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 A Tank Gunner s Story written by Louis G. Gruntz and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 712th Tank Battalion veteran of Patton's Third Army returned home after the Second World War, but for over fifty years rarely speaks of his wartime experiences. His son grows to manhood with only a perception of combat gleaned from the movies of his youth and knowing little of his father's wartime ordeals. During a difficult time in his son's life, the father breaks his silence as they travel across Europe along the battle route of the 712th Tank Battalion from the hedgerows of Normandy, across France to Metz, and through Luxembourg and Germany. This is not only a story of the father's wartime experiences, but also of the father and son's journey, the bond that developed between them as well as the son's change in perception of combat. A Soldier's Story: Gunner Gruntz of the 712th Tank Battalion tells the gripping yet emotional account of his father's firsthand experiences while standing on the sites where he battled, was wounded, saw friends killed in Normandy and during the Battle of the Bulge, and where he earned the Bronze Star in bloody combat. An exhaustive and essential account of the horrors of war where Gruntz took on the might of the Third Reich and Tiger panzers in his Sherman, A Soldier's Story: Gunner Gruntz of the 712th Tank Battalion is also lavishly illustrated with unpublished period photographs.

Download or read book Prompts a Collection of Stories written by Tank Gunner and published by . This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tank Gunner is a pseudonym for a combat cavalry soldier decorated for gallantry. In response to classroom creative writing prompts, this collection of 60 stories includes ingenious and clever approaches to share non-fiction war stories as fiction. Following discovery of four combat daily operational reports he wrote 50 years ago, he knew more of the story than the three or four formal military sentences written for each daily entry over a four-month period and began adding detail regarding tactics, places, and people. Detail grew into elaborations, clarifications, and in some cases, corrections to the daily entries of these historical documents. He used his detailed work as answers for the 108 questions in The Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas Oral History Project questionnaire. For unexplained reasons the Center claimed their questionnaire was proprietary and denied his request to publish their questions with his answers. He respected their wish. Energized to write again, a community college class on creative writing gave the opportunity to present the non-fiction stories for evaluation and critique. Inspired by encouragement from the instructor and classmates, the odyssey began. From there, his answers, elaborations, and clarifications formed the nucleus for over 200 non-fiction war stories, and adding two albums containing over 350 photographs, images, and graphics, he published his non-fiction work. Prompts - a collection of stories is a mix of fiction from creative writing prompts and war stories based on real people and events.

Download or read book A Tank Gunner s Story written by Louis G. Gruntz, Jr. and published by . This book was released on 2013-07 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the moving story of how a father shares his experiences with his son of the Second World War as a gunner in the US 712th Tank Battalion by retracing the journey of his battle route through Europe many years later.

Download or read book Tank Warfare written by Kenneth Macksey and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-11-20 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating and detailed insight into tank warfare, from introduction during World War I to the war in Vietnam. After its introduction during the First World War, the tank revolutionised warfare, and proved to be a terrifying and efficient machine of war. Kenneth Macksey provides a study of the policy-makers and tank strategists, the technical and tactical development, as well as presenting the story of the tank on the battlefield the split-second decisions, the battle-weary crews and the endless mud in this fascinating and detailed account of tank warfare.

Download or read book Tank Warfare written by Francis Mitchell and published by SPA Books, Limited (UK). This book was released on 1987 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bog om udviklingen og brugen af kampvognen i den 1. Verdensrig 1914-18. Bogen er et optryk af den originale tekst fra 1930'erne, og flere af kapitlerne fortæller om en autentisk episode et sted på Vestfronten og som samtidig belyser kampvognen.

Download or read book Gunners in Normandy written by Major Frank Baldwin and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The official account of the Royal Artillery's activities in the Normandy campaign, this volume breaks down the historic achievements of the Regiment, integrating newly published research with a detailed account of their activities, logistics and equipment in the offensive. Gunners in Normandy includes mention of every regiment that served, a Roll of Honour, and a list of the dead by unit. This book presents the definitive record of events, assembled from interviews with veterans, papers and documents from the Firepower Archives, terrain studies, personal memoirs, war diaries and other official documents. Serious students of the battle for Normandy should find this essential reading, with comprehensive coverage of the role of the Royal Artillery, and much material not published anywhere else, including orders of battle, the details of targets engaged by the guns and their effectiveness.

Download or read book Spearhead written by Adam Makos and published by Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times Bestseller 'Brilliant... Gripping' Wall Street Journal From the Sunday Times bestselling author of A Higher Call comes the riveting World War II story of an American tank gunner's journey into the heart of the Third Reich. At first, gunner Clarence Smoyer and his fellow crewmen 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 theatre. But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: now they will spearhead every attack. That's how Clarence 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 confronted 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.

Download or read book The Story of Tanks written by Thomas Fleming and published by New Word City. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is a curious historical anomaly that the United States, for generations the greatest steel producer on the planet, the nation that invented the airplane and a staggering array of other technological marvels, never managed to design and build a good tank before the MIA1 Abrams of the 1991 Gulf War. The history of tanks has seldom attracted the attention it deserves, New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming argues in this essay. Here is the overlooked and fascinating story of America's tanks.

Download or read book Through the Right Eye of a Tiger written by Leo J. Vaillancourt and published by Author House. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a story about Leo J Vaillancourt tour of duty during the Korean War 1950 1951. He enlisted into the U.S. Army September 1948, completing 20 years of service, retiring from the U.S. Army June 1969. As a tank gunner on a M46 Tank, much of the story is what was observed thru a gunners periscope and the 6 power telescopic sight used for sighting the 90mm gun. (The right eye of a tiger,) is explained in the story. All of the events in this story took place before I was 21 years of age, and had an influence on me the remainder of my life. This is by no means the only event that took place while I was in Korea, but only what I can recall, after more than 60 years have passed, I own my life to the Offices and NCOs of my unit. We completed all assigned missions and they kept unit casualty down, do to their knowledge and leadership. Most of them had WW2 experience.

Download or read book Panzer Killers written by Artem Drabkin and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-04-08 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Red Army anti-tank gunners offer vivid accounts of their World War II combat experiences. From the cold and hunger of the Leningrad front to the clinging mud of the Korsun operation, from the gates of Moscow in 1941 to Vienna and Berlin in 1945, the recollections of these anti-tank gunners cover the vast expanses of the Eastern Front. The vivid personal narratives selected for this book give a fascinating insight into the firsthand experience of anti-tank warfare seventy-five years ago. Their testimony reveals how lethal, rapid, small-scale actions, gun against tank, were fought, and it shows how such isolated actions determined the outcome of the massive offensives and counter-offensives that characterized the struggle on the Eastern Front. They recall the hazards, confusion, and speed of combat, but they also provide details of the day-to-day routines of campaign life as part of a small, tightly knit team of men whose task was to take on the most feared tank armies of the day. Panzer Killers is a valuable addition to this series of graphic eyewitness accounts of every aspect of the Red Army’s war on the Eastern Front published by Pen & Sword. It records the contribution of one of the neglected branches of the Soviet armed forces—the anti-tank men who played a vital role in the complex military machine that stemmed the Germans’ advance, then forced them back to Berlin.

Download or read book Anti Tank written by Mark Carter and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2012-10-24 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A combat memoir by a British Royal Artillery soldier recounting the fight against Rommel’s panzers, conveyed with wit and vivid detail. This is a vivid and perceptive insight into the horrors of war as experienced by British soldiers of the Royal Artillery in the Desert War in 1941 and 1942. The author, who fought in the campaign, brings to life the true nature of the fighting as British gunners struggled to defend their comrades from the armored power of the Axis forces under Erwin Rommel. Here, too, are some of the lighter sides of war and the friendships that were made in those days of adversity. Anti-Tank takes us from the fighting of 1941 and the to-and-fro of the Benghazi Stakes through to the final Battle of El Alamein in October/November 1942—and the beginning of Eighth Army’s advance to victory.

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 USMC Vietnam Helicopter Association written by and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2001 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Loyal Gunners written by Lee Windsor and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 819 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Loyal Gunners uniquely encapsulates the experience of Canadian militia gunners and their units into a single compelling narrative that centres on the artillery units of New Brunswick. The story of those units is a profoundly Canadian story: one of dedication and sacrifice in service of great guns and of Canada. The 3rd Field Regiment (The Loyal Company), Royal Canadian Artillery, is Canada’s oldest artillery unit, dating to the founding of the Loyal Company in Saint John in 1793. Since its centennial in 1893, 3rd Field—in various permutations of medium, coastal, and anti-aircraft artillery—has formed the core of New Brunswick’s militia artillery, and it has endured into the twenty-first century as the last remaining artillery unit in the province. This book is the first modern assessment of the development of Canadian heavy artillery in the Great War, the first look at the development of artillery in general in both world wars, and the first exploration of the development and operational deployment of anti-tank artillery in the Second World War. It also tells a universal story of survival as it chronicles the fortunes of New Brunswick militia units through the darkest days of the Cold War, when conventional armed forces were entirely out of favour. In 1950 New Brunswick had four and a half regiments of artillery; by 1970 it had one—3rd Field. Loyal Gunners traces the rise and fall of artillery batteries in New Brunswick as the nature of modern war evolved. From the Great War to Afghanistan it provides the most comprehensive account to date of Canada’s gunners.

Download or read book Gunner s Glory written by Johnnie Clark and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They were warriors, trained to fight, dedicated to their country, and determined to win. At Guadalcanal, the Marine Corps’ machine gunners took everything the Japanese could throw at them in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II; their position was so hopeless that at one point they were given the go-ahead to surrender. Near the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, as the mercury dropped to twenty below, the 1st Marine Division found itself surrounded and cut off by the enemy. The outlook seemed so bleak that many in Washington had privately written off the men. But surrender is not part of a Marine’s vocabulary. Gunner’s Glory contains true stories of these and other tough battles in the Pacific, in Korea, and in Vietnam, recounted by the machine gunners who fought them. Bloody, wounded, sometimes barely alive, they stayed with their guns, delivering a stream of firepower that often turned defeat into victory–and always made them the enemy’s first target.

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.