Product Description

Advancing at the speed of the infantry, the U.S. Army independent tank battalions ground slowly across the continent during World War II, from the bloody beaches of Normandy; through forests, villages, and cities in France, Belgium, and Germany; and into Czechoslovakia at the war’s end. Greater in number than the battalions in the vaunted armor divisions, the infantry tanks were doled out to a platoon here and a company there to undertake the war’s dirtiest mission–prying enemy troops from every position across the breadth of the great Allied offensive line of 1944-45. The bold American tank infantry teams of WWII’s European theater have become the stuff of legend. But the true details of their amazing missions have never been revealed in one comprehensive work of popular history . . . until now.

Using the words of the tank soldiers themselves, and the radio logs of their real-time communications, Harry Yeide vividly brings back all the men and machines of this crucial method of combat–one that, in the end, may have won the war. Here are startling revelations of the treacherous fighting, and the challenges and dangers of battling a better-equipped enemy in outmoded, slow-moving “death traps.” Inside you will discover:

• Tank commanders were often trained only for invasion–and were given no tactical training for what to do after penetrating the maze of hedgerows
• Tankers learned to fear their own air force in friendly fire from the “American Luftwaffe”
• Due to inadequate periscopes, commanders often entered battles with their heads stuck out of the turrets, becoming “priority targets” for German snipers
• Many tanks sank 1,000 to 5,000 feet away from the Normandy shore on D day.

Steel Victory recounts how tank planning, expertise, and accuracy grew as the war roared on–and reveals the inside story of how tank battalions turned the tide in the Battle of the Bulge and other major encounters of the European war. Here is an honest, painstakingly researched history of these man-driven vehicles that, in the words of one soldier, “saved the day, shot the hell out of the Germans, and had the hell shot out of them.”

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #420278 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-02
• Released on: 2003-12-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Booklist
This is the first book focused on the U.S. Army's independent tank battalions in World War II. Conceived as reserves for the armored divisions, the battalions went through several transmogrifications and always suffered from the limits of the M-4 Sherman tank. A good infantry support vehicle, the Sherman was no match for the German antitank guns and the Panther and Tiger tanks it faced. The independent battalions ended up attached in rotation to the infantry divisions, in the end seeing more and fiercer combat than the armored divisions. Early fighting in North Africa and Sicily only hinted at what the battalions faced later. The two amphibious tank battalions participating on D-Day were from the ranks of the independents, and beyond the beaches lay the hedgerows of Normandy, stubbornly defended by the Germans, not to mention the Battle of the Bulge and the crossing of the Rhine. Seldom appreciated or publicized, kept in the field by superb maintenance and logistics support, the tankers of the independent battalions have long deserved the tribute Yeide gives them. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Harry Yeide has put together the first single-volume history of tank battalions in Europe . . . a good reference book for anyone interested in tank warfare.
--Army Magazine

From the Back Cover
Harry Yeide has put together the first single-volume history of tank battalions in Europe . . . a good reference book for anyone interested in tank warfare.
--Army Magazine

Customer Reviews

A close-up of the Sherman tankers
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.

Historical research of the highest order
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.

Victory with Steel Armor in World War Two
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.