Tanks & Weapons of World War II (Beekman History of the World Wars Library)

Tanks & Weapons of World War II (Beekman History of the World Wars Library). This book covers the tanks, self propelled guns, artillery and anti-tank guns, machine guns, rifles, mortars, and rockets and missiles of Germany, US, Britain, and the USSR in WW II. There is also some relatively minor coverage of Japanese army weapons. The text is accompanied by many photos and color renderings. Perhaps not surprisingly for a 176 page book that tries to describe so many armies and associated weapons, the text gives a pretty brief description of everything. There are brief tabulations of performance characteristics for each weapon depicted. The book also discusses the major armored battles such as El Alamein, Kursk, and the Battle of the Bulge although in only about 5 or 6 pages for each.Individual chapters are written by people such as Ian Hogg, Geoffrey Jukes, and Kenneth Macksey. Those names may not mean much today (2018) but back in the 1970s when this book was written, they (especially Ian Hogg) were generally regarded as the forefront of knowledge about army weapons of World War II.