T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tanks 1944-2004 (New Vanguard, 102)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent and informative book on an important Soviet AFV
Review: Steven Zaloga is one of my favorite authors on tanks and AFVs. This volume does not disappoint. The T54/55 tank is one of the most numerous and successful Soviet tanks ever developed. Over 40,000 of these tanks are used all over the world. Zaloga does a great job of describing the development of the T54 and T55 tanks and the variant models. He also includes various sections which explain the upgrade versions of the T55, the Chinese copies of the T54 (called the T-59 and T-69), and the combat performance of the T54/55. What I always appreciate about Zaloga is that he inserts helpful information such as the armor penetration of the 100mm D-10T guns (e.g. compare the HVAP round which penetrates 200mm with the latest UBM6 APSDS round which can penetrate up to 290 mm at 2km against a vertical target)and the armor upgrades of the T55. As always in this series, the colored plates and illustrations are excellent. Zaloga packs in so much information in 47 pages! Highly recommended!!