Book Reviews and SGT Fred Benning

Tank Gun Systems: The First Thirty Years, 1916-1945 and Blitzkrieg in the West: Then and Now

By Retired Col D. J. Judge; Stan Kaplan

Article published on: September 22, 2026 in the Fall 2025 issue of Armor

Read Time: < 8 mins

Tank Gun Systems: The First Thirty Years, 1916-1945: A Technical Examination

by William Andrews, Havertown, PA: Pen and Sword Books, 2023, 576 pages, $62.95

Dr. William Andrews is a retired Canadian armor officer with extensive instructional experience at the Royal Military College of Canada. His latest book describes “and examines the main gun systems of main battle tanks of the first half of the twentieth century.” This is a focused work that does not deal with a given tank system mobility, protection, or operational and tactical employment. Rather, his book “examines the basic components of a given gun system.” At the same time, his work explores the maximum “impulse and energy generated by firing some of the munitions available that must be absorbed by the gun recoil system.”

Organized around twenty-five chapters, the first six chapters thoroughly examine a given tank main gun. His explanation of the components of the gun system is systematic and enlightening. The effectiveness of ammunition and ballistic considerations along with recoil management forms the groundwork for his assessment of a given country’s tank main gun. Numerous mathematical formulas are shown to enrich understanding of the physics for a given main gun operation.

This book covers five types of cannons developed by the British and French during World War I. Also, covered are the works of Germany, France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Italy, Japan and Czechoslovakia during the interwar years. Insights on barrel and breech construction, ammunition, re-coil systems and firing mechanisms are provided. Discussions in each section are enhanced by numerous diagrams and photos. Gun control, sights, crew composition and duties, as well as recoil load, round out Dr. Andrews’ commentary. A detailed bibliography is found at the conclusion of each chapter.

The concluding section examines the prominence of tanks on the World War II battlefield. This leads the author to examine several approaches in the development of new and more lethal gun systems and ammunition. The complexities of gun mounts, sights, traversing and elevation mechanisms improved during the six years of intense combat on a variety of battlefields. As the Second World War progressed, the role of the tank switched “ from tank carrying cannon to support infantry to cannon having, first, an anti-tank role and then becoming dual-purpose, e.g., being able to attack armored as well as softer targets and fortifications.” Of particular interest is Dr. Andrews’ remarks on German tank development of the 37mm and 75mm gun systems. As with each chapter in this section, photos, diagrams, and detailed explanations allow the reader to appreciate the responsiveness of a given country to battlefield challenges. German tank sights development along with ammunition improvements increased the lethality of German tanks. To keep pace with these developments, crew training for the Germans was simplified by placing crew men in the same location for each successive model improvement.

As to be expected, other World War II combatants was not idle while the Germans improved their armored force. The Soviet Union started hostilities with tanks armed with 37 and 57mm main guns. As the German threat increased, the Russians up gunned their T-34 force from a 76mm to 85mm with likewise improvements to tank ammunition and sighting systems. The United States Army fielded three large caliber main guns during the war. The 37mm along with a 75mm gun served on the M 3 Lee. The 37mm was also found on the M3 and M5 Stuart light tanks as well as the M 8 armored car. As the war progressed, the Sherman series tanks hosted the 75mm then 76mm gun systems. While the 90mm was found on the limited number of fielded M26 Pershing tank, the total number of these tanks did not justify examination by the author.

Dr. Andrews has produced a detailed examination of the functionality of a tank’s main gun system. He clearly explains the complexity of recoil and gun sight system. His detailed description of tank ammunition and their effect on a given type target is clear and understandable. Master of his subject, Dr. Andrews’ organization and detailed discussion of various tank main gun systems is remarkable.

While a superb reference book, the length of the book will deter some from purchasing it.

Maneuver commanders will find it has limited applicability to the employment of an armored unit. However, the work certainly deserves a prominent place in the reference section of a military oriented library.

RETIRED COL D. J. JUDGE

Blitzkrieg in the West: Then and Now

by Jean Paul Pallud, Pen and Sword. 2022, 640 pages, $89.95

In May 1940, the German Wehrmacht lured the British and French armies into Belgium with a feint attack, then broke through the center of the Allied line with a spearhead of seven armored divisions. In 10 days the panzers reached the Channel coast, trapping the Allied armies in a giant pocket. Within weeks the British had fled the continent and the French had surrendered.

Blitzkrieg in the West: Then and Now, is a narrative and pictorial chronicle of the campaign. As fits its considerable size – 640 oversize pages, more than 1800 photographs and maps – this is really three books in one. First, it is a fantastic album of photographs of the 1940 campaign. The photos portray the equipment and soldiers of all the combatants, each picture carefully captioned and, in many cases, accompanied by an image of the same location circa 1990 (the book was first published in 1991 and has not been revised; I reviewed the 2022 reprint). Of special interest to the Armor audience, there are many, many interesting photographs of the tanks and other armored vehicles used by the opposing forces. The book is handsomely produced. It is printed on glossy paper that serves the photographs well, and has the kind of tight binding that is mandatory for a hardback this large.

The second book embedded in this volume is a highly detailed account of the campaign, at times down to the platoon level. In addition to the well-known events, such as the German armored breakthrough via the Ardennes Forest and the Dunkirk evacuation, the author discusses more obscure actions, such as the fighting in the Alps between French and Italian forces. What might have been a dry narrative is enlivened by Pallud’s extensive use of first-person combat accounts, including harrowing descriptions of tank engagements.

The third book is the author’s analytical discussion of the campaign. Pallud provides detailed descriptions of the plans and preparations of each side. His interpretation of the campaign is often insightful and makes clear that the outcome of the campaign was contingent, not preordained. The author does not fall into the trap of some campaign histories, especially older ones, of claiming that the Allied forces did not have will to fight or were overwhelmed by vastly larger German armored forces. Pallud shows that the Allied tank inventory was larger than the German and comparable, if not superior, in quality, and that French morale was good. He concludes that “Neither was the morale or the ability of the men found wanting — it was simply the way the armour was used that made the panzers superior” (P. 57).

In particular, Pallud highlights the misuse of the French 7th Army, a powerful, mobile force that was originally deployed behind the front as the Allied central reserve. However, the French C-in-C, Gamelin, decided (against the advice of his field commanders) to move the 7th Army to the Allied far left flank for a dash into southern Holland. His objectives – which included supporting the Dutch and securing the approaches to Antwerp – perhaps had some logic, but the decision was catastrophic, as it left the French with no concentrated, mobile reserve once the German armor broke through the Allied center. As Pallud notes, if 7th Army “had been available to be rushed to where it was needed, in the Sedan sector, the entire balance of forces in the fight to stem the breakthrough would have been altered” (P. 152). History could easily have taken a different path in 1940.

The book has its faults. There are some surprising gaps in the campaign narrative, such as limited discussions of the key German breakthrough at Sedan and the bitter fighting for the critical town of Stonne on the southern flank of the German advance. The maps are rudimentary, created by overlaying labels and symbols on modern, rather than 1940, Michelin maps. A bit more academic apparatus – more citations and a bibliography – would have been welcome.

At least one of Pallud’s conclusions is open to debate. Like virtually all chroniclers of the 1940 campaign he castigates the French for deploying many of their tanks with infantry formations rather than solely in armored divisions. Yet during World War II more American tank battalions were used as independent formations (63), often attached more or less permanently to an infantry division, than assigned to armored divisions (48). After the war, the U.S. Army concluded that not enough armor had been allotted to the infantry divisions. The French, who had no shortage of tanks and fielded several powerful armored divisions in addition to the tank units assigned to the infantry, failed in the operational-level deployment and tactical handling of their armor, not necessarily in their conception of how tanks should be used for infantry support.

But these are minor criticisms. Blitzkrieg in the West will be a valuable and even essential addition to any library on the critical campaign of May-June 1940. For further reading, the best analytical account is The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West, by Karl-Heinz Frieser. Also outstanding is The Breaking Point: Sedan and the Fall of France, 1940, by Robert A. Doughty, former head of the history department at West Point.

STAN KAPLAN

SGT Fred Benning, namesake of Fort Benning, GA was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by President Woodrow Wilson for his actions near Exermont, France on 9 October 1918. SGT Benning went on to serve two terms as mayor of Neligh, Nebraska.

U.S. Army photo by Scott Darling