Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II (Hardcover)

~ Belton Cooper (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Without a doubt, this is one of the finest WWII memoirs ever written by an American junior officer. Lieutenant Cooper served with the 3rd Armored Division's Maintenance Battalion and saw action from Normandy to Germany in 1944-1945. One of the army's two heavy armored divisions, the 3rd lost 648 M4 Shermans and had another 700 tanks damaged, repaired and put back in service by the time the shooting ended in May 1945. Cooper, as one of the division's three ordnance liaison officers, was in the midst of the division's tank recovery operations. He writes about the tenacity of the maintenance mechanics and their ability to improvise and devise their own policies. Cooper is unsparing in his criticism of George S. Patton and other generals whose belief in mobility over heavy armor kept the Sherman medium tank as the standard. American tank crews quickly learned that these "death traps" were no match for heavier German tanks such as the Panther and King Tiger. Cooper describes the difficult maneuvering in the hedgerow country, the confusion of the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of Nordhausen concentration camp and the destruction of an entire column of tanks and other vehicles. Cooper demonstrates convincingly that it was the unheralded work of the maintenance section that allowed the 3rd Armored Division to maintain its combat effectiveness. This detailed story will become a classic of WWII history and required reading for anyone interested in armored warfare. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-In a down-to-earth style, Death Traps tells the compelling story of one man's assignment to the famous 3rd Armored Division that spearheaded the American advance from Normandy into Germany. Cooper served as an ordinance officer with the forward elements and was responsible for coordinating the recovery and repair of damaged American tanks. This was a dangerous job that often required him to travel alone through enemy territory, and the author modestly recalls his service with pride, downplaying his role in the vast effort that kept the American forces well equipped and supplied. Readers will not gain any great insights on the causes of the war or the reasons why a campaign went the way it did; however, they will be left with an indelible impression of the importance of the support troops and how dependent combat forces were on them.
Robert Burnham, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press (August 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891416706
• ISBN-13: 978-0891416708
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #652,670 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maintenance view of a WWII Armored Division in Europe, December 31, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Midland City, Alabama) - See all my reviews

Hundreds of books have been written about armored warfare in World War II, usually from the viewpoint of a combat commander. "Death Traps" is a first hand account of the often overlooked area of maintenance support. Belton Cooper was a army Ordnance officer with the 3rd Armored Division. He gives a different perspective of the day to day life of supporting a combat command of the 3rd AD during WWII. He served as a laision officer with the duties of evaulating knocked out military vehicles, primarily M4 Sherman Tanks. His job was to determine if these tanks could be salvaged,rebuilt and be reissued to tank crews. It is already well known that America's main battle tank was far inferior to German Armor, but Cooper explains how the M4 met its fate through numerous encounters with German Panthers and Tigers. This required Tank Commanders to rethink Armored Warfare and to come up with ways to defeat the enemy. He explains in detail the numerous obstacles that had to be overcome from the Normandy landings all the way to the surrender of Germany. You will read of the development of the famous Cullen Hedgerow device that helped break the stalmate in the hedgerow country of Normandy. Also the first trials of the M26 Pershing Tank which was so badly needed by our troops to counter heavy German Armor but was refused by General George S. Patton. Pattons view was that we needed fast tanks to go to the enemys rear to disrupt supply and command elements, did not warrant tanks like the Pershing. Coopers evaluation of the Pershing shows that if we had this tank in great numbers the war in Europe could have been over much sooner and with less loss of life. Also there is the rare story of the use of the M26A1E2(aka M26E4) Super Pershing and its encounter with a Panther. This is a great book. As a Veteran Tank Commander I highly recommend this book be read by all Armor Officers and Tank Commanders. You will awe at the stories of horror when you have to clean out a destroyed tank and try to match up the body parts. You will laugh at the comical incidents soldiers often find themselves in. A great deal of thanks is due to Cooper for contributing this work. It is a much needed addition to the library's of our nation's history. The new millineum is upon us. We must encourage our veterans to write about their experience's before they are lost to time. Cooper has done this and we thank him.

Tom Holt Veteran, The Big Red One

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable memoir from a veteran., December 18, 1998

By	Jonathan D. Beard (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II is an unusual addition to the growing pile of memoirs being published as WW II veterans age and then die. It is not written by a soldier who was in the thick of combat and has brave tales to tell, nor is it the story of someone in command, explaining and justifying his decisions. Instead, Cooper was a junior officer in charge of vehicle maintenance for the 3rd Armored Division as it fought its way from Normandy to Central Germany. He was always right behind the front lines, but seldom in combat, though frequently exposed to sniper and artillery fire. The main revelation of Death Traps is obvious from its title: the famous M4 Sherman tank which was the mainstay of American armor during the war was completely inadequate when facing German tanks. American commanders, especially Gen. Patton, chose to continue producing the Sherman even when they knew it could not face German tanks and antitank guns, and American tank crews paid a heavy price for this mistake. Cooper has done his homework. Unlike many war memoirs, he has spent time reading the general histories in recent years, and gets the background information right when he discusses the pursuit across France, the invasion of Germany, and the Battle of the Bulge. But the most important thing here is the details: how the Sherman worked, how maintenance was carried out under harsh conditions, and, especially, what happened when a high-velocity 75 mm or 88 mm shell hit an M4.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting Personal Account from Insider Point of View, February 4, 2006

By	BK - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II (Mass Market Paperback)

Deathtraps is an engrossing personal account of a of the American Tanker's experience in World War II from a unique insider's perspective, the man in charge of recovering and fixing destroyed tanks. It is a deeply personal and moving account of a man coming to grips with the horrors of war while at the same time rejoicing at the traces of humanity that remained even in the worst situations. Despite some inaccuracies and repetition it once again reinforces the fact that the M4 Sherman tank was totally outclassed for most of World War II by its German opponents. While the GI grapevine isn't 100% accurate it captures the feelings and beliefs of the armored infantry and tankers who fought and died in the Sherman. It is this insight that makes this book so valuable. Belton Cooper speaks for those who didn't make it back. The author writes with an earnestness that gives voice to those who went into battle knowing that the odds were against them. Logistics efficiency was purchased at the expense of battle losses. Whether or not that was the right choice will be debated forever but the author has earned the right to present his argument from firsthand personal experience.
Unfortunately, the lead reviewer who gave this book one star used two outrageously misleading points (among several others) to disparage this book, and rather unwittingly, the tens of thousands of American tankers who fought and died in the Sherman. He misses the point of this book by playing the part of a not-so-accurate-self-proclaimed-fact-checker and misses the story of the bravery of the crews who knowingly went into battle with an inferior weapon. Whether or not the Sherman was or was not inferior is not the point. The point is that these men believed that they faced certain death and still did their duty each day until the end of the war. (See notes below).

Additional Notes for Armor Nerds:

Armor nerds will point out that limited supplies of special HVAP ammunition and add-on armor brought some Shermans up to a survivable level at the very end of the war. The inescapable fact is that without overwhelming air superiority and artillery support, an unsupported Sherman pitted against a Panther or a Tiger without overwhelming numerical superiority was doomed. Fortunately, towards the end of the war, that became an exceedingly rare occurrence. Official Army guidelines stated that 5 Shermans were needed to knockout a Panther and thanks to the maintenance crews of the U.S. Army; there were always plenty of Shermans. The Sherman was an excellent anti-infantry weapon. It was a terrible anti-tank weapon.

Lead Reviewer's misleading "fact" checking points:

ONE: Claiming that German tank kills by U.S. armored divisions refuted the assertion that the Sherman was at a disadvantage to German tanks: Ridiculously misleading. The overwhelming bulk of German tank losses were caused by combined air and artillery support. In the case of Normandy (and Anzio), even the U.S. Navy intervened to stop German tanks near the beaches and saved the day.

TWO: Implying that since Shermans were used in the Korean War of 1950 and the Arab-Israeli conflicts of 1967 and 1973 they were battle worthy to modern standards.
ISRAEL: The Shermans were radically upgraded ("Super-Shermans") to be unrecognizable as an M4. The Shermans were mechanically reliable and lasted a long time. However, despite being given new guns and additional armor, they were still terribly vulnerable leading to incidents of mutiny when Israeli's manning Super Shermans refused to directly engage superior tanks alone without overwhelming combined arms support. That the Sherman was used this late was the result of necessity (arms embargos) and mechanical reliability (the undisputed strongpoint of the Sherman). The Arab armies also still used limited numbers of T34's and German Mark IV's due to arms shortages.
KOREA: The army was critically short of tanks and anti-tank weapons in Korea. The first U.S. units engaged in Korea had no tanks and inadequate anti-tank weapons which led to many losses including the capture of a U.S. General. They actually had to salvage tanks from the old pacific battlegrounds to initially obtain tanks for Korea. When newer Shermans arrived in quantity, they had adequate HVAP ammunition not readily available in WWII and were facing a limited number of poorly trained North Korean tanks that did well against troops without anti-tank weapons but were quickly neutralized by overwhelming air and artillery support (sound familiar?). The M26 and M46 Pershings were also on had later on in the war so the Shermans were once again used mainly as artillery support and anti-infantry weapons.

Perhaps the only two minor disappointments I have with Cooper's account are:

ONE: His missed opportunity to build upon his disclosure of the critical tank crew shortages and identify it as the leading cause of Patton's (a Southern general descended from a Confederate Officer) decision to ban colored tank troops in his army. Given the state of race relations at that time, Patton's reversal on segregation and the integration of his army with African-American tank units underscored the failure of the Sherman and the crisis, which faced the U.S. Army.

TWO: Failure to mention that the British up gunned the Sherman with a 17-pounder gun (Firefly) that could destroy Panthers and Tigers and deployed them in a ratio of one Firefly for every four Shermans. The U.S. declined Britain's offer of the 17-pounder, again for LOGISTICAL reasons. While the British still suffered terrible Sherman losses, they at least had a fighting chance.