Customer Reviews

Patton's Panthers: The African-American 761st Tank Battalion In World War II

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Armed service of African-Americans is one of the least covered topics in the greater realm of WWII historiography. This is quite unfortunate as the number of African-Americans to proudly and honorably serve the US armed forces in the Second World War was not trivial. Nor was their contribution to the Allied war effort trivial. While most African-Americans served in service and support units in the segregated US services of the 1930-40's, there were a small number of all African-American combat units, and by the end of the war a few integrated units (although integration occurred on a platoon rather than individual basis as occurred with white soldiers), that served with equal, if not greater, distinction to all white units. Fortunately for all Americans the past few years have brought a number of historiographies of the contributions of African-American soldiers to the Allied victory in WWII, both in Europe and Asia. `Patton's Panthers: The African-American 761st Tank Battalion in World War II' by Charles W. Sasser is a solid contribution to this growing literature that anyone interested in WWII and/or issues of segregation/race relations in the middle of the 20th Century should pick up.

Not only does `Patton's Panthers' deal with a historical issue worthy of coverage but it does so with flair. Sasser's writing style is quite easy to follow and he presents material with literary flavor. While this makes the reading fun and informative at the same time, much in the same way Stephen Ambrose, John Keeghan, Cornelius Ryan, and John Toland's works function, Sasser's style goes a bit beyond that of the aforementioned authors. Two aspects of Sasser's approach to `Patton's Panthers' are particularly noteworthy in this context:

First, it may take authors a while to get used to the `frank' language Sasser uses to present the stories. Not only are curse words frequent, but also political correctness is often left in the editing room. Sasser rarely refers to the soldiers at the center of the story as African-Americans but rather Negroes. It is not entirely clear that Sasser did not do this in fact for visceral impact - most culturally-enlightened individuals prefer to use African-American as a term to denote people of color - since the first half of the book is peppered with Negro and Negroes, while in the latter half use of this more derogatory term becomes much less frequent. This reviewer certainly recoiled at the free use of the term Negro(es), but right or wrong this approach did help to highlight emotionally the more important issues of bigotry and discrimination that these warriors experienced. Somehow by being more `politically incorrect' Sasser may have actually been able to drive home more clearly the morally correct issue of race tolerance and brotherhood that we should all strive for.

The second aspect of Sasser's writing approach that stood out to this reviewer was the way in which nearly all the `recollections' of the African-American soldiers presented read like a stereotypical screen play of uneducated son's of poor southern African-American sharecroppers. Again this seems to have been done for `affect' as Sasser states very clearly in his `Author's Notes': "...I have had to rely on numerous sources to fill gaps left by memory and official record. Also, using my own knowledge and experience with war and men at war, I have had to improvise and to necessarily re-create scenes and dialog in certain instances...I strive to match personalities with the situation and the action while maintaining factual content." Either a majority of African-American soldiers in the 761st actually spoke the way Sasser wrote their dialog or other authors who have recounted the exploits of the 761st, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Joe Wilson Jr. (both African-Americans themselves, the latter's father was in the 761st), have excessively `cleaned up' the dialog. It is likely that reality is somewhere in between. Yet this reviewer believes that latter two authors' recounting of combat dialog and reminiscences are probably more representative and that Sasser's self-admitted alteration was done for affect. Please do not read into either of these criticisms anything prejudice on the part of Sasser. This reviewer feels that Sasser has approached this topic fairly and thoroughly, and deserves credit for bringing to light (again) the exploits of these brave soldiers who have been forgotten, even denied, by their countrymen. Rather the reader should simply be aware that Sasser's writing style has potentially taken wide liberty to pull the reader into the story and human drama by drawing on stereotypes and visceral hot buttons.

All in all `Patton's Panther's a solid historical piece of work that is also a thoroughly enjoyable read. The bonus a reader gets is a rich human story of the contrasts between the lives of bigotry and inequality these African-American men lived in the United States before and after the war versus the equally scary, sacrificial, and heroic lives they shared with their white brethren in combat in NW Europe. 4.5 Stars!

Patton's Panthers covers a segment of the oft neglected roles of Black combat troops in WWII. These men often fought a two front war against German bullets and American prejudice.

Unfortunately, this book does make some glaring errors. For one, it perpetuates the false claim that German tanks were powered by diesel engines when, in fact, they used gasoline just like American tanks. The author also seems to imply that all German Tiger tanks were armed with 128mm guns (only the very rare jagdTigers were so armed). The old bit of Shermans burning when hit it also beat to death when in fact the 761st were equipped with Shermans using wet stowage. The chances of such Shermans burning were actually quite low. There is also a story of a sergeant firing his .50 caliber machinegun from the hip--personally I would like to meet the man could fire a .50 from the hip (perhaps the auther meant a .30?, which is attested to in many accounts). The author also spends a lot of time with the love story of the battalion's CO and a nurse (the CO was wounded and not present with the battalion until the near the end of the war).

Patton's Panthers is not so much a military history as a social history. Individual stories are the strong point of this book as the men speak of their fears, courage, desires and, of course, racism. The author points out that the white officers with the battalion also had to face contempt and abuse for being part of a Black unit. The story of the ill-fated Sergeant Rivers is both compelling in his courage and commitment. The abuse the men faced by their own army is broken up with touching acts of Blacks and Whites saving one another or dying in the attempt. The court martial of Jackie Robinson is a fine touch for the book. The book's ending offers one a glimmer of hope. A wonderful touch is at the end of those chapters where Panthers gave their lives, the author lists their names in honor of their memories. Very few writers bother to do so.

Read Patton's Panthers for its social value.

Sasser provides an inspiring tale of duty and sacrifice. By a group of soldiers for a nation that barely knew or appreciated their devotion.

Some other groups of Negro combatants in World War 2 have been fairly well known. Like the Tuskegee pilots. But few readers might have hitherto known of this accomplished tank battalion.

Sasser writes of a thankfully different America. The casual and pervasive racism described in page after page is now mostly history. What some readers might find especially infuriating is some of the descriptions of the combat experiences in Europe. Where racist attitudes amongst white officers often caused the battalion to enter combat with less equipment or training than white units.

The book is timely, and long overdue. Many of the soldiers who served in the battalion have died. The book gives them and the survivors some belated public recognition.

Patton's Panthers by Charles Sasser is a good book about the African-American 761st Tank Battalion that fought in World War II. I also read Brothers In Arms by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar which covered the same subject matter and found this book to be much easier to follow. The book takes us from training up to the end of the war, and the only constant during this entire time was the way these fine men were treated by many of their fellow soldiers, nurses who were supposed to care for them, fellow citizens, and many of the commanding officers of the Army. Even the mainstream press of the day would bypass the 761st in order to write about only white soldiers in their stories. With that background, it is understandable, although extremely unfortunate that the men of the 761st had to wait so long to be recognized for what they did, and how well they did it. They fought hard and long and did everything that was asked of them and more, yet were still treated like second class citizens by many. A prime example of this was when one of the men of the 761st, upon arriving home with a chest full of medals, and despite all that he had been through, was still told by the driver to move to the back of the bus. This is a book that should be read by all. The only shortcomings were two obvious historical inaccuracies. The first one has Lt. General Leslie McNair being killed by the Germans when he was killed by friendly fire. The second one has General Patton carrying pearl-handled pistols. His pistols were ivory-handled.

I've been reading a lot of books about WWII lately, by Stephen Ambrose (Citizen Soldiers), James Bradley (Flags of our Fathers), etc. Patton's Panthers by Charles Sasser fits well in this genre of writting. Sasser has done an excellent job making a book that's very interesting to read. He has done extensive research and then taken that research and compiled it into a narrative well worth reading. I highly recommend it.

I finished this book in about 2 days because it was such fun easy read. It's not like most history books in that it has a fair amount of dialogue. If you want a historical book that explains events from a global point of view, then this probably isn't for you. This book feels like some soldiers sat down with the author and told a bunch of stories, which he weaved together. I really loved it.

I am a 1978-82 era tanker....these guys deserve their day in the Sun....flyboys get all the glory! *wink*

Someone needs make a movie about them.

"Patton's Panthers" caught me by surprise. The wisdom in the off-hand in combat comments of the "common" citizen soldier far exceeds the hash cranked out by most scholars of war. Anyone who has ever worn the uniform will recognize the attitudes and scenes, time and place altered.

This is a WWII oral history which does not romanticize war or minimize the faults of our own nation. The heroism of these men was extraordinary. The feats of courage described so frankly and brutally were those of realistic men not motivated by propaganda or careerism.

One can only wonder how much those racial attitudes persist today, though there is no doubt that what does remain inside our forces has been pushed deeper below the surface. On the other hand, substitute "haji" for "negra" and follow today's soldiers [of any race] around for a few moments to discover that our latent racial bias always finds some way to push back to the surface. Some would no doubt argue that this is part of a necessary process of dehumanizing the enemy to enable our young soldiers to kill. Only 60 years have passed; one wonders if we have really changed our nature so much that we are qualified to "train" the Iraqis and Afghans how to bridge their own ethnic and tribal divides. Go to our Southwest Asian bases today, and watch the long lines of "host country" nationals filing past us every morning and afternoon, not a glance or a word exchanged between us. One of the men in "Patton's Panthers" noted that the only time the black man was sent to the front of anything, bus, train, or battle, was when the white man did not want to be there. Our allies of today cannot help but feel the same way, I suppose. Plenty of bias, both racial and religious, on both sides of today's war, perhaps more than usual.

This one of the most inspiring stories I have ever read about WWII, and I have been reading about and watching WWII documentries for over 30 years. It is a shame the USA was so bigoted at the time to ommit an important part of WWII history. I had never heard about this group until recently. The story of these honorable brave men need to be added to our current history books if it has not been already. I am hoping to find other books to read about these fine men. This is first time I have stopped to write a review from hundreds of books I have purchased from Amazon.