T-60 Small Tank and Variants, by James Kinnear and Yuri Pasholok

T-60 Small Tank and Variants, by James Kinnear and Yuri Pasholok
T-60 Small Tank and Variants, by James Kinnear and Yuri Pasholok

Published by Canfora in 2017, 176 pages. Hardback - c.21cm by 28.5cm (N6771)

Brand New

From the rear side cover: The T-60 small tank was the third most numerous tank-type built in the Soviet Union during the 1941-45 "Great Patriotic War", behind only the T-34 medium tank and the SU-76 self propelled gun in terms of production output. Though often maligned in later years as being under-armed and weakly armoured, the T-60 performed a crucial role during the difficult years of 1941-42 when Soviet manufacturing plants struggled to replace combat losses at the front. The T-60 participated in most theatres of the war on Soviet soil in the years 1941-43, including the Defence of Moscow, the Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Stalingrad, and remained in service in considerable num­bers until late in the war. Despite this, the T-60 has been relatively poorly researched, particularly in the West. This book is the result of several years of Russian archive research and includes much newly available material previously classified as "secret" which has only recently become available to researchers.

The history of the T-60 is the history of a single tank type, set against a background of the initial months immediately following the launch of "Operation Barbarossa" on 22nd June 1941, with staggering losses of territory, troops and equipment at the front and the consequent Soviet struggle to maintain production at a time when the main Soviet military production facilities were being evacuated on rails to the Urals and Siberia beyond. The T-60 story is that of a tank entering series production as the Soviet Union was beginning a war for its very survival, and the nearly 6000 T-60 tanks produ­ced in 1941-42 were essential tools at a critical stage in that struggle.
Condition New