Ampersand's M48 Patton

The Patton tank was a development of the M 26 Pershing and went through a number of changes during its long life, eventually becoming the basis of the M60 series of tanks. Both Pattons and M60s are still being operated by some militaries around the world, a testament to the correctness of the design and the usefulness of the tank.

Originally developed as the M46 and later the M47, the M48 combined the improvements of those two tanks into one system. Such was the need for the tank, that it was ordered into production during the Korean War without going through the often rigorous and time consuming testing that is the norm for weapons systems like this. Of course, since the tank was based on proven systems, it really wasn't that much of a leap of faith, but it was unusual.

The initial Pattons were still called the T-48 during the first 1,000 vehicles, but eventually it was designated the M48. This tank was powered by a gasoline engine and lacked the distinctive machine gun cupola of later variants. The M48A1 added this feature and still used the 90mm gun, though it was becoming obvious that something larger was going to be needed. The M48A2 reduced the number of return rollers and the A2C did away with the small tensioner wheel just below the sprocket. It also swapped out the gasoline engine for a diesel producing the higher rear deck. A flame thrower variant was the M67, built in small numbers.

As with every tank, modifications continued and earlier versions were rebuilt as the M48A3. These tanks received the diesel engine from the M60 and other equipment upgrades. The A4 version was only built in prototypes and the M48A5 was when the tank finally got a 105mm gun along with a lower profile turret.

In line with other titles of the visual history series, this one is primarily a photo book and most of those photos are of extant vehicles. Fortunately, pretty much all the variants exist in museums somewhere in the US and these are fairly well preserved. Those which are the most complete in terms of equipment are chosen and so we are provided with a huge number of superbly done color photographs of these tanks. The image descriptions give us a feel of what equipment these tanks had and how they changed as time went on.

The book is very much a must have for anyone who likes to model the tank, so that one can be assured of the accuracy of their presentation. Fans of the tank who just like reading about it will be happy with this edition as well. It is a book from which I learned a lot and one that I can highly recommend to you.

February 2016

Cpyright ModelingMadness.com

Review copy courtesy Ampersand Publishing. Get yours today at this link.

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