Introduction

Tankograd Publishing has sent Armorama a review sample of one of their latest titles, this time it is from their American AFV series and looks at the M60 in a number of guises.

The following is the introduction of this title from the Tankograd Publishing website;
Up till the 1980s, the M60 MBT formed the backbone of armoured units of the US Army, Army National Guard and US Marine Corps. First fielded in 1960, the M60 was upgraded continuously over the years. While the initial M60 MBT still featured a rounded turret, the later M60A1 and M60A3 variants featured a wedge-shaped turret design. The M60A2 was armed with a 152mm M162 gun launcher capable of firing either conventional ammunition or missiles. The M60A1 Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge (AVLB) was designed for use by engineers.

After covering the development and technology of the M60, M60A1, M60A1 AOS, M60A1 (RISE), M60A1 (RISE Passive) and M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle in Part One (American Special 3021) of this work, in this second part the M60A2, M60A3, M60A3 TTS and M60A1 AVLB are covered. A brief look is also taken at M60s in service with armed forces around the world.

Review

This recent release from Tankograd Publishing, which continues on from a previous title ‘American Special 3021’ is a duel language publication. The text is in German and English; German on the left side of the page and English on the right. While on the subject of the text, there is a sizeable chunk at the beginning of the book. There are 12 pages of the 64 pages in total dedicated to text; this provides a good level of background data for the modeller who likes to know something about what their model represents. A quick note on the makeup of the book is that it has a nice glossy card cover, which should protect the pages within; the pages inside the book are a good quality gloss paper that takes both print and pictures very well.
The text section breaks down as follows;

• New Tank Armament
• Adaptation of the Shilleagh Weapon System to the M60
• Tactical Fielding of the M60A2
• Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 152mm Gun Launcher M60A2 Dimensions and Performance
• M60A2 Technology
• Fire Control Equipment
• Missile and Conventional Ammunition
• A Short Service Life
• M60A1 AVLB
• M60A1 AVLB Technology
• Class 60 and Class 70 Bridges
• M60A1 Armoured Vehicle Launched MICLIC
• M60 MBT in USMC Service
• Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105mm Gun, M60A3
• Laser Tank Fire Control System
• Further Improvements
• International Service
• Retirement from US Armed Forces Service

Moving onto the photographs in the book; there are 107 colour photographs and 24 b&w photographs, all of these photographs, both black and white and colour are of a good to excellent quality with the exception of 2 black and white photographs of early prototypes from the 1960’s; being prototypes with a limited number of pictures available, beggars can’t be choosers. I was particularly pleased to see that the pictures from the 1970’s and early 80’s do not have the fuzzy look about them, which I have seen commonly appearing in photographs from that period.

The photographs in the book are broken down into defined sections, these sections are as follows;

• M60A2 Prototypes
• Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 152mm Gun Launcher M60A2
• M60A1 AVLB
• M60A1 Armoured Vehicle Launched Bridge in Detail
• M60A1 Armoured Vehicle Launched MICLIC M60A1 AVLM
• In Service with the United States Marine Corps
• Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105mm Gun, M60A3
• Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105mm Gun, M60A3 TTS
• Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105mm Gun, M60A3 TTS with M9 Dozer Blade
• Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105mm Gun, M60A3 TTS T-80
• M60 in International Service
• Further Developments

Continuing with the photographs in the book, it should be noted that Tankograd Publishing has provided excellent captions for each of the pictures, which clearly explain what the viewer is looking at. The in detail section on the M60A1 Armoured Vehicle Launched Bridge is a great reference and should a model of this be released in the future, a must have reference.

Conclusion

With the M60 being well represented in model form, and I suspect news from Dragon Models reasonably soon on a new offering due to their current M48 series success, I believe that this new offering from Tankograd Publishing will prove popular amongst modellers. There is a great mix of types covered with Tamiya’s M60A2 springing immediately to mind. I also appreciated the ‘Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105mm Gun, M60A3 TTS T-80’ due to the number of images of vehicles fitted with the Hoffman device, something that I have not seen that commonly in use. All in another great addition to the Tankograd Publishing range at a good price.