Tanks in Hell

Tanks in Hell PDF Author: Oscar E. Gilbert
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504021711
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
An extraordinary slice of untold WWII history: how unproven Marines driving untested Sherman tanks turned the tide against Japan in the Battle of Tarawa. In May 1943, a self-described “really young, green, ignorant lieutenant” assumed command of a new US Marine Corps company. His even younger Marines were learning to operate an untested weapon, the M4A2 “Sherman” medium tank. Just six months later, the company would be thrown into one of the ghastliest battles of World War II. On November 20, 1943, the 2nd Marine Division launched the first amphibious assault of the Pacific War, directly into the powerful Japanese defenses on the atoll of Tarawa. In that blood-soaked invasion, a single company of Sherman tanks—of which only two survived—played a pivotal role in achieving a legendary victory. In this fascinating study, Oscar E. Gilbert and Romain V. Cansiere use official documents, memoirs, and interviews with veterans, as well as personal and aerial photographs, to follow Charlie Company from its formation. Tracing the movement, action, and fall of individual tanks, Tanks in Hell offers “a personal, beach-level view of the Marine island campaign” (Marine Corps History).

Tanks in Hell

Tanks in Hell PDF Author: Oscar E. Gilbert
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504021711
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
An extraordinary slice of untold WWII history: how unproven Marines driving untested Sherman tanks turned the tide against Japan in the Battle of Tarawa. In May 1943, a self-described “really young, green, ignorant lieutenant” assumed command of a new US Marine Corps company. His even younger Marines were learning to operate an untested weapon, the M4A2 “Sherman” medium tank. Just six months later, the company would be thrown into one of the ghastliest battles of World War II. On November 20, 1943, the 2nd Marine Division launched the first amphibious assault of the Pacific War, directly into the powerful Japanese defenses on the atoll of Tarawa. In that blood-soaked invasion, a single company of Sherman tanks—of which only two survived—played a pivotal role in achieving a legendary victory. In this fascinating study, Oscar E. Gilbert and Romain V. Cansiere use official documents, memoirs, and interviews with veterans, as well as personal and aerial photographs, to follow Charlie Company from its formation. Tracing the movement, action, and fall of individual tanks, Tanks in Hell offers “a personal, beach-level view of the Marine island campaign” (Marine Corps History).

Tanks in Hell

Tanks in Hell PDF Author: Oscar E. Gilbert
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504021738
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
An extraordinary slice of untold WWII history: how unproven Marines driving untested Sherman tanks turned the tide against Japan in the Battle of Tarawa. In May 1943, a self-described “really young, green, ignorant lieutenant” assumed command of a new US Marine Corps company. His even younger Marines were learning to operate an untested weapon, the M4A2 “Sherman” medium tank. Just six months later, the company would be thrown into one of the ghastliest battles of World War II. On November 20, 1943, the 2nd Marine Division launched the first amphibious assault of the Pacific War, directly into the powerful Japanese defenses on the atoll of Tarawa. In that blood-soaked invasion, a single company of Sherman tanks—of which only two survived—played a pivotal role in achieving a legendary victory. In this fascinating study, Oscar E. Gilbert and Romain V. Cansiere use official documents, memoirs, and interviews with veterans, as well as personal and aerial photographs, to follow Charlie Company from its formation. Tracing the movement, action, and fall of individual tanks, Tanks in Hell offers “a personal, beach-level view of the Marine island campaign” (Marine Corps History).

To Hell with Tanks!

To Hell with Tanks! PDF Author: Ken Tout
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780709048107
Category : Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
This book follows on from the books Tank and Tanks, Advance and looks at the bitter tank battles among the Dutch canals.

Tank Sergeant

Tank Sergeant PDF Author: Ralph Zumbro
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671639455
Category : Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
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.

To Hell with Tanks!

To Hell with Tanks! PDF Author: Ken Tout
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780708931028
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description


Marine Corps Tank Battles in Vietnam

Marine Corps Tank Battles in Vietnam PDF Author: Oscar E. Gilbert
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 148040649X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
The author of Tanks in Hell tracks ten years of tank warfare in Vietnam, combining firsthand accounts from veterans with analysis of tactics and strategy. In 1965 the large, loud, and highly visible tanks of 3rd Platoon, B Company, 3rd Tank Battalion landed across a beach near Da Nang, drawing unwelcome attention to America’s first, almost covert, commitment of ground troops in South Vietnam. As the Marine Corps presence grew inexorably, the 1st and 3rd Tank Battalions, as well as elements of the reactivated 5th Tank Battalion, were committed to the conflict. For the United States Marine Corps, the protracted and bloody struggle was marked by controversy, but for Marine Corps tankers it was marked by bitter frustration as they saw their own high levels of command turn their backs on some of the hardest-won lessons of tank-infantry cooperation learned in the Pacific War and in Korea. Nevertheless, like good Marines, the officers and enlisted men of the tank battalions sought out the enemy in the sand dunes, jungles, mountains, paddy fields, tiny villages, and ancient cities of Vietnam. Young Marine tankers fresh out of training, and cynical veterans of the Pacific War and Korea, battled two enemies. The battle-hardened Viet Cong were masters of the art of striking hard, then slipping away to fight another day. The highly motivated troops of the North Vietnamese Army, equipped with long-range artillery and able to flee across nearby borders into sanctuaries where the Marines were forbidden to follow, engaged the Marines in brutal conventional combat. Both foes were equipped with modern anti-tank weapons, and sought out the tanks as valuable symbolic targets. It was a brutal and schizophrenic war, with no front and no rear, absolutely no respite from constant danger, against a merciless foe hidden among a helpless civilian population. Some of the duties the tankers were called upon to perform were long familiar, as they provided firepower and mobility for the suffering infantry in a never-ending succession of search and destroy operations, conducted amphibious landings, and added their heavy guns to the artillery in fire support missions. Under constant threat of ambushes and huge command-detonated mines that could obliterate both tank and crew in an instant, the tankers escorted vital supply convoys, and guarded the engineers who built and maintained the roads. In their “spare time” the tankers guarded lonely bridges and isolated outposts for weeks on end, patrolled on foot to seek out the Viet Cong, operated roadblocks and ambushes, shot up boats to interdict the enemy’s supply lines, and worked in the villages and hamlets to better the lives of the brutalized civilians. To the bitter end—despite the harsh conditions of climate and terrain, confusion, endless savage and debilitating combat, and ultimate frustration as their own nation turned against the war—the Marine tankers routinely demonstrated the versatility, dedication to duty, and matchless courage that Americans have come to expect of their Marines.

Tanks

Tanks PDF Author: Oscar E. Gilbert
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612004911
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
“For all the history buffs on warfare of the last century, Tanks is a perfect choice . . . packed with fascinating information” (San Francisco Book Review). This Casemate Short History—by the authors of Tanks in Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa—provides an informative and entertaining introduction to this iconic weapon of the last hundred years. Tanks first ventured into battle on the Somme in 1916, and by the end of the war, countries were beginning to choose “heavy” or “light” tank designs to suit their preferred doctrine. Design then stagnated until World War II brought about rapid change. Tanks would prove integral to fighting in almost every theater; the Germans swept across Europe using tanks to spearhead their blitzkrieg method of war, until Soviet tanks proved more than their match and led to some epic tank battles on a huge scale. After World War II, tank designs became increasingly sophisticated and armor undertook a variety of roles in conflicts, with mixed results. American armor in Korea was soon forced into an infantry support role, which it reprised in Vietnam, while Soviet armor was defeated in guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan. However, tanks played a pivotal role in the American “shock and awe” doctrine in two wars in Iraq, and tanks remain a crucial weapons system on the battlefield. “Comprehensive despite its conciseness. For example, it addresses the employment of tanks in lesser-known conflicts such as the Indio-Pakistani and Sino-Vietnamese wars. The book provides context for contemporary tank operations and offers a perspective on the way ahead.” —Military Review

A Boy and His Tank

A Boy and His Tank PDF Author: Leo Frankowski
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
ISBN: 1618242172
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
AND THE STREETS WERE MADE OF GOLD. . . He Was a Rugged, Hardened Combat Veteran Who Had Gone to Hell and Back¾in Virtual Reality! Now He Had to Face the Real Thing.. . The planet New Kashubia started out as a gas giant, but when its sun went supernova, lighter elements were blasted into space. All that was left was a ball of heavy metals, heated to 8,000 degrees. As it cooled, tungsten solidified first at the surface, and layers of other metals continued down to a ball of mercury at the center. The sun meanwhile evolved into a pulsar with a deadly beam of radiation that baked the planet's surface. The New Kashuhians lived inside the planet, in tunnels drilled in a thousand foot thick layer of solid gold. Still without carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, or even dirt, the colonists were the poorest people in the universe. But when they combined virtual reality with tank warfare, giving their warriors symbiosis with their intelligent tanks, neither war nor the galaxy would ever be the same. Not to mention sex... At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "When I teach science fiction, I use Frankowski's books as an example of how to do it right." ¾Gene Wolfe ". . . the action is gripping, and there are plenty of novel twists and ironic moments." ¾Locus "A Boy and His Tank is a literate military adventure laced with political allegory¾and a great deal of fun." ¾Starlog "... a likeable adventure story . . . [with] appeal to general readers as well as those drawn specifically to military SF." ¾Science Fiction Chronicle

How to Kill a Panther Tank

How to Kill a Panther Tank PDF Author: Craig Moore
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
Using only original official period documents from the Second World War this book tries to provide the reader with the same information on the Panzer V Panther tank that was available to British and Commonwealth senior officers and tank crews during the war. As soon as intelligence reports confirmed the existence of the Panther tank the hunt was on to find reliable information on how to knock out this new German tank. Most people believe that the only way to stop a Panther was to penetrate its armour with an armour piercing A.P. round. Luckily the British 17 pdr anti-tank gun could do that but the British were also looking how to knock them out by using other weapons. They tested using high explosive artillery rounds and 20 mm air attack aircraft canon rounds to penetrate and damage the tank's rear engine deck and puncture the vehicle's radiators. Loss of water would cause the engine to overheat and stop working. Tank radiators were large and spares were not carried on the tank. If the Panther could not be recovered back to a maintenance depot the crew would have to abandon the tank and disable it by setting off internal explosive charges.

Marine Corps Tank Battles in the Middle East

Marine Corps Tank Battles in the Middle East PDF Author: Oscar E. Gilbert
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612002676
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
In the aftermath of Vietnam a new generation of Marines was determined to wage a smarter kind of war. The tank, the very symbol of power and violence, would play a key role in a new concept of mobile warfare, not seen since the dashes of World War II. The emphasis would be not on brutal battles of attrition, but on paralyzing the enemy by rapid maneuver and overwhelming but judicious use of firepower. Yet in two wars with Iraq, the tankers, as well as the crews of the new Light Armored Vehicles, quickly found themselves in a familiar roleÑbattering through some of the strongest defenses in the world by frontal assault, fighting their way through towns and cities. In AmericaÕs longest continual conflict, armored Marines became entangled in further guerilla war, this time amid the broiling deserts, ancient cities, and rich farmlands of Iraq, and in the high, bleak wastes of Afghanistan. It was a familiar kind of war against a fanatical foe who brutalized civilians, planted sophisticated roadside bombs, and seized control of entire cities. It has been a maddening war of clearing roads, escorting convoys, endless sweep operations to locate and destroy insurgent strongholds, protecting voting sites for free elections, and recapturing and rebuilding urban centers. ItÕs been a war in which the tanks repeatedly provided the outnumbered infantry with precise and decisive firepower. The tankers even added a new trick to their repertoireÑlong-range surveillance. Our fights against Iraq in 1991 and in the post-9/11 years have seen further wars that demanded that unique combination of courage, tenacity, professionalism, and versatility that makes a Marine no better friend, and no worse enemy. This book fully describes how our Marine Corps tankers have risen to the occasion.