Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment's Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day

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With "Brothers in Arms, The Epic Story of the 761stTank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes", Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has become a capable historian in his post-NBA years, and Anthony Walton, finally do justice to the remarkable but almost completely unknown story of the 761st Tank Battalion, whose motto was "Come Out Fighting!" I learned a lot from this book. The story of this tank battalion and the difficulty they faced in combat and at home is an important part of American history.

Brothers In Arms Books - Goodreads Brothers In Arms Books - Goodreads

But Kareem and Walton needed to do a better job of researching what I will call the technical aspects of armored combat during World War II. Calling a German tank a "panzer tank" is like calling a horse a "horse animal." Also, there was no such thing as a "Mark IV Panther." The Mark III and Mark IV were the mainstay of the German armed forces for most of the war. The much more powerful Mark V was the Panther, and its design was inspired by the excellent Soviet T-34. The famous and even more powerful Tiger was the Mark VI. The 761st Tank Battalion was one of the lead elements of General Patton's push into Germany during the last months of World War II. They were sort of a hybrid unit that was spread out among infantry units, designed to work with infantry. This simple fact would have hurt their unit's fame if they had been an all-white unit - their actions were just tossed in with other unit's statistics they fought with for just a few days. But, when you toss in the obvious racism of the day (multiple citations were sent up the chain of command, only to be tossed in the trash or ignored. This was corrected in the 1990's by an independent commission), you can see why no one heard of these soldiers.From the bestselling author of Normandy '44 and Sicily '43, a brilliant new history of the last days of the war.

Brothers in Arms - Penguin Books UK Brothers in Arms - Penguin Books UK

An inspirational, moving account of courage and comradeship on the part of exceptional men.”— Military History I just finished ‘The Infantry’s Armor’ by Yeide and I hoped this would bring me from the general to the specific. Yeide lays out the actions of all the independent tanks battalions including the 761st. Jones writes of his brothers and their Afghan experience, from its adrenalin-filled highs to the many lows, with passion and candour.' – Major Adam Jowett, bestselling author of No Way Out I am trying to be more concise in reviewing this book. There is so much history to absorb, but, at times, I found it difficult and painful to read. I heard Kareem speak last week in Beverly Hills and he talked about this , saying that most white people had never heard of the 761st. Well I had to admit to being a white person who had not, so I read his book. The thing of course, that sets the 761st apart from other brave troops who saw vicious combat and were killed and maimed is the despicable and unfathomable way they were treated by both civilians and white fellow troops at all points at all times. It's so frustrating and sad and I got teary on several occasions. So anything to do with that subject was very effective. What keeps me from giving it a higher rating is sentences like these:For a history like this, it helps to provide some broader context of what is going on around the unit. Here, the book suffers. The commentary on the Sherman tank and the broader war is sometimes accurate, but all too often veers into questionable, controversial, or flat out incorrect areas. As one example, the authors at times confuse the term panzer (shorthand name generally for German tanks) with Panther (the Panzer Mark V German tank.) As a center for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1975 to 1989, American basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, originally Lew Alcindor, led the all-time scores in history of national basketball association in 1984. A brilliant and moving narrative that through its imagery helps the reader appreciate the hardness of battle.”— Charlotte Observer