{"id":4653,"date":"2014-03-19T05:56:30","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T03:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.military-history.us\/?p=4653"},"modified":"2014-03-14T09:56:50","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T07:56:50","slug":"book-review-the-armored-fist-the-712th-tank-battalion-in-the-second-world-war-by-aaron-elson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/2014\/03\/book-review-the-armored-fist-the-712th-tank-battalion-in-the-second-world-war-by-aaron-elson\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Armored Fist: The 712th Tank Battalion in the Second World War by Aaron Elson"},"content":{"rendered":"

[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own]<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Armored Fist: The 712th Tank Battalion in the Second World War<\/a>\"\"\u00a0is one of the best unit histories I have read from WWII. \u00a0It is not a traditional unit history in that it is not simply a list of engagements fought, enemy killed, and casualties suffered. \u00a0It is a compilation of the recollections of the unit’s members put into chronological order from their first combat to the end of the war. \u00a0This is not traditional battle history, instead it is the story of one unit’s participation in the war from the worm’s eye view of the average soldier.<\/p>\n

The book itself is 256 pages of text divided into 41 mini chapters each detailing a specific incident from the unit’s history. \u00a0There is no index or bibliography. \u00a0in the middle of the book is a small section of photos taken by unit members during the war.<\/p>\n

The writing style is engaging and you get a sense of what it was really like to fight a tank in the ETO of WWII. \u00a0while reading you get the impression that instead of reading the book you are actually sitting there listening to one of the veterans recount their experiences. \u00a0there is an immediacy to the stories that is missing from most accounts of warfare. \u00a0I thought that one of the best things about reading it is that the reader gets a very god impression of just how confusing combat is and how little each individual participant knows of what is going on in a firefight. \u00a0Each person focuses on their job in combat and only the leaders have a good overview of the situation and often they do not have even that. \u00a0that facet of combat comes out clearly in the stories of the tankers of the 712th.<\/p>\n

This is an outstanding book and well worth reading. \u00a0I highly recommend this book.<\/strong><\/p>\n