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With the Japanese deeply entrenched and determined to die rather than surrender, Robert Dick and his fellow soldiers quickly realized that theirs would be a war fought inch by bloody inch–and that their Sherman tanks would serve front and center. As driver, Dick had to maneuver his five-man crew in and out of dangerous and often deadly situations.
Whether crawling up beaches, bogged down in the mud-soaked Leyte jungle, or exposed in the treacherous valleys of Okinawa, the Sherman was a favorite target. A land mine could blow off the tracks, leaving its crew marooned and helpless, and the nightmare of swarms of Japanese armed with satchel charges was all too real. But there was a war to be won, and Americans like Robert Dick did their jobs without fanfare, and without glory. This gripping account of tanker combat is a ringing testament to the awe-inspiring bravery of ordinary Americans.
Ed_FiChew
Posted June 7, 2009
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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!
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Overview
Soon after we landed it became apparent that there was more than enough artillery here, that the enemy were excellent shots, and that their ammo supply seemed to be endless.With the Japanese deeply entrenched and determined to die rather than surrender, Robert Dick and his fellow soldiers quickly realized that theirs would be a war fought inch by bloody inch–and that their Sherman tanks would serve front and center. As driver, Dick had to maneuver his five-man crew in and out of dangerous and often deadly situations.
Whether crawling up beaches, bogged down in the mud-soaked Leyte jungle, or exposed in the treacherous valleys of Okinawa, the Sherman was...