Cutthroats: The Adventures of a Sherman Tank Driver in the Pacific

A Simple Man's Diary

This book was written by an "average man" like all of us. It is more of a diary of what one man did in serving his country in World War II in the Pacific War.
While the U.S. Army fought tank battles in Europe, this book gives added insight into a little known area in the Japanese-held islands in the Pacific Theater. Hearing of U.S. Army tanks in the jungles presents a picture one can't imagine. This book dispels that "incongruity" and explains what a regular GI cooped up in a steel tank did.
This is a fast-paced read, and the personal accounts bring to life part of that jungle war few even know existed. To my knowledge, no historian or other writer has written a book about what one of America's "tankers" faced in the Pacific War.
And thus, this memoir is as important as some of the other histories and eyewitness accounts one reads about, because no one has written on what a U.S. tanker experienced in those hot, muddy, wet jungles. Wet jungles where metal rusts quickly and the humidity swells and rots man-made things in no time. And this doesn't include the malaria, dengue fever, and other ailments a soldier had to endure fighting in the "tropical" Pacific War that his counterpart in Europe, in a temperate climate like in America's Midwest, didn't have to face.
I enjoyed this book for it gave me a perspective on how the U.S. won the Pacific War, as it was written by a vet who actually saw combat in the tropics. It wasn't all ships and planes and only the infantry. Tanks played a pivotal role, too! They backed up the infantry when the infantry needed the firepower and protection only a tank could provide. This book was written by a GI Joe, as only a "GI Joe" would truly write it! And for that we should commend it!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good read

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.