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Today tanks are synonymous with the modern army; imposing,
essential pieces of high-technology equipment, seemingly
impregnable. But how did the tank come into being, and how did it
develop and influence conflict in the 20th and 21st centuries? Why
do different countries use tanks so differently in combat and what
was the biggest tank-on-tank battle? The Casemate Short History of
Tanks addresses all these questions and more in 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
stagnated between the wars, until World War II brought about rapid
change. Tanks would prove integral to fighting in almost every
theatre; 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.
Winner of THE GENERAL WALLACE M. GREENE, JR. AWARD for outstanding
nonfiction In May 1943 a self-described "really young, green,
ignorant lieutenant" assumed command of a new Marine Corps company.
His even younger enlisted Marines were learning to use an untested
weapon, the M4A2 "Sherman" medium tank. His sole combat veteran was
the company bugler, who had salvaged his dress cap and battered
horn from a sinking aircraft carrier. Just six months later the
company would be thrown into one of the ghastliest battles of World
War II. On 20 November 1943 the Second Marine Division launched the
first amphibious assault of the Pacific War, directly into the
teeth of powerful Japanese defenses on Tarawa. In that blood-soaked
invasion, a single company of Sherman tanks, of which only two
survived, played a pivotal role in turning the tide from looming
disaster to legendary victory. In this unique study Oscar Gilbert
and Romain Cansiere use official documents, memoirs, interviews
with veterans, as well as personal and aerial photographs to follow
Charlie Company from its formation, and trace the movement,
action-and loss-of individual tanks in this horrific four-day
struggle. The authors have used official documents and interviews
with veterans to follow the company from training through the
brutal 76-hour struggle for Tarawa. Survivor accounts and air photo
analysis document the movements -and destruction - of the company's
individual tanks. It is a story of escapes from drowning tanks, and
even more harrowing escapes from tanks knocked out behind Japanese
lines. It is a story of men doing whatever needed to be done, from
burying the dead to hand-carrying heavy cannon ammunition forward
under fire. It is the story of how the two surviving tanks and
their crews expanded a perilously thin beachhead, and cleared the
way for critical reinforcements to come ashore. But most of all it
is a story of how a few unsung Marines helped turn near disaster
into epic victory.
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