Customer Reviews

Patton's Tank Drive: D-Day to Victory

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There are so many things wrong with this book, it is hard to know where to start.

First, the book description provided by the publisher is wrong. This is not a book based upon previously unpublished photos of an OSS officer attached to Patton. Instead, the photos in the book are based primarily on archival photos of divisions that served under Patton (e.g., the 2nd and 4th Armored Divisions). No credit is given anywhere in the book to any photos by any OSS officer, or any chief of intelligence, of Patton's.

Second, the book does not cover just the period from "D-Day to Victory." Rather, about 40% of the book covers Patton from his experiences in World War I through the invasion of Sicily and the slapping incidents that almost doomed his career. (I.e., pages 1-64 cover Patton prior to D-Day; and pages 65-158 cover Patton from D-Day to his funeral.)

Third, the book is very poorly written. Many sentences (and even entire paragraphs) do not make sense. There are numerous sentence fragments. There are numerous obvious editing errors (such as, on many occasions a sentence will use the article "the" twice in a row: E.g., "The drive continued to the the river." or "The crews needed the the rest."). There are numerous obvious errors in dates (such as, "in January 1945 Patton was called to England to prepare for the D-Day landings in June 1944").

Fourth, many captions for the photos misidentify the vehicles pictured or provide an incomplete description (e.g., an M3 tank is misidentified as an "M4 tank").

Fifth, the photo captions in the book contain innumerable quotations from reports by American officers in the field on the superiority of the German tanks over the American tanks while the text of the book repeatedly claims Patton's tanks routinely defeated the German tanks (it seems about 5 German tanks were blown up for every 1 American tank). The book contains no explanation for this discrepancy.

The book does contain some interesting photos, such as a picture of the damage to the 1939 Cadillac in which Patton was injured after the war (which injuries paralyzed him from the neck down and lead to his death). In addition, the text of the book overall does a credible job of providing a brief biography of Patton and his exploits, provided the reader can get through the sloppy writing and editing. Nonetheless, there are too many drawbacks to this book for it to receive anything but a poor rating.

While hardcore military buffs and historians will find this book lacking, those looking for a brief history of the legend of General Patton along with some interesting pictures will find some useful information in here. Written like a high school history book, it presents facts with no real analysis or interpretation. There are several pictures (half from museums), but many times the captions don't really match the pictures they accompany. My favority part of the book was the last chapter, which relays quotes from Patton on leadership and adds a more personal touch to what is otherwise mostly a history lesson. If you are curious about Patton, this is a good place to start. If you are already well versed in the legend, or are a WWII aficionado, this book will disappoint.

Michael Green is one of the best authors I have come to read, especially for military subjects. I have been a fan of all types of military/war books simply because politics is interesting for me. Michael Green has written a number of books on this subject all of which are considered my favorite. This book is well-written and gives clear, concise information. It also contains and array of astonishing and breath-taking photographs, liek in all of Green's books. I wish I could meet this wonderful author and congratulate him on his job well done. My wife and I both know that these books are at the top of my shelf!

Just a collection of tank pictures and some dialog that is not clear , concise or particularly interesting. Look elsewhere.