Chieftain: Britain’s Flawed Masterpiece (Green Series)

Fairly comprehensive cover of the subject by an ex tankie & modeller.As such this is not a dry dusty read, but has plenty of armour anecdotes, sprinkling the pages with stories of the perils & pitfalls of life in the tanks.There are walk-rounds of a couple of different Chieftains , both Gun (Mk 10 & Mk 11) & Willich AVRE & ARRV Mk 7 - typically you find walk-rounds in separate publications – so quite a bold move.Doesn’t quite work, due to a couple of factors – the photos are a bit on the small side - mostly 85 mm X 55 mm – you really want large pics when working on a model, and a few are too dark – the joys of photography in a dark hangar.The main bugbear is that the photos are haphazard. Preferably they’d be arranged by area – Bow, rear, turret, interior, engine etc so a particular area can be found readily, without having to look thru half the book (actually only 33 pages of 184 tot) each time. Perhaps a second Edition will correct that?

This is a big, thick and incredibly informative reference to the British Arm Chieftain Tanks. All makes, all upgrades, all models and a good history of foreign users.I own every reference currently available about the Chieftain and this is my "first look" when I am looking for something.Printing is clean and crisp, photos are very clear, and the book flows chronologically from the first concept to the last iteration.If you are a modeler like me, and a Chieftain lover like me, this is the one book you simply must have.

A very interesting story of the Chieftain MBT. Mr Kent covers the design and use of the tank as well as it's service both British as well as the other nations that used it. I found the visual references extremely helpful as I am planning on building an accurate model of this tank, and I recommend this book heartily for anyone else doing the same.

an excellent coverage on the history of this controversial tank, it finally gives detail on the combat operations in Kuwait 1991, although understandably there isn't much detail regarding the Iranian operational use. Many social history details. all in all, the best monograph on the Chieftain I have found. The details on the developmental process and British tactical use are worth their weight in gold

What an excellent publication this is. I read the book in less than a day and found it to be well researched and humorous. Having spent a number of years during my military career working on Chieftain, beginning in the early 70’s through to Challenger in the early 90’s, I can say that the book brought back many memories. It also brought to my attention some background information about Chieftain that I was unaware of as well as information about foreign variants that I did not know. During my time on Chieftain I worked starting as a driver on the Mk2 and many of the problems that Kent relates to in the publication I can, with some horror, relate to. As time went by I was lucky enough to become a Troop Leader of a Chieftain troop. I can honestly say that this period of time provided me with what was to be the most challenging and fulfilling two years of my life. I found Chieftain (Mk 5) to be as reliable as the crews who manned it. Sorry Richard but my own vehicle never had one pack change in two years. Many little things went wrong but my driver was always able to get us back rather than have the REME visit except on a BATUS visit where we did loose a pack.My only critic for the book is the ‘spinning tank syndrome’ mentioned that the author refers to. I think that this is more myth than reality. To carry out a neutral turn (spin the vehicle on its axis) the driver would have to rev up and pull either of the steering levers to get it to turn in the direction that he wanted the vehicle to go and always under the control of the person guiding the vehicle. The tank could never run out of control. Anyway that is a debate matter for old warriors to have and I put this down to the fact that the author was RTR after all :-).Oh and the Polish contractors who moved the vehicles around BAOR. The ones that moved us were called MOJOs. These guys were displaced after the war and their services were retained by the British Army as drivers and when I arrived in Germany they were the main force in moving units to training areas. I can only say that these guys were the most efficient movers that I ever had the pleasure to work with. Their disbandment in later years was a great loss. The RCT, in my eyes, were never as good. Finally, in 1971 my troop used winter cam when we had an QUICKTRAIN/ASHTRAY to our crash out area. We were given white emulsion (obtained by the SQMC from some German store) in the area and had to quickly paint the vehicles during a heavy snowfall. Oh happy days.Well done Mr Kent. Keep up the good work and my appreciation for identifying the importance that Chieftain had in keeping us all safe.

I was a bit dubious about this as there was no preview of the contents. Now I must confess Chieftain and I are old friends. Back in the late 1970s & early 1980s I was a driver, gunner, loader / radio operator what used to be called a B3 crewman Indeed one of the last to be taught how to use the .50 ranging gun as lasers were just coming into service, I can thoroughly recommend this lots of pictures to bring memories flooding back for ex crew or of interest to others with an interest in the tank.

I was a bit wary buying this without first having a look. DON’T BE.Fascinating book on the Chieftain MBT covering its history and use by the UK and other nations. Some interesting facts and anecdotes, Richard Kent has written a great book.

An absolutely brilliant book. I am no expert on tanks, but it gave a very good technical description of the Chieftain Tank. I particularly liked the stories of the tank crews and their experiences, One I laughed out aloud on reading it. Thoroughly recommended. I hope the author writes a follow-up.

I have marked it low as I think it is a great chance lost. This is due to the terrible schoolboy errors in description. The author describes the commanders spotlight as small and fixed, yes it is only Challenger 1 but Chieftains is large and can be moved independent of the commanders mgSimfire and Simfic are two different systems but judging by images used they are notMany other silly mistakesSadly this does not give the reader a fair unbiased view of Chieftain