Military Model Scene

Title: Challenger Main Battle Tank 1982-97
Author: Simon Dunstan
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-85532-475-5

First published back in 1998, Osprey have reprinted this New Vanguard No.23, with an informative guide to the Mark 1 Challenger tank, as used by the British Army in the Gulf War and beyond. A 48-page soft-cover book, including plenty of archive images along with several pages of colour plates, including a fine cut-away image of the tank.
It begins with the design and development story, where it started as a tank built for Iran, but which was cancelled due to the Islamic Revolution in that country, so it was instead adapted for the British Army. As well as the gun tanks, both the driver training and CRAARV recovery vehicle are included, including 1/76 scale plans by Tim Neate. The story of the Challenger's poor performance at NATO gunnery competitions is included, but in the final stages of the book that is overshadowed by their success when in combat during the Gulf War and Operation Desert Sabre. Here the TOGS sighting system proved very effective, with one Iraqi tank kill recorded at a range of over 4,000 meters. At the end there is inclusion of the development of Challenger 2, while the book is rounded off with detailed descriptions of the individual colour plates that are in the centre pages.
A neat book, packed with detail and images which have proved very successful, something that can be judged by the number of times is has been reprinted over the years. An excellent reference from author Simon Dunstan.
Thanks to Osprey for our review copy.

Robin