AMERICAN TANKS & AFVs OF WORLD WAR II

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Stuart, Sherman, Lee, and Grant tanks dominated the US Army and Marine Corps armored warfare effort versus Nazi Germany and Tojo's Japan. This book details the full range of these vehicles, giving technical specifications and development features as well as describing how they were manned and fought in battle.

American industrial might was on full display during WWII. The US built 88,140 tanks between 1939 and 1945, or about twice that of Germany and Great Britain combined during the same period. These tanks also saw service with many allied armies.

In addition to the 18,620 tank-based variants, such as armored engineering vehicles, self-propelled artillery, armored recovery vehicles, and tank destroyers, American factories went on to design and build thousands of wheeled armored cars for reconnaissance purposes and armored half-tracks to transport the infantry into battle behind the tanks. Like the tanks, American armored half-tracks were modified to serve a wide variety of jobs including self-propelled artillery, tank destroyers and antiaircraft vehicles. So useful were these vehicles that they would remain in service with foreign armies for decades after World War II.

To complement its inventory of tanks and armored fighting vehicles the American military industrial complex also designed and built over 18,000 amphibian tractors. Appearing in both unarmored and armored variants they went into combat with a wide variety of armaments. Referred to as the Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT) they would serve not only with the US Marine Corps who often called them Amtracs but the US Army who referred to them as the Water Buffalo. They would allow the American military to take the fight to the far flung Japanese Empire across vast reaches of the Pacific Area of Operations.