The AMX 13 Light Tank: A Complete History

by M.P. Robinson, Peter Lau, Guy Gibeau

Overview

The AMX 13 was originally designed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. It represents French ambitions for national resurgence and withdrawal from wartime dependence on American military technology.Being a light tank it was an ambitious and far sighted departure from conventional tank design and it found a ready export market as well as being a critical part in the French Army arsenal. Its basic hull design lent itself to the development of a vast list of variants.French designers progressively modernized, and indeed reinvented, the AMX13 and enabled it to claim to be one of the most successful armored vehicle programs of the postwar period. It proved its worth in numerous small wars worldwide in the service of many countries.This, the first commercially published work on the AMX13 in English, examines in detail the technical industrial and tactical story of this remarkably successful armored fighting vehicle. The authoritative text is backed by an impressive selection of images

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526701695
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Military
Publication date:	01/24/2020
Series:	Images of War
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	91 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

MP Robinson is a Canadian military historian whose research is focused on Cold War era armoured and mechanized warfare. He has co-authored (with Rob Griffin) two previous titles for Pen and Sword Military; Challenger 2- The British Main Battle Tank and The Royal Armoured Corps in the Cold War.The late Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Gibeau was a mechanized infantry officer whose career in the French Army spanned four decades. Much of his early career was spent in command of AMX13 series vehicles, and he was one of France's foremost experts on the type. He died in 2017.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements and Homage to Guy Gibeau vi

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 Origins 1

Chapter 2 Design, Funding and Production 5

Chapter 3 AMX 13 Mle 51 Production Series 15

Chapter 4 Rebuilds and Updates 20

Chapter 5 The AMX 13 Enters Service 23

Chapter 6 The AMX 13 FL-II and AMX-U.S. 38

Chapter 7 The AMX 13 Mle 58 45

Chapter 8 Division 1959 49

Chapter 9 The AMX 13 SS-II 55

Chapter 10 The AMX 13 C90 70

Chapter 11 The Division 1967 89

Chapter 12 Derivatives of the AMX 13 104

Chapter 13 The AMX 13 as an Export Success 154

Chapter 14 Modernizing the AMX 13 207

Chapter 15 The AMX 13 Mle 51 as a Combat Vehicle 217

Notes 229