At the Forward Edge of Battle is the first ever illustrated history of the Pakistan Armoured Corps. The Pakistan Armoured Corps is based on a unique blend of values and traditions inherited from its predecessors, and those of the post-Independence national army. The origins of this force can be traced back to the time when the cavalry units of the British India Army were mechanised, in the late 1930s. They were worked up and then deployed extensively during the Second World War, and further moulded during the post-independence period and two wars with India between 1948-1971. By the 1990s, the Pakistan Armoured Corps had evolved into a modern fighting force in thought, organisation, and equipment. Based on decades of the author’s first-hand experience, extensive research with the help of authentic sources and official documentation, this book provides a detailed and richly illustrated description of the build-up and expansion of the Pakistan Armoured Corps, its culture, organisation, doctrine, equipment, bases, a myriad of events and personalities, and combat operations that shaped it over the last 95 years. At the Forward Edge of Battle, Volume 2, is illustrated with over 100 rare and authentic photographs, 15 colour profiles, and a similar number of maps. AUTHOR: After a career of 50 years in the Pakistan Army, Maj Gen Syed Ali Hamid developed a passion for the military history of the Pakistan-India Subcontinent. He had served in an armoured regiment in the 1971 Pakistan-India War and wrote its combat history, Forged in the Furnace of Battle (Sang-e-Meel, 2012). Hamid spent more than half his service in the Pakistan Armoured Corp during which he rose to command a mechanised division, and also spent six years on the faculty of the Army Staff College and Pakistan’s National Defence University.
