"Death Traps by Belton Cooper" Topic

Picked this up at a used book store for a couple of bucks.
About half way through.
A few minutes ago watched a Youtube review:
YouTube link

Seems th ebook isn't all that reliable, to the point I am wondering if I should bother finishing it.

Anybody here know anything about the book?

My suggestion is to quit it. If interested in the study of German tank stats and maintenance/battle reports, I suggest the books by Thomas Jentz, Speilberger and Feist. For Shermans, there are quite a few authors of note: Hunnicut, George Forty, Zaloga, etc.

Lots have been written since the 90's and give great references. The Tankograd series from Germany are also excellent reference material.

Hope that helps.

The best bookstore I have ever seen for military books in all periods (WWII German is his specialty) is Aberdeen Books in Denver, Colorado. The owner, Tom, is very knowledgeable and amazes me how well he knows his inventory. He carries the excellent (but not inexpensive- even in Germany) Tankograd series. Haven't seen those in many other US stores.

link

Seems th ebook isn't all that reliable, to the point I am wondering if I should bother finishing it.

Depends what you want to get out of it. As a personal memoir of an officers experiences in the ETO it is of undoubted value. As an accurate critique of the flaws and strengths of the M4 vs the M26 it is not. Cooper's problem is he doesn't recognise the selection bias he is experiencing. Like cops who spend all day dealing with bad guys coming to view everyone as a criminal, when you spend all day dealing with burnt out and damaged tanks, cleaning out the blood and gore before patching them up and sending them back into action it is understandable you see the tanks as death traps.

If that's the one by the guy who was in the tank recovery battalion, I thought it was a very interesting read. I didn't need anyone to tell me the M4 was already virtually obsolete as a main battle tank the day it arrived in theatre. I already knew that. For anecdotes about driving a jeep at full speed through the dark in hostile territory, I thought it was fascinating.

It is the memoir of a Lieutenant and his experiences during the war. He was not a researcher digging thru stacks of data to provide definitive statements about certain aspects of armored combat in WW2. As it was his job to repair and return armored vehicles to action, I found it interesting to see how that task was conducted. He provides information on what he saw and his opinion upon certain things.

I thought it was a very interesting read and I found out a number of things that I did not know about repleacement and recovery. I also agree with Fred.

It's useful. You just have to realize where he is coming from.

I'm on board with the interesting read as a personal account not a textbook.

Also fully agree about Aberdeen books in Denver.
If you're ever in the area it is the place to go. Two stories and to give you a hint, Tom has the East Front room. Check hours (maybe even call a day ahead).

If that's the one by the guy who was in the tank recovery battalion, I thought it was a very interesting read.

It is the memoir of a Lieutenant and his experiences during the war. … As it was his job to repair and return armored vehicles to action, I found it interesting to see how that task was conducted.

If the book was only a recounting of his experiences, I would have no criticisms. I am an avid collector of first hand accounts.

But alas, it is not only a recounting of his experiences. It is a book that offers vehement criticisms by a man who presents himself as being an expert on matters about which he is woefully under-informed. As such it has colored the popular perceptions of history of the topic. And that's a real shame.

I was once waiting to be seated at a restaurant in our area on a Saturday evening, when the restaurant was robbed. When the police came, I gave my eye-witness account of the incident. But you know, my perspective was VERY limited. The perps ran right past me in the waiting area -- that's about it. And even then, I could not give an accurate description of the perps, as at the instant they went by I didn't understand what was going on around me, and my attention in the moment was drawn to the aspects that seemed extraordinary to me -- they were running out of a place I was trying to get into, and they were carrying wads of cash -- rather than their appearances, their height, hair, physiques, facial features, color of their clothes, etc.

The fact that I can give a first-hand account of a restaurant robbery may make for an interesting story. But if I used that experience to set myself up as an expert on security in retail environments and police inabilities to ensure public safety on a nationwide basis, damning the SOPs of police agencies across the country (SOPs that I largely took from rumors and heresay) … well at that point my personal experience shouldn't be the issue, my creds as an expert should be.

I have read some suggestions that it may have been a matter of his ghost writer trying to amplify his status and stir controversy in an effort to make the book more sell-able, more than the initiatives of the man himself. Don't know how much weight to put behind that potential. But that only speaks to the criticism of the man, not the criticism of the book. Unless you are seeking to understand how history gets corrupted I would suggest passing on this book as not worthy of your time.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

That seems to be the universal criticism of the book. Once he steps outside his own personal experiences, he is pontificating on things that he does not understand.

But alas, it is not only a recounting of his experiences. It is a book that offers vehement criticisms by a man who presents himself as being an expert on matters about which he is woefully under-informed.

You mean like a lot of wargamers! :-)

I'm with Fred on this. It's an interesting and insightful first-person account of a junior ordnance officer in a combat zone repairing tanks day after day, but it is not a history of armored warfare in the ETO or military-industrial policy. I thought it was worth the read and passed it on to my son to read after he enlisted into the Army as a tanker.

pjm

This has all been said already, but I also found this book to be a great source of anecdotes about life in the WWII tank recovery business. In fact, I need to go re-read it, looking for the motorhead's perspective – what was nice or ugly about M4 mechanical maintenance. All machines have things that mechanics like and dislike, and those opinions I would value from Cooper.

- Ix

Agree with many others in that it is a good read and very worthwhile as a memoir of personal experiences. As with many memoirs, needs to be tempered with a broader understanding of the issues not available to the author at the time.
And yeah, spending your days seeing the grisly results of defeated Shermans would probably give you strong opinions, rightly or wrongly.

It's an interesting and insightful first-person account of a junior ordnance officer in a combat zone repairing tanks day after day, but it is not a history of armored warfare in the ETO or military-industrial policy.

The problem is that he opines at length on the latter-and gets just about every 'fact' wrong.

The fact that Ambrose wrote the forward should have been my first clue there would be issues.

Ouch.

I have very mixed feelings about Ambrose. On the one hand I am well aware of his issues, on the other my dad is in one of his books.