Harry Yeide

A history of the US Army’s Tank Destroyer force; although equipped with inferior weapons and incorrect doctrine, the tank destroyers still managed to perform adequately in World War II. The first chapter of Yeide’s book covers the development of US antitank doctrine; this worked great in stateside maneuvers but performed poorly when American units were deployed in North Africa – mostly because the Germans didn’t cooperate and behave the way the planners expected. The remainder of Tank Killers narrates many individual actions in the European Theater. (I’m a little disappointed; Dad was the assistant driver and radio operator in a M10 Tank Destroyer in the Pacific Theater; although Yeide mentions once that some TD battalions were deployed to the Pacific, that’s the extent of the coverage).

The individual accounts are typical war stories: the actions of individual Americans in tank destroyer crews. Interspersed are developments in tank destroyer doctrine and equipment; the early M3, a 3-inch gun on a halftrack, was quickly replaced by the fully tracked M10, which in turn was supplemented by the M18 (one of the fastest tracked vehicles ever built, capable of 50mph) and the M36, which finally had a gun capable of penetrating the frontal armor of a German Panther. It’s interesting to note how Americans in the field tended to ignore their own military doctrine and improvise; for example, rather than being concentrated for defense, M36’s were mixed with M4 Shermans in the offense, since the 90mm gun on the M36 could destroy German bunkers while the M4s defended the underarmored M36.

An easy read. Photographs of tank destroyer units in action; an appendix with accounts of every tank destroyer battalion deployed in Europe. Endnotes, bibliography, and a good index. For more on WWII tank destroyers, see M10 and M36 Tank Destroyers. For more on Dad, see A History of the 640th Tank Destroyer Battalion.… (más)