Failure to exploit the potential of an original idea is a recurring phenomenon in our national history. Few failures, however, can have been so costly in human life as that of our military commanders early in 1916 to appreciate that the tank was a war winning weapon. The slaughter of the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres salient had to be endured before accepted 'conventional' methods were abandoned and the tank given a chance. Bryan Cooper describes the early tank actions in vivid detail, with many eyewitness accounts. He tells of the courage and endurance of the crews not just in battle but in the appalling conditions in which they had to drive and fight their primitive vehicles. Scalded, scorched and poisoned with exhaust fumes, constantly threatened with being burned to death, these crews eventually laid the foundation for the Allied Victory in World War I. The book is well illustrated with many original photographs which give the present day reader a glimpse of the infancy of a dominant weapon of modern war. REVIEWS From a modeler's perspective, World War I AFVs have been rather poorly served in the past.

However, the advent of the 100th anniversary of the war has seen several major manufacturers release most of the major tanks of the period in the past two years. If you've caught the World War I modeling bug with the advent of these excellent new kits, you've probably also become inquisitive about how they came to be, how they evolved, and how they were employed. You would do well to read this book as it will answer those questions while providing some good historical photographic coverage for your modeling projects. The eye-witness accounts are worth the price of admission on their own. Armor Modeling Preservation Society.