US Tank Tactics in World War II

Fully illustrated, this book examines the evolving armored vehicle tactics used by US forces during World War II.

US tank tactics were governed, in practice, by the terrain and the enemy as much as the quality of equipment, so they developed markedly between November 1942 and May 1945. When the United States entered the ground war against Germany and Italy in North Africa in November 1942, both a proportion of its armored equipment, and the doctrine on how to use it in battle, were immature, and its crews were novices compared with those of the battle-hardened Panzer formations. The fighting in French North Africa taught the US Army costly lessons, but these were learned rapidly.

The campaigns that followed in Sicily and Italy in 1943 demanded further tactical adaptation, and this was doubly true in the extremely thick terrain of Normandy in summer 1944. Again, the sweep across France, the Low Countries, over the Rhine, and across Germany, although against weakened opposition, raised continuing challenges, and the US Armored Force was learning lessons in battle right up to VE Day. Similarly, the war against Japan on the Pacific islands had its own distinct character.

This book, by an internationally respected historian, concentrates on tracing these developments of how battles were fought rather than upon the technicalities of the tanks themselves, and is illuminated by after-action reports of typical actions in all theaters.