Customer Reviews

Steel Victory: The Heroic Story of America's Independent Tank Battalions at War in Europe

5 star:		(5)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Steel Victory covers a subject not covered by previous WWII books; that of the independent tank battalions in Europe in WWII. The armored divisions got all the headlines with their occasional fast advances; but the separate tank battalion did the hard day-to-day job of helping the Infantry divisions painfully gain ground. I speak from experience as tank platoon leader with the 750th Tank Battalion which supported the 104th Timberwolf Division through much of the fighting, as well as the 75th ID and the 99th ID in the Battle of the Bulge.

Very little has been written about the job done by the separate battalions, other than an occasional mention in the histories of the divisions they served. Mr. Yeide has done a phenomenal job of digging out the records of each of these battalions. His book will be the recognized source of information on this subject for years to come.

I really wanted to like this book, but confess I stopped reading halfway through. First of all, it reads like a well written executive briefing, done by someone charged with researching a topic about which he knew very little. Unfortunately, this author really does not seem to know much about World War II. For example, he keeps referring to soldiers as "Doughboys" and "Doughs." The correct vernacular term for WW II soldiers was "G.I.'s" or just "soldiers." "Doughboy" is a World War One term, but this author seemed to like it, so he tried to write it into the history of the Second World War.

Second, the author marvels at the fact that General Leslie McNair's tanks fought as Independent Tank battalions, but he clearly does not know why this occurred. And, he correctly mentions how the independent tankers and soldiers eventually came to the conclusion that working in concert (just like armored divisions) worked best. This should have come from the command structure, but with McNair's units the learning curve came from the bottom up.

The author neglects to mention (perhaps because he doesn't know) that General McNair was vehemently anti-armor. In fact, McNair was so politically well-connected in the Army that he attempted to quash the use of armor (in favor of the "tank destroyer"), and almost succeeded in doing so. Lucky for the U.S. that Colonel George Patton made McNair look bad in war games during the late 30's, and proved that armored divisions could work. Patton did this by running roughshod over McNair's divisions using his concept of armor and infantry fighting in concert.

There was some good information in this book, but the author never really pulled it together. He seemed to see a lot of trees without realizing that he was in a forest. The context was not really there.

The work is long overdue. Little information was known of the role of the independent tank battalions of world war two until this book was produced. The author has done an exceptional job of reseraching and writing the history of the Independent Armored Forces of the U.S. Army of World War Two. These independent tank battaion were created for the sole mission of support for Infantry. The author exposes how these battalions did their jobs- with great skill , leadership and in anonymity.
The author makes the clear distinction between the armored divisions of Gen. Patton fame and the dirt grinding hard slugging tank battalions attached to the infantry and moving at the pace of infantry. This is a good buy for everyone interested in the military forces of world war two and should be an important reference for the subject material.

Author Harry Yeide has contributed one of the most gripping reads to hit the ETO lexicon in quite some time. With fast-paced combat narrative, and thorough research, Yeide has filled a long-standing gap in the European campaigns of 1944-45. The author tells the story of the American independent tank battalions that were attached to infantry divisions, and analyses the many tactical, and command and control problems this unique marriage entailed. Unlike America's armored divisions, whose ideal doctrine called for rapid exploitation, and deep penetration, the independent tank battalions moved at the infantry's pace. This homogeneous relationship presented problems throughout the ten month campaigns, as the author competently demonstrates. Yeide's narrative is clean, concise and to the point throughout. Tackling a topic that could easily fill volumes, the author never allows himself to get bogged down in a myriad of facts, or jargon. At just over 300-pages, this work can easily be consumed within a weekend. Undoubtedly, Yeide's gripping narrative is the strongest feature of the book. Organizational appendices add to the resourceful appeal, however, the five-pages of maps are over-simplified. The author hits on several important themes. Foremost, he points out that independent tank battalions were trained only in how to get ashore on D-Day, but not how to conduct operations from then on. Therefore, their primary role, that of supporting infantry, was a learn-as-you-go, on the job training process, throughout the campaigns in France and, Germany. The author touches on several significant technical innovations, such as infantry-tank radio communications, and special weapons. Some of the latter, like shells designed to penetrate concrete, and a tank deployed bangalore torpedo, called a "Snake" proved reasonably effective. Others, like a huge rollers fixed to the front of tanks to detonate land mines, were considered junk by many of the tankers. Yeide shows that for the first half of the campaigns in Northwest Europe, these tank battalions were attached fairly permanently (organic) to their perspective infantry divisions. Later, as manpower shortages were felt, tank battalions were repeatedly detached and attached to a variety of new infantry units. This parcelling out to unfamiliar infantry commanders with varying tactical notions on how to deploy tanks, presented more problems for the tank crews. The author's research is thorough, yet not meticulous. His notes cite sources, but are not explanatory. Yeide leans heavily on unit After-Action Reports (AARs), and quotes many at length. These passages are surprisingly reader-friendly, since AARs are usually dull, as a rule. These documents focus on problems encountered, and lessons learned in tank-infantry cooperation. Some contain insightful participant testimonies, gleaned from interviews after the battle. The ten-page verbatim transcript of radio chatter between tanks and infantry, was pushing this a bit too far, however. The author consults the usual secondary sources. A glaring omission, however, is Michael D. Doubler's _Closing With the Enemy: How GIs Fought the War in Europe, 1944-1945_ (1994), a benchmark in ETO tactical evolution. Yeide's work will appeal to the hardcore military historian, as well as the amateur buff. Yeide's work gets four-stars and comes highly recommended!

Amazingly, no previous work has been written on this topic and Mr. Yeide's work admirably fills this lacuna. This book is an exhaustively researched contribution to military history, yet readable for the non-specialist like myself. Interspersed with historical facts are anecdotes and personal recollections, which add the personal and human dimensions so often lacking in historical accounts. The historic photographs were particularly welcome, and the maps in the beginning helped clarify sometimes confusing battle movements.  The appendices are detailed and will be very useful as a reference. For anyone interested in this sorely neglected aspect of World War II military history, this intelligent, lucid and extensively researched work is a must-read.

Although many books have been written on tank warfare in various theaters-both from a strategic, tactical, and theoretical point of view, Yeide's Steel Victory gives us an excellent first-hand impression of what it was like to be Sherman tanker during World War II. It is not all guts and glory. Hampered by the American tank theoretician's idea of what a tank should be able to do and not do, Yeide succeeds in capturing the bitter lessons learned by those units in which it was employed to support infantry, and describing the frustration of those who drove and fired Shermans with orders from the generals who seemed to know little about how to employ them properly.

It is probably a testament to the tanker's ingenuity that not only did they learn to offset the Sherman's poor design, but also developed tactics at the smallest unit level (often the platoon) to defeat German defense in the Bocage country, and the much more dangerous Panther and Tiger tanks that appeared in increasing numbers after D-Day, by improving infantry-armor coordination.

Steel victory should prove a solid read to both military buffs and novitiate alike.

Yeide has written a good, affordable book for armor enthusiasts, deserving of shelf space alongside James A. Sawicki's excellent book, Tank Battalions of the U.S. Army.

However, Yeide errs at page 266 when he writes that the 761st Tank Battalion "Participated in the American counteroffensive after the Battle of the Bulge from 31 December 1944 to 2 February 1945." The 761st fought during the Battle of the Bulge, too.

The Battle of the Bulge began on December 16, 1944 and ended on January 25-27, 1945 when Allied forces re-took all territory taken by the German offensive. The 761st Tank Battalion was part of Patton's famous 90 degree turn, entering combat in the Bulge on December 30, 1944. The black American tankers provided armor support for two regiments of the Third Army's 87th Infantry Division and helped cut the Brussels Bastogne Road used by the Germans to re-supply its troops in and around Tillet and Bastogne.

Surviving veterans of the 761st have vivid recollections of their participation in the Battle of the Bulge and it would have been interesting to read, for example, their experiences alongside paratroopers of the 17th Airborne Division.

As for one of Yeide's other books, Weapons of the Tankers- Sadly, NO mention of the three separate "colored" tank battalions that saw combat in the ETO: 758th, 761st and 784th.

Wayne Robinson
Historian
761st Tank Bn and Allied Veterans

This book covers a subject I had never read about before in years of WWII study. For that reason alone, it's interesting in that there are stories here that are fresh even to avid students of the war.
That said, the scope is limited, partially as the author explains, by limits on the detail and comprehensiveness of After Action Reports and post-war writings by the heroic soldiers of these battalions, and partially due to simple space limitations.
There are maps here, but they don't offer enough detail to give the reader more than a general idea of where the actions took place. There is no map for the final section of the book that covers the drive from the Rhine to VE Day.
While the battle descriptions are gripping, other portions of the narrative are more pedestrian. A good amount of space is devoted to hardware background - the M4 and M5 tanks etc.
One theme carried throughout a good portion of the book that would have benefited from more analysis and explanation is the fact that these independant battalions were often not rotated out of the line with the infantry divisions they supported, but remained in the heat of action to support the relieving GIs. The excellent appendices show attachment relationships between infantry divisions and the indy tank battalions by date, but don't fill us in on how much of that time was spent in the front line...a data set I would be interested in seeing. A look at this information compared to the in action days of the supported divisions would give an interesting new insight into the whole American army replacement/rotation system in the ETO that has been much discussed in recent years. Overall, a good addition to your WWII library, if for no other reason than it deals with a gutsy group of tankers who have not had their stories told before.

If you only have room for one volume that covers the independent tank battalions of WWII, STEEL VICTORY is the book to own. The author writes a detailed history of the development and deployment of the independent battalions and makes extensive use of the "After Action Reports" maintained by each unit. This is a great one volume history.

A very readable work that covers the relatively undocumented independent tank battallions in the ETO. The previous reviewers are right on the money concerning the strong points of the volume.

One minor criticism (of the publisher, not the author): some detailed maps of the smaller scale actions would have been appreicated and provided clarity.

I'm a B- amatuer military historian and thought the author's writing style was enjoyable, interesting and well researched. It filled in some of my personal gaps in ETO knowledge.