Steel Victory: The Heroic Story of America's Independent Tank Battalions at War in Europe
This is the first book focused on the U.S. Army's independent tank battalions in World War II. Conceived as reserves for the armored divisions, the battalions went through several transmogrifications and always suffered from the limits of the M-4 Sherman tank. A good infantry support vehicle, the Sherman was no match for the German antitank guns and the Panther and Tiger tanks it faced. The independent battalions ended up attached in rotation to the infantry divisions, in the end seeing more and fiercer combat than the armored divisions. Early fighting in North Africa and Sicily only hinted at what the battalions faced later. The two amphibious tank battalions participating on D-Day were from the ranks of the independents, and beyond the beaches lay the hedgerows of Normandy, stubbornly defended by the Germans, not to mention the Battle of the Bulge and the crossing of the Rhine. Seldom appreciated or publicized, kept in the field by superb maintenance and logistics support, the tankers of the independent battalions have long deserved the tribute Yeide gives them.Roland GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved