modern photographs, and written by two experts on Soviet armor, this authoritative book tells the complete story of the T-54, one of the most widely produced tanks of all time, including many previously unheard of variants.
About the Author
James Kinnear was born in Great Britain and has researched the topic of Soviet and Russian military hardware since his first visit to the Soviet Union as a young teenager. He subsequently lived and worked in the post-Soviet Russian Federation and the other states of the former Soviet Union throughout the entire period of post-Soviet “stability”, the two decades between the Soviet Union being considered a military threat and the Russian Federation finding itself again categorized as such again in recent history. James has written hundreds of articles on Soviet and Russian technology. He is a formal contributor to IHS Jane's defence yearbooks and has published books on Soviet military technology with Barbarossa, Darlington, Osprey and Tankograd.
Stephen L. “Cookie” Sewell was born in New York State and is a retired US Army Chief Warrant Officer and Department of the Army intelligence analyst. He was trained in Vietnamese and Russian languages and has been an active Russian linguist since 1974. He was also an enthusiastic scale modeller since the age of 5 and has built numerous models of armoured vehicles, specializing in Russian, Soviet and American tanks and armoured vehicles. He was the founder of the Armor Model and Preservation Society in 1992. While author of numerous intelligence articles he has also written extensively on American and Soviet armour and also provided a great deal of information to other authors on topics that include Korean and Vietnamese air war activities.
Praise For…
“If you're remotely interested in the T-54, just like Russian armour anyway, or you just have an interest historically in the period, then I would hugely recommend this title to you. [...] This is an absolutely excellent title, definitely a must-have as far as armour modellers are concerned, and so it comes heartily recommended by me.” —Geoff Coughlin, Scale Modelling Now
“With high production standards, copious photos and inside details from Soviet sources, [Soviet T-54] is a great guide to one the Soviet Union's best tanks.” —The Armourer, January 2019
“It's going to become a military vehicle enthusiast's standard reference work on the T-54. [...] If you are at all interested in Eastern Bloc armour - especially the T-54 - then you need to own this book.” —Classic Military Vehicle (January, 2019)
“Recommended for the gunners and those amongst us interested in artillery.” —AMPS