Sunday 15 March 2015

Book review: Chieftains - the documentary novel of a WW3 tank commander


I've returned to one of my past interests, mainly due to the announcement that Battlefront are doing 'Cold War gone hot' and partly due to some very interesting battle reports in various blogs - including some using Battlegroup rules mods. As well as some interesting computer games.

Being slightly bored last night I started checking Kindle for books relating to this topic - having read Red Storm Rising and Team Yankee years ago. A review mentioned Chieftains as being contemporary with Team Yankee but from a British perspective, so I downloaded a sample...

Less than £4 later (and at 3am) I finished the book...

A very interesting read, fast paced and well written. I'd recommend anyone interested in the biggest 'what if' gives it a read if they haven't already. While some of the kit described (such as the U.S. XM1 with a co-ax 25mm Bushmaster cannon) is based on tech that was obviously upcoming (but not yet available), it seems more or less accurate to the early '80's.

The story covers the first three days of the war, although when reading it seems like a lot longer. It is mainly focused on the ground fighting, and specifically one British and to a lesser extent a U.S. Tank crew. 

I really enjoyed this and would recommend it, especially with what may be a resurgence of interest in this period looking likely. 

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