Whenever one thinks of the World War II, the image of dark menacing panzers cutting deep swathes into enemy forces comes up to the mind. No amount of interpretation and overinterpretation can belittle the extraordinary role-played by the panzers in World War II. Similarly, despite the presence of numerous good works by various historians and introduction of exotic methodologies, Professor Dennis Showalter’s place in the world of academic writings on World War II can never be marginalized. The present article humbly attempts to highlight one aspect of Professor Showalter’s research: history of tanks during the World War II. This essay has two sections. The first section evaluates Showalter’s three works dealing with armour during the World War II. In the next section, the present author, inspired by Showalter’s works on armoured war, attempts to recount the evolution of armoured branch in the Indian Army until the end of World War II. Indian tank units, as this article argues, played a crucial role in the capture of Meiktila and the subsequent ‘Race to Rangoon’.

每当想到二战，脑海中就会浮现出黑暗威胁装甲大片深入敌军的画面。再多的解释和过度解释都不能贬低装甲兵在二战中所扮演的非凡角色。同样，尽管有许多历史学家的优秀著作并引入了异国情调的方法，但丹尼斯·肖瓦尔特教授在二战学术著作中的地位永远不会被边缘化。本文谦虚地试图强调 Showalter 教授研究的一个方面：二战期间坦克的历史。这篇文章有两个部分。第一部分评估了 Showalter 在二战期间处理盔甲的三部作品。在下一节中，本文作者受到 Showalter 关于装甲战争的著作的启发，试图讲述印度军队装甲部队的演变，直到二战结束。如本文所述，印度坦克部队在夺取密铁拉和随后的“仰光竞赛”中发挥了关键作用。