Download or read book Tank Sergeant written by Ralph Zumbro and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1988 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colorful and spellbinding, this is the combat autobiography of Sergeant Ralph "Zippo" Zumbro and the rarely told story of tank warfare in Vietnam. Zumbro's unit was the most highly decorated of the war, and his story is gripping reading for those interested in the Vietnam war and military nonfiction.

Download or read book US Army Tank Crewman 1941 45 written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revealing what it was like to live and fight in a medium tank this book is structured around the career of a single tanker from 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division. The focus is largely on the crew of an M4 Sherman, though light tank service is also studied. Tank operation required a welltrained and well-coordinated crew. The crew positions and roles of tank commander, gunner, driver, loader, and assistant driver are all covered in detail, together with recruitment procedure, specialist training, and the variety of specialized clothing and personal weaponry.

Download or read book The Tank Killers written by Harry Yeide and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2005-01-19 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A fantastic read . . . Whether your interest is armour or history I would highly recommend this book” (Military Modelling). The tank destroyer was a bold—though some would say flawed—answer to the challenge posed by the seemingly unstoppable German Blitzkrieg. The TD was conceived to be light and fast enough to outmaneuver panzer forces and go where tanks could not. At the same time, the TD would wield the firepower needed to kill any German tank on the battlefield. Indeed, American doctrine stipulated that TDs would fight tanks, while American tanks would concentrate on achieving and exploiting breakthroughs of enemy lines. The Tank Killers follows the men who fought in the TDs, from the formation of the force in 1941 through the victory over the Third Reich in 1945. It is a story of American flexibility and pragmatism in military affairs. Tank destroyers were among the very first units to land in North Africa in 1942. Their first vehicles were ad hoc affairs: halftracks and weapons carriers with guns no better than those on tanks, thin armor affording the crews considerably less protection. Almost immediately, the crews began adapting to circumstances, along with their partners in the infantry and armored divisions. By the time North Africa was in Allied hands, the TD had become a valued tank fighter, assault gun, and artillery piece. The reconnaissance teams in TD battalions, meanwhile, had established a record for daring operations that would continue for the rest of the war. The story continues with the invasion of Italy and, finally, that of Fortress Europe on June 6, 1944. By now, the brass had decreed that half the force would convert to towed guns, a decision that dogged the affected crews through the end of the war. The TD men encountered increasingly lethal enemies, ever more dangerous panzers that were often vulnerable only to their guns, while American tank crews watched in frustration as their rounds bounced harmlessly off the thick German armor. They fought under incredibly diverse conditions that demanded constant modification of tactics, and their equipment became ever more deadly. By VE-Day, the tank destroyer battalions had achieved impressive records, generally with kill-loss rates heavily in their favor. Yet the army after the war concluded that the concept of a separate TD arm was so fundamentally flawed that not a single battalion existed after November 1946. The Tank Killers draws heavily on the records of the tank destroyer battalions and the units with which they fought, as well as personal stories from veterans of the force.

Download or read book Spearhead written by Adam Makos and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, LOS ANGELES TIMES, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER “A band of brothers in an American tank . . . Makos drops the reader back into the Pershing’s turret and dials up a battle scene to rival the peak moments of Fury.” —The Wall Street Journal From the author of the international bestseller A Higher Call comes the riveting World War II story of an American tank gunner’s journey into the heart of the Third Reich, where he will meet destiny in an iconic armor duel—and forge an enduring bond with his enemy. When Clarence Smoyer is assigned to the gunner’s seat of his Sherman tank, his crewmates discover that the gentle giant from Pennsylvania has a hidden talent: He’s a natural-born shooter. At first, Clarence and his fellow crews in the legendary 3rd Armored Division—“Spearhead”—thought their tanks were invincible. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. Soon a pattern emerged: The lead tank always gets hit. After Clarence sees his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, he and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art “super tank,” one of twenty in the European theater. But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: Now they will spearhead every attack. That’s how Clarence, the corporal from coal country, finds himself leading the U.S. Army into its largest urban battle of the European war, the fight for Cologne, the “Fortress City” of Germany. Battling through the ruins, Clarence will engage the fearsome Panther in a duel immortalized by an army cameraman. And he will square off with Gustav Schaefer, a teenager behind the trigger in a Panzer IV tank, whose crew has been sent on a suicide mission to stop the Americans. As Clarence and Gustav trade fire down a long boulevard, they are taken by surprise by a tragic mistake of war. What happens next will haunt Clarence to the modern day, drawing him back to Cologne to do the unthinkable: to face his enemy, one last time. Praise for Spearhead “A detailed, gripping account . . . the remarkable story of two tank crewmen, from opposite sides of the conflict, who endure the grisly nature of tank warfare.” —USA Today (four out of four stars) “Strong and dramatic . . . Makos established himself as a meticulous researcher who’s equally adept at spinning a good old-fashioned yarn. . . . For a World War II aficionado, it will read like a dream.” —Associated Press

Download or read book The First Tank Crews written by Stephen Pope and published by Helion. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This remarkable new book reveals the hitherto unknown story of the soldiers who took the first tanks into action on the Somme battlefield in September 1916. Drawing on official records, contemporary newspaper reports and family memories, Stephen Pope provides a fascinating insight into the lives of First Tank Crewmen, covering their recruitment, scant training, rapid deployment and their premature use in battle. He then traces their inter-connected lives over the next two years as tanks played a key role in the defeat of the Germany Army in 1918. He reveals the story of their return to civilian life and their often difficult struggle to build a family life. Sadly many of the First Tank Crew died young, some due to injuries or illnesses developed as a result of their wartime service. Many of their marriages failed, some as a direct result of the stresses of the battlefield. Many were childless and few lived to see their grandchildren grow up. Amongst the stories revealed are those of the grandson of the social reformer Joseph Rowntree, the champion rose grower Bill Harkness; the Scottish chemist Stuart Hastie who introduced science into the whisky distilling process and the Liverpool school teacher Graham Nixon who tried to teach John Lennon mathematics. None of those who fought in the tanks achieved great fame for their actions and few revealed their wartime secrets to their families. However, many became pillars of their local communities, giving a life of service to those around them. This book tells the previously untold stories of bravery, determination and dedication by a group of unsung heroes. The author has used his contacts with more than fifty relatives of those who fought at the First Tank Action and used their input to provide a detailed description of their lives after the war, He has also gathered together many, previously unpublished pictures including many of the tankmen in France, and has revealed the backstory to several well known photographs. Above all, he has linked individual lives together to create a fascinating story of ordinary men who took part in extra-ordinary events. The story of the First Tank Crews is one well worth reading.

Download or read book US Army Tank Crewman 1941 45 written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revealing what it was like to live and fight in a medium tank this book is structured around the career of a single tanker from 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division. The focus is largely on the crew of an M4 Sherman, though light tank service is also studied. Tank operation required a welltrained and well-coordinated crew. The crew positions and roles of tank commander, gunner, driver, loader, and assistant driver are all covered in detail, together with recruitment procedure, specialist training, and the variety of specialized clothing and personal weaponry.

Download or read book A Company of Tanks written by William Henry Lowe Watson and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-12-11 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A Company of Tanks' is a non-fiction book about tanks written by an individual who has a lot of experience about it, Watson William Henry Lowe. He was not just a tank specialist, Watson also joined the army during World War I and served as a dispatch rider for nine months before being commissioned into what eventually became the Tank Corps. This account describes his experiences working with tanks and highlights the division between officers and enlisted soldiers.

Download or read book Tank Men written by Robert Kershaw and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2009-04-16 with total page 743 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I thought Tank Men was a triumph ...it is a really fine piece of work' - Richard Holmes 'Some of the eye witness accounts Kershaw has collected for this comprehensive review of tank warfare have the power to chill the reader to the bone. This is warfare at the sharp end' --NOTTINGHAM EVENING POST The First World War saw the birth of an extraordinary fighting machine that has fascinated three generations: the tank. In Tank Men, ex-soldier and military historian Robert Kershaw brings to life the grime, the grease and the fury of a tank battle through the voices of ordinary men and women who lived and fought in those fearsome machines. Drawing on vivid, newly researched personal testimony from the crucial battles of the First and Second World Wars, this is military history at its very best.

Download or read book Can Openers written by Nicholas Moran and published by . This book was released on 2017-12-19 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Armor Battles of the Waffen SS written by Will Fey and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-08-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Waffen-SS were considered the elite of the German armed forces in the Second World War and were involved in almost continuous combat. From the sweeping tank battle of Kursk on the Russian front to the bitter fighting among the hedgerows of Normandy and the last great offensive in the Ardennes, forever immortalized in history as the Battle of the Bulge, these men and their tanks made history.

Download or read book Death Traps written by Belton Y. Cooper and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An important contribution to the history of World War II . . . I have never before been able to learn so much about maintenance methods of an armored division, with precise details that underline the importance of the work, along with descriptions of how the job was done.”—Russell F. Weigley, author of Eisenhower’s Lieutenants “Cooper saw more of the war than most junior officers, and he writes about it better than almost anyone. . . . His stories are vivid, enlightening, full of life—and of pain, sorrow, horror, and triumph.”—Stephen E. Ambrose, from his Foreword “In a down-to-earth style, Death Traps tells the compelling story of one man’s assignment to the famous 3rd Armored Division that spearheaded the American advance from Normandy into Germany. Cooper served as an ordnance officer with the forward elements and was responsible for coordinating the recovery and repair of damaged American tanks. This was a dangerous job that often required him to travel alone through enemy territory, and the author recalls his service with pride, downplaying his role in the vast effort that kept the American forces well equipped and supplied. . . . [Readers] will be left with an indelible impression of the importance of the support troops and how dependent combat forces were on them.”—Library Journal “As an alumnus of the 3rd, I eagerly awaited this book’s coming out since I heard of its release . . . and the wait and the book have both been worth it. . . . Cooper is a very polished writer, and the book is very readable. But there is a certain quality of ‘you are there’ many other memoirs do not seem to have. . . . Nothing in recent times—ridgerunning in Korea, firebases in Vietnam, or even the one hundred hours of Desert Storm—pressed the ingenuity and resolve of American troops . . . like WWII. This book lays it out better than any other recent effort, and should be part of the library of any contemporary warrior.”—Stephen Sewell, Armor Magazine “Cooper’s writing and recall of harrowing events is superb and engrossing. Highly recommended.”—Robert A. Lynn, The Stars and Stripes “This detailed story will become a classic of WWII history and required reading for anyone interested in armored warfare.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “[Death Traps] fills a critical gap in WWII literature. . . . It’s a truly unique and valuable work.”—G.I. Journal

Download or read book Panzer Destroyer written by Vasiliy Krysov and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2010-08-19 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this military memoir, a Soviet Red Army officer recounts his experience fighting against Nazi Germany along the Eastern Front in World War II. The day after Vasiliy Krysov finished school, on June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and provoked a war of unparalleled extent and cruelty. For the next three years, as a tank commander, Krysov fought against the German panzers in some of the most intense and destructive armored engagements in history, including those at Stalingrad, Kursk, and Knigsberg. This is the remarkable story of his war. As the commander of a heavy tank, a self-propelled gun—a tank destroyer—and a T-34, he fought his way westward across Russia, the Ukraine, and Poland against a skillful and determined enemy that had previously never known defeat. Krysov repeatedly faced tough SS panzer divisions, like the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Panzer Division in the Bruilov-Fastov area in 1943, and the SS Das Wiking Panzer Division in Poland in 1944. Krysov was at Kursk and participated in a counterattack at Ponyri. The ruthlessness of this long and bitter campaign is vividly depicted in his narrative, as is the enormous scale and complexity of the fighting. Honestly, and with an extraordinary clarity of recall, he describes confrontations with German Tiger and Panther tanks and deadly anti-tank guns. He was wounded four times, his crewmen and his commanding officers were killed, but he was fated to survive and record his experience of combat. His memoirs give a compelling insight into the reality of tank warfare on the Eastern Front.

Download or read book Brazen Chariots written by Robert Crisp and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1959 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Operation Crusader launched by the Eighth Army on 18 November 1941, against the Axis forces which stood on the borders of Egypt and around beleaguered Tobruk.

Download or read book Tank Action written by George Forty and published by History Press (SC). This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The technology that separates the lumbering Heavy Mk I tank of 1916 from the Challenger main battle tank of 1994 may be aeons apart, but the basic skills of the tank commander have remained unchanged. Whether the scenario is the first tank-versus-tank engagement at Villers-Bretonneux in 1918, or the decimation of Iraqi armour by Allied tanks in the Gulf War of 1991, the perennial qualities of efficiency, bravery, quick-wittedness and initiative still shine through. In Tank Action the author looks in detail at forty-two individual low-level battles spanning eighty years of armoured warfare. He has chosen from as many different scenarios as possible so that details of less well-known actions are not overshadowed by the more famous. Emphasis is given to the individual tank commanders involved, but the author is ever mindful of the fact that a tank commander is only as good as his crew, without whom he would be unable to engage and destroy the enemy. Supported by a vast array of photographs, maps and line drawings, Tank Action is a comprehensive and carefully crafted evocation of life at the sharp end of tank warfare, as seen from the dramatic perspective of the tank crews themselves.

Download or read book Build Tank Crews that Can Do the Job written by Randall A. Greenwalt and published by . This book was released on with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summary: The primary function of a tank commander, tank platoon leader, or a tank company commander, is to create tank crews that are skilled in the intricacies of the equipment they use, who are decisive in its employment, and who know, correctly, that they are the very best tankers in the world.

Download or read book Life in a Tank written by Richard Haigh and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-07-20 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You will love reading about the first tanks ever deployed by the U.S. army. Read about these interesting mobile armored vehicles from the point of view of Richard Haigh, Captain of the British Tank Corps and recipient of honorable awards.

Download or read book Steel My Soldiers Hearts written by Neil John Stewart and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Steel my Soldier's Hearts is the story of a young Canadian soldier's mid-war entry into tank training and fighting, through D-Day to War's end, told from the viewpoint of an elisted man in the corps he greatly admired; the actions in which he fought and the men that made up his tank crews; of whom he became the sole survivor. Numerous accounts from former officers relate to the fighting in WWII but accounts from other ranks, who did the fighting, are scarce or missing altogether.