Armoured Warfare in the Battle for Normandy (Images of War)

The remarkable photographs collected together for this book show in graphic detail the role armor played in the Allied struggle to exploit the D-Day landings and liberate occupied France – and the skill and tenacity of the German panzer units that confronted them. The struggle gave rise to a sequence of battles that were among the most intense, and critical, of any fought in the Second World War.

Anthony Tucker-Jones traces the entire course of the armored campaign through the photographs – the D-Day landings, the first clashes of the opposing tanks and antitank guns, then the Allied operations – Epsom, Charnwood, Goodwood, Cobra - that culminated in the Allied breakthrough and the destruction of the German 5th Panzer Army at Falaise.

The images offer a fascinating inside view of the fighting itself – and of the widespread destruction and horrific casualties that went with it. But they also record the routines of tank warfare, and give a vivid impression of the experience of the tank crews of the day and of the tanks they operated – the German Mk IVs, Panthers, Tigers and self-propelled guns, and the Allied Shermans, Churchills and specialized tanks – Hobart’s Funnies – that confronted each other in the French countryside and towns.