The vital tools which helped the Warsaw Pact overcome the challenges it faced included a whole range of combat engineering equipment. This book is a factual reference of the equipment which was used throughout the Cold War period and the important roles each piece played.
With obstacles including rivers and minefields to negotiate, combat units could have faced costly delays if it hadn't been for the diligent work of the Warsaw Pact's engineers. Refusing to allow troops to be slowed down by the landscape, these combat engineers worked in sometimes challenging conditions to find safe routes to their destination.
From building bridges and clearing safe lanes through minefields to repairing and recovering broken down vehicles and creating field fortifications, the work of these engineers played an essential part in the Warsaw Pact's military strategy.
But the work of this effective force would have been impossible without the specialist engineering equipment they used. Rugged, simplistic compared to their Western equivalents, these items would play a crucial part in both peacetime military exercises and combat operations in Afghanistan.
Born and brought up in a mining village in South Yorkshire, Russell Phillips has lived and worked in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria and Staffordshire. His articles have been published in Miniature Wargames, Wargames Illustrated, and the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers’ Journal. He has been interviewed for the American edition of The Voice of Russia. He currently lives in Stoke-on-Trent with his wife and two children.