In an age of warfare generally characterized by irregular combat, the Korean War increasingly stands out as one of the few post-Second World War conflicts between conventional armies. For nearly three years, the armies of first North Korea, and then China, battled it out against a coalition of forces from South Korea and the United Nations. Throughout the fighting both sides employed a range of modern weaponry, among the most visible of which were tanks. Yet while these fearsome machines were present throughout the war, the tank-to-tank fighting that had characterized the wars in Europe and North Africa just five years earlier was largely absent from most of the conflict. It was only during the early months of the war, when North Korean tanks faced off against their American counterparts, that such duels took place.

Such limited engagements can make thin gruel for a book on tank clashes in the Korean War. Yet Steven Zaloga makes the most of the few clashes that took place to compare the performance of the major tanks that fought in the conflict. In this respect Zaloga delivers more than the book promises, for while centering the book on the dominant tanks – the Soviet-built T-34-85s used by the North Korean People’s Army, and the M26 Pershings used by United States Army and Marine Corps units – the two sides, he includes in his analysis the other tanks deployed in order to develop his points about their effectiveness.

Zaloga begins by providing a brief overview of the development of the two tanks within the context of the Second World War. As he explains, tank development during that period went through three stages. During the first of these the majority of the tanks produced were characterized by light armor and armament. Their combat record during the Spanish Civil War quickly demonstrated the limitations of these designs, spurring efforts to develop more powerful machines. The standout design from this period was the Soviet T-34, a crudely-built but well-balanced weapon which prompted the Germans to develop a counter. This was the PzKpfw V Panther tank, which upon its introduction in 1943 forced the Soviets to scramble for a response. Their immediate solution was to upgrade the T-34 with an 85mm gun, which evened the odds while better tanks were being developed.

For the United States Army, encountering Panthers proved a rude awakening. Until Normandy American commanders were satisfied with the battlefield performance of the second generation M4 Sherman tank, which matched up satisfactorily with the German tanks they had encountered in North Africa and Italy. The Panthers’ superiority prompted the U.S. Army to accelerate development of their next generation tank, the much more powerful M26. Though introduced too late to have much of an impact in the war, it was the main American production tank of the immediate postwar era, the design of which reflected many of the lessons of the Second World War.

When the Soviets built up the postwar North Korean Army, the T-34-85 served as the backbone of their armored forces. These easily overwhelmed the underequipped South Korean army when the North invaded in June 1950, as the South Koreans lacked both tanks and effective antitank weapons. The first American forces dispatched to the region quickly found as well that their light tanks and bazookas were no match for the T-34s. In response, the U.S. rushed out as many M26s as they could cobble together. These efforts paid off on the battlefield, as the Pershings quickly demonstrated their superiority to their North Korean counterparts, contributing to the blunting of the North Korean offensive and the reversal that followed.

These encounters represented the high point of tank battles in the Korean War, as UN air superiority soon deterred the North Koreans and later the Chinese from deploying tanks in significant numbers. As Zaloga notes, though, even in that limited time the M26s proved themselves the superior tanks, thanks to their better layouts, armament, and construction. This Zaloga underscores with his comparison of the respective designs and his description of the clashes between the tanks. It’s an impressive use of the materials available to him, especially considering the paucity of sources on the North Korean side, and it makes for a book that anyone interested in tank warfare or the Korean War more generally will find worth reading. ( )