Abrams vs. Ural

[Chops]

Zaloga has a fairly recent book (August 2009) that compares the M1 with the T72. I wonder if he consulted any of the "Tank Commanders" here, on the subject.

The following is a link to a brief book review:

http://www.wargamer.com/article/2797/m1-abrams-vs-t-72-ural#

[tyrspawn]

just ordered it- looks very interesting!

[Flanker15]

Things that try to "vs" something are ussually not very good from my experience, eg. Desert Strom armor battles can only superficially be related to a 1980's Warsaw pact / NATO conflic.

[tyrspawn]

Things that try to "vs" something are ussually not very good from my experience, eg. Desert Strom armor battles can only superficially be related to a 1980's Warsaw pact / NATO conflic.

Dude it's from a series, it's not what you think. Also, anything from Osprey is at least above average, and usually excellent. I read some reviews before buying, sounds like a treatise on modern armored warfare. Can't wait to read it - as I am an armor nerd at heart.

[Damian90]

And Zaloga will be comparing what version of M1 with T-72 Ural?

IRCC T-72 Ural doesen't even have multilayer armor in turret, but I could be wrong tough, maybe some export varaint like... eh I will check later. :-)

But yeah, what version of M1 he will be comparing, M1, M1IP, M1A1 or maybe later "Heavy" M1 variants?

IMHO it is better to just read about every construction without comparisions and make your own conclusions. :-)

[TempV]

I didn't read "Abrams vs T-72" book but I very disliked another Zaloga's title also published by Osprey. This time it was "Tank War central front" from "Elite" series. In that book Zaloga write in very populistic manner - to the western reader of course, and his fictional battle described in the first part of the book is a total bullsh*t. A Soviet Guards tank unit ride in newest T-80 (for that era) led by Afgan-experienced officer and stupidly run into the ambush organized by few US troops. Almost entire Soviet force is wiped out (surprise, surprise ). So we can see even elite Red units are no match to common Blue ones. BULL-****. This is what I call LOTR-style (and yes, I wrote that on this forum, I know) You see, few elite Elven warriors from the Free West defeat Orkish hordes from the East.

Reality is more prosaic. People are same over the world and Russians aren't stupid compare to Americans (in fact, in my country people think quite contrary ) Yes, Soviet doctrine put less emphasis on the individual level, but this doesn't mean that every Blue unit is superior to every Red one. And Soviet doctrine had its own advantages "conviniently" forgotten by Zaloga.

So maybe in the West Zaloga is considered an "expert" of Russian weaponry. Here he's considered to be just a typical populist.

Back to the topic. I read one title from "Duel" series, it was "T-34 vs Panther" by Robert Forzcyk and I very liked the book and ist author. It's written in very professional manner and it shows advantages and drawbacks of both tanks and how they influenced tactics and battle outcomes. I liked the series (thought it's very expensive to the townsman of Russian glubinka) and I'd buy other titles from it. I'll pass on "Abrams vs T-72" however.