Following the conclusion of World War II the U.S. Army and the U.S.M.C. were in dire need of a heavy tank to keep up with the Soviet armor force. After many years of development and testing the M103 was ready to go into production. Through the development of the M103 there were several variants developed. The main variant being the M51 heavy tank recovery vehicle. The M103 never served in a war zone, but was deployed in Germany and, of all places, Guantanamo, Cuba. The M103 was retired after only fourteen years of operational service.

The author and Osprey publishing do a very good job of telling how the M103 came to be and then finally being put into service. The writing is very clear and they use photos and artist drawings of the M103 in combat, which it never was, just kind of a "what if" type of artist's rendering.

One interesting side note is that there is a local military museum that has an M103 turret as one of their displays.

I highly recommend this book for modern armor fans. I would like to thank Osprey Publishing and IPMS/USA for allowing me to review this book.