British Cruiser Tank A34 Comet
Armor PhotoGallery #20
By Dick Taylor, Chris Hughes
Published by Model Centrum Progres, Warsaw, Poland
ISBN 978-83-60672-07-5
Review by Peter Brown
The Comet did not see action until the closing months of WW2. This last of the line of Cruiser Tanks begun before WW2 still featured Christie-type suspension, unlike earlier tanks it combined the three attributes of firepower, mobility and protection well with a 77mm gun with good anti-tank ability, the Meteor tank engine derived from the very successful Merlin aero-engine and a reasonable amount of armour.
Although in both firepower and protection it was not in the same class as, say, the German Panther it was still an improvement on the Cromwell. Its career was to be short however, even before the end of hostilities the Centurion had appeared and this pushed soon Comet out. Small numbers did remain in British service into the 1950s and a few were sold abroad with most ending up as targets on firing ranges where they at least helped in the training of the Cold War generations of tank crews.
As with most British tanks, Comet has not been well covered in print so this book is welcome to fill a gap. It fills it well in the usual format of the series.
First up we have a series of 227 colour photos showing the Comet in the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation at Portola Valley in California, USA in detail close-ups outside and in. This vehicle is in top-class condition, while painted and marked as a tank in late-WW2 British service it has had a few minor post-war alterations which the helpful captions point out.
Photos were taken by Chris "Toadman" Hughes whose work is well-known from his series of photo-CDs which are reviewed elsewhere on this site, note that this section contains different photos from the selection on his CD#14.
Following that comes a 12-page drawings section, this has plans showing views from side, front, back, above and below in 1/35th and 1/48th scales, colour paintings of ammunition and ammunition boxes, original Stowage Diagrams showing what went where inside and outside the tank and extracts from original Handbooks and Parts Lists showing various items in detail.
Final section is a history of the Comet by Dick Taylor, covering its development and production with lists of the serial number batches, active service in WW2 and post-war use in British hands with period black-and-white photos as well as details of those sold abroad including photos of Finnish, Irish, and South African vehicles plus brief details of Burmese and Cuban use.
Highly recommended.
