THE ZONE 1 • HARD TARGET

The Zone, a chemical and nuclear contaminated hell, a broad swathe of Europe where the Warsaw Pact mass attacks have been stalled by NATO. Major Revells’men have to enter it to destroy a Russian tank workshop concealed in the midst of a refugee camp.

SYNOPSIS

Major Revells’ tank hunter team are given the suicidal task of hunting down and destroying a crack Russian tank repair workshop. The elite unit is upgrading weapons and armour, getting it ready for a massed assault on the NATO front line. Crossing the severely contaminated terrain of the Zone the Special Combat Force have to enter the dangerous world of the refugees to find their target. They encounter a renegade group of East German deserters, the reviled Grepos, border guards. Through them they discover that the workshop has been sited underground, close to a huge refugee camp. Invulnerable to assault by any conventional means without unacceptable civilian losses, Revells’ men have to risk everything to attack at point blank range.

PUBLISHED

First NEL Paperback Edition November 1980

First IMPRINT Publication E-Book Edition May 2005

First Revision IMPRINT Publications E-Book Edition April 2007

CHARACTERS

HISTORICAL

FROM THE AUTHOR

THE ZONE 1 • HARD TARGET

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THE ZONE 1 • HARD TARGET

The original and first publication of THE ZONE Series was published by NEL (New English Library) on November 1980.  The cover art was created by Terry Halder. Five of THE ZONE novels produced by NEL were to carry this unique artwork accompanied by a Cover Illustration Synopsis of the featured equipment. This style set THE ZONE apart but was not continued when future issues of THE ZONE were printed in the USA by Zebra Books.

Cover illustration: FV499 Hover armoured personnel carrier (HICV).
Crew: commander, driver, gunner, radio/radar operator, plus eight infantry.

Armament: 30mm Rarden cannon, 7.92mm AA machine-gun.
Armour: Classified, believed to be composite hull, Chobham turret.
Combat weight: 15.4 tons.
Engines: Late production models fitted with twin Allison turbofans developing 2,480 hp max Speed: Classified.
Systems: Fitted include NBC, night vision, automatic fire-suppression, ECM, decoy and smoke generation, passive and active locators.
 
A planned production of 300 was cut to 60 due to shortage of engines. Issue is limited to Armoured Reconnaissance and Special Anti-tank units. In both roles they have proved highly popular with users, exceptional speed and cross-country performance giving them a survival rate three times that of any other NATO combat vehicle. A major drawback of the type is the difficulty of recovery if battle damage results in total loss of power. Plans for a special transporter were shelved when production was curtailed.

Last updated: Saturday, 14 April 2007.

WW3THEZONE website established 3 March 2007 Copyright James Rouch & Ian Taylor