| Onomarchos | 20 Oct 2023 3:34 p.m. PST |
Hey folks, I need some help. I teach high school history and one of my students is really into WW2 and would like to read a novel with tanks as a major part of the story line. Something like "Red Badge of Courage" but set in WW2. Thanks for any suggestions. Mark |
| John Armatys | 20 Oct 2023 4:27 p.m. PST |
Warriors for the Working Day (Peter Estlob) is a highly regarded novel (but British) Not novels, but I recommend them:
Spearhead (Adam Makos) is a US veteran's memories written up by a journalist.
Tank Action (David Render) is a British veteran's memoire. |
troopwo  | 20 Oct 2023 5:00 p.m. PST |
A big hearty resounding second for Peter Elstobs' "Warriors of the working Day". |
| Col Durnford | 20 Oct 2023 5:02 p.m. PST |
I hate to say it, but "Legion of the Damned" by Sven Hassel was what I really loved at his age. It still has a soft spot for me. Just don't let the parents find out. |
| mjkerner | 20 Oct 2023 5:36 p.m. PST |
Battle Cry by Leon Uris comes to mind. Non-fiction would try R. Leckie's Helmet For My Pillow and E. Sledge's With the Old Breed |
| Schogun | 20 Oct 2023 7:07 p.m. PST |
Not fiction but a darn good story:
Brazen Chariots by Robert Crisp |
| Martin Rapier | 21 Oct 2023 2:33 a.m. PST |
Another recommendation for "Warriors for the Working Day", although like many WW2 novels, it is thinly disguised autobiography, just as The Red Badge of Courage was actually based on experiences the SpanAm war. John Foley, whose memoirs are "Mailed Fist", also wrote the novel "Death of a Regiment", but Tbh, it is exactly the same story as his Memoir, but set at regimental rather than troop level. You can even recognise the characters, including oily radio intercept guy from 12th SS Panzer. Mailed Fist is a much better book, one of the best WW2 memoirs I ever read. Sven Hassel is genuinely awful though, although hilariously used as a 'source' in Bruce Quarries old East Front tank battles in miniature. All those Panthers on Omaha beach…. The best of the series was SS General, but not a huge amount of tank action in that. |
| robert piepenbrink | 21 Oct 2023 5:46 a.m. PST |
Colin Forbes' Tramp in Armour. In non-fiction, try Crisp's The Gods were Neutral or Bellamy & Holmes' Troop Leader. |
| huron725 | 21 Oct 2023 5:08 p.m. PST |
Hey Mark, I don't know of WW2 specific tank fiction but Harold Coyle's Team Yankee is about fictional WWW3 tank warfare. I absolutely fell in love with this book and have reread it a number of times over the years. It was magical the first read through. Good luck and if you happen to find any let us know please.
John |
| robert piepenbrink | 22 Oct 2023 10:18 a.m. PST |
Hmmm. So the only book-length memoir of an American tanker is the one mediated by a journalist, and the only tanker-centric American novel is the WWIII piece we used to call "some treadhead's wet dream." But the Brits weigh in at three tanker novels and five armour memoirs? All specifically WWII? Is it too late to get a recount? |
| BuckeyeBob | 22 Oct 2023 12:42 p.m. PST |
This is non-fiction first hand account of a sherman tank driver in the pacific. Written almost like a novel…Cutthroats: An adventure of a sherman tank driver in the Pacific. |
| Onomarchos | 22 Oct 2023 1:45 p.m. PST |
Folks, thanks so much for the great recommendations. I will look into many of these. Mark |
| forrester | 23 Oct 2023 7:23 a.m. PST |
Again a British title, but Tank by Ken Tout is a fictionalised account of 24 hours in Normandy
It is heavily based on his own experiences, as will be appreciated if you also read his actual memoirs. There is some compression of events.
This will tell you everything you need to know about how it felt to be a Sherman crewman. |
| colkitto | 23 Oct 2023 1:08 p.m. PST |
More British WW2, Western Desert: Take These Men, by Cyril Joly, and The Sands of Valour, by Geoffrey Wagner. Both in my view really atmospheric rather than full of technical detail, and the latter is the only novel I have read which has A10s in it. |
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
