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

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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 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.)

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

This is a poignant story of the young men’s pure innocence, their loss of innocence seeing their friends’ tragic demise, their unthinkingly, enthusiastic and eager readiness to take part in warfare, and the unfortunate racialization experienced. Yet, it made them tough, self-aware, and disciplined. Their camaraderie made them brothers.

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. Tom Marcus, bestselling author of Soldier Spy and Capture or Kill At times darkly funny, at times tragic, this is a powerful and honest book about the British soldier, about the reality of conflict and the struggles some face when they come home. 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.

Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Batt… Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Batt…

From the bestselling author of Normandy '44 and Sicily '43, a brilliant new history of the last days of the war. 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.

I expected ‘Brothers in Arms’ to provide details but the opening was marred by some simple inaccuracies that any WWII novice historian would catch. It made it hard to keep reading. 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.