#1: Book "Tanks In Hell" Author: ED_GILBERT, Posted: Sat May 09, 2015 6:15 pm ---- Casemate will soon release "Tanks In Hell", the story of the C Company medium tanks on Tarawa. (Spoiler: I have no qualms about hyping it since the profits go to the USMCR Toys For Tots Foundation). Thanks to the dogged research of my co-author, Romain Cansiere, it debunks a lot of tales (some preposterous) that have arisen over seven decades. Veteran interviews, and period documents (NOT the usual tales recycled from prior authors) allowed us to trace the paths and fates of the individual tanks. The foreword is by my friend Col. Ed Bale, the company CO.
The pre-publication reviews are by Ken Estes:
Two historians, a young Frenchman brimming with curiosity and enthusiasm and a seasoned American expert in Marine Corps history and the Marine Corps tank arm in particular, have teamed together to chronicle the four day Calvary of the medium tank company assigned to the late 1943 amphibious assault on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Their detailed exploitation of the documents, survivors and even sequential aerial photographs of the events has resolved most of the mystery surrounding the array of confusing written versions of the battle that have for generations inhibited a clear understanding of one of the Corps' most vicious battles, the only one where it came perilously close to losing the assaulting regiment. The result ranks as a matchless historical endeavor, analyzing conventional and unconventional source material to determine the face of battle encountered by a few officers and a hundred men thrown into their first battle and a struggle for survival. Told largely through the eyes of the participants, the events of the battle will drag the reader inexorably into the ranks of this tank company. The work shines as a collective soldiers' story. Most remarkable.
and Steve Zaloga:
“Tanks in Hell” presents a gripping and detailed account of the Marine tank company that fought in the vicious battle for Tarawa in 1943. Accounts of US tank combat in World War II are scarce, and those dealing with the Pacific scarcer still. So this meticulously researched book is a very welcome addition illuminating an often overlooked subject.
#2: Re: Book "Tanks In Hell" Author: Walter_Sobchak, Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 1:04 pm ---- High praise from two very good authors! By the way, there seems to be a error in the HTML of the description in the Amazon listing for "Tanks in Hell."
