Fallen Giants: The Combat Debut of the T-35A Tank 1st Edition by Francis Pulham (Fonthill Media)

The book describes the combat losses of the huge T-35 tanks in June / July of 1941 as a consequence of the German “Operation Barbarossa.” The level of detail is absolutely astonishing – every single tank that was manufactured (and also lost -- the loss rate was 100%, except for a single repaired tank that is now in the Kubinka Tank Museum) is described. Based on the information provided on this limited subject, I would give the book 4 or 5 Stars.

Only 61 of these tanks were produced, so in some ways it isn’t that hard to provide information on the losses. Each tank’s serial number is tabulated on pages 22 – 24 by the year in which it was manufactured (1934 – 1939).The problems are that Soviet records at the time of the military catastrophe in the summer of 1941 weren’t all that great. Much of the data and conclusions regarding the losses of the tanks depend on German photographs and sparse records.

To a great extent, the T-35 was a waste of financial and engineering effort. It didn’t result in the Soviet Army winning any tactical battles or strategic campaigns. It didn’t result in any subsequent great tank designs – from a military mechanical engineering point of view, it was a dead end. The design and development of the T-34 and KV-1 tanks had nothing to do with the T-35.

Potential readers should also realize what this book doesn’t do. It doesn’t describe the combat deployments or actions of the tanks other than identifying the locations in which they occurred. It describes the locations of the losses and has a large number of photos of the destroyed or damaged tanks. There is only a brief discussion on page 11 of dimensions and weights, engine horsepower, speed, and armor thickness. There is little design or development history of the tank, other than the statement that they were all produced at the Kharkov Locomotive Works (KhPZ). There is no discussion of the strategic thinking about why the large tanks were designed and constructed in the first place.

There are also quite a few English syntax and spelling problems. It appears that the book was originally written in Russian (or perhaps Ukrain)ian) and then computer-translated into English with little or no proofreading by a human. Some examples of the English usage problems are as follows:

• The word “graffiti” comes out as “graphite.” Similarly, “grafittiing” comes out as “graphiting;” I’m not sure either word even exists in the English language.

• The book uses the phrases “gas replicating unit” and “gun replicating mechanism” in several places. I believe these should be “gas recuperating unit” and “gun recuperator mechanism” i.e. the mechanism that controls the gun recoil.

• “Drove off” comes out as “Drove of.”It appears that the computer translator had difficulty determining the difference between “off” and “of” in some instances.

• “Traffic jam” comes out as “traffic jab.”

• A really weird one was “The 7th Panzer Division was curiously deployed….” I believe this should have been ““The 7th Panzer Division was currently deployed….”

Readers shouldn’t get overly upset at the English language issues, I think. Most of the book reads pretty easily. It’s just that when you come to one of these things, you kind of stop in your mental tracks and have to reread the sentence to be sure you understand it correctly.