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Team Yankee

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 2,736 ratings · 40 reviews

NATO and the Soviet bloc are at war. The awesome Russian invasion force smashes across the West German border, driving for a breakthrough. With M-1 tanks and a mechanized infantry division, Captian Sean Bannon's "Team Yankee" must defend their vital strategic post. They will engage the enemy with the ultimate in sophisticated weaponry. They will fight beyond all limits of...more

Mass Market Paperback, 330 pages

Published September 1st 1988 by Berkley (first published 1987)

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Aug 18, 2012 Alan Chen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fun

TY is a quality book. Like Larry Bond, Harold Coyle is able to create a plausible scenario and to flesh it out with details, people and action. All of the technical details, drama, emotions of battle, overwhelming victories and near-run events are there. Like Bond, Coyle includes an appendix.

I would wager that Coyle's books are more accessible than either Bond's or Clancy's. Coyle, who was at the time an officer in the same type of unit that he writes about, is reliant on referring to things and...more TY is a quality book. Like Larry Bond, Harold Coyle is able to create a plausible scenario and to flesh it out with details, people and action. All of the technical details, drama, emotions of battle, overwhelming victories and near-run events are there. Like Bond, Coyle includes an appendix.

I would wager that Coyle's books are more accessible than either Bond's or Clancy's. Coyle, who was at the time an officer in the same type of unit that he writes about, is reliant on referring to things and events as an actual military man would, even going so far as to provide occasional maps labeled with the symbols that NATO used to designate military units. Though the maps are less useful than anticipated because some of the unit labels are smudged or in very small print, they are still incredibly helpful in orienting the reader as to what is happening (especially since the author largely sets the action in fictional locations that could plausibly fit in real-life Germany). You won't have to know how many people are in a platoon, but by consulting the simple table next to the appendix, you will learn whether a brigade is larger than a battalion or not.

Additionally, while the novel is told from 3 perspectives (Team Yankee, wife of TY's commander, Russian leaders that face TY), the POV is dominated by the various members of TY. When the author begins a paragraph from another view, he helpfully marks the paragraph with a single diamond (wife) or star (Russian). The other two views are there to lend extra perspective, but only to flesh things out, not to create an entirely new plot line.

TY is set within the universe of Hackett's "Third World War" novels. Though I never read TWW and thus cannot really comment on how well TY ties into that novel, it doesn't really matter because Coyle firmly grounds the book from the perspective of a small unit in a large war. Except for occasional snippets from the Russian counterparts across the field or a series of snapshots of the war from the wife of the Team's commander, the reader knows as much about the Big Picture as the unit does - which is to say, not much at all. In fact, once the media blackout goes into effect a few days before the outbreak of hostilities, the only hints at how the rest of the war is going is from the rare briefings that the Team's commander gets during staff meetings. In short, TWW is not required pre-reading because most of the events in TWW would probably have very little effect on understanding on why Team Yankee was pushing to take this or that position.

It is obvious that Coyle is writing from first-hand experience, as his description of how and why the soldiers act the way they do out of combat is very believable. The crew of the tank whose commander keeps screwing up does not violently stand up for in his defense like in a movie but instead silently wishes he were gone because they know their fates are intertwined (even though they are inside a seemingly-invincible 60-ton tank) and that "Pride was running a distant second to survival". Coyle makes passing remarks on the absurdity of events, such as what soldiers find funny at 2:34 AM, or how an entire column gets separated during a night march, or how soldiers sometimes come to depend on total strangers who they will never meet again to do their job so that they can do theirs, or how a tank falls into a shell crater and has to be abandoned, or the joy at seeing a brown-noser get taken down when the offender fails to perform. Even the smells are correct, as after one horrific battle, a soldier is seen as in terrible shape because the cut on his face is swollen and infected, his eyes are just deep holes, his beard is two-days old, every part of his skin is dirty, and the rest of his uniform is soaked with blood, oil, dirt, diesel and sweat. Mercifully, the smell goes unmentioned, but the same soldier smells "ripe" after 2 days while constantly fermenting in a chemical suit while going without baths for 2 days. Fatigue is a real factor, as happens when the Team has to move past a traffic jam, but cannot because every time the Team stops to yield to another unit, the Team collectively falls asleep from pure exhaustion, only to wake when they have to yield to another unit.

What sets Coyle apart from Bond, however, and elevates him to the same level as Tom Clancy, is his ability to develop the people of the war at the same time he is developing the war itself. The members of Team Yankee are not the gung-ho apple pie-tossing John Waynes that infest Bond's drivel. Rather, they are very real people who are as average as could be (the Team's commander, who provides the main POV, is described in a preface with a list of impressive-sounding accomplishments until it mentions that he will "probably never be promoted above the grade of Lieutenant Colonel"). They are only able to carry on with their duties not because of their own personal willpower or because they are the Good Guys, but simply because of their reliance on training and equipment. Morale counts for a lot, but the first military action in the book is a radio call to a noisy unit to maintain radio silence - a call made without a change of expression or any extraneous movement, not because the soldier is that disciplined, but because it's 2:34 AM, the soldier has been sitting alone in a cold and uncomfortable tin box for hours on watch, and real people enter a "zombielike" stage at 2:34 AM. Even the commander is human, being startled awake by the errant radio call and unable to go back to sleep because of the intense pain and cramps from attempting to sleep on the items that clutter a military vehicle.

Three special mentions must go out to the description of people. One is the reaction of the unit to war. When the Team's commander gets his first indication that war is a certainty, his first reaction is excitement or even determination. It's disbelief, the "I-knew-it-was-could-happen-because-that's-why-we're-deployed-here-but-I-must-be-mistaken-we-can't-really-be-at-war-it's-just-not-possible" feeling that you wouldn't expect out of a ranking officer. The second, and more surprising reaction, is the distinct sense of failure before the fighting even starts. In a paragraph that writes "failure" 3 times in ~10 sentences, a thought races through the commander's head that the main purpose of the military in Europe is not combat but deterrence, and that the unit has already failed in its primary mission before it has fired a single shot.
The second is the change that occurs in people when exposed to war. Scattered through the novel, subtle but noticeable, are the emotional reactions when tested through a contest of life and death. A 19-year old cheeky kid quickly becomes an expert in death. A normally good natured officer becomes a hardened man, almost too enthusiastic in carrying out his duties. The Golden Boy of the unit gets dressed down when his unit fails to perform its duties. Conversely, someone who was a total zero in peacetime because an outstanding soldier who ends up performing a lot better than anyone could have expected. Even the civilians, who so often go unmentioned or discarded in books such as these, are noticeably affected by the war: refugees are seen weeping as they pass by the unit, children who would normally flock to the soldiers for candy now cower in fear even when they know they soldiers are on "their side". In a passing moment, the Team's commander starts to understand the basis behind the peace movement, a movement started by those who had grown up with tanks rumbling through the streets and who wanted to spare their children from the same fears.
Finally, the author deserves high praise for including the POV of Russian counterparts and of the dependents of Team Yankee. It would have been extremely easy to exclude them entirely or to fill them with cliches as diabolical cartoon villains and doting support people, respectively. Instead, the Russians are seen as real people (an officer, deciding that his food is not fit to eat, decides to play with it instead) and the wife of the commander, who starts of by doing cliched things (worrying, gossiping about what is happening, fretting about the children) becomes a changed person after living through a harrowing evacuation through a airbase under active attack. When the plane safely arrives, her actions, words and reactions mirror those of the soldiers of Team Yankee - someone who has lived through an intensely traumatizing experience and had a very real brush with death.

Thus, TY definitely deserves 4 stars, "I like it, but I don't love it." I have 3 main objections with the book.
1: The lack of re-readability. This book is short and episodic, and while what is there is very well done and quality trumps quantity, the fact remains that it's still short. In the end, I feel no desire to revisit any of the book again. Don't get me wrong; the book was well worth what I paid for it, and it's definitely in the upper echelons of my all time list. It simply promises little to see on subsequent reads that I didn't catch on the first pass.
2. There is a certain lack of drama in the book. For all of the real losses in people and equipment, as well as all the close-run battles, nothing overtly bad really happens to Team Yankee or the people we get to know. All of the severe injuries happen to redshirts or people whom we barely know, while Team Yankee always manages to pull through - sometimes by the narrowest of margins or by pure luck, but always ending with a victory. Team Yankee never has to experience a real setback. It's like the author wanted to push the boundaries of what he could do, but decided to only stretch the boundaries instead of tearing through them.
3. The author is biased in favor of the West, leaving the Warsaw Pact soldiers alone while occasionally taking potshots at the Soviet leadership for their intentions (which go unexplained in this war, because remember that we only know what Team Yankee knows).

Overall, an excellent, but short account of a small unit in a big war that accurately paints a picture of war, mud and all.(less)

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Dec 31, 2011 Al Swanson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, military

One of my favorite genres in fiction is and has pretty much always been future history. I'm not talking sci-fi military adventure (though I do like that, too). I'm referring to combat using current gear in plausible war scenarios. Larry Bond's early work (Vortex, Red Storm Rising (with Clancy)) are perfect examples of what I like. Taut stories focused on gear and combat. Too often, these stories, for me, are written by those with a lack of knowledge about the hardware or a lack of knowledge abou...more One of my favorite genres in fiction is and has pretty much always been future history. I'm not talking sci-fi military adventure (though I do like that, too). I'm referring to combat using current gear in plausible war scenarios. Larry Bond's early work (Vortex, Red Storm Rising (with Clancy)) are perfect examples of what I like. Taut stories focused on gear and combat. Too often, these stories, for me, are written by those with a lack of knowledge about the hardware or a lack of knowledge about the military or (worst of all!), both. These stories, IMHO, are best left to those with the know-how.

Bond's early books focused on hot spots around the world that could erupt - and that made them great. How many authors in this genre write about the USSR pouring through the Fulda Gap on their way to WWIII? That's not to say it's a bad premise, it's not. Indeed, when I was in the USAF and stationed in West Germany (at the time, there were two Germanys!), that very scenario was presented to new arrivals as the most likely military event to occur during our deployment. (We were also told it would occur at night and the bulk of us would die in our sleep during the gas shelling of the base - no kidding. Made for a couple nights of troubled slumber.) Coyle's story uses this tried-and-true scenario to frame the activities of Team Yankee.

Team Yankee is a tank company ready and waiting for the Soviet advance. Told in Coyle's descriptive prose and with a less-than-Bond but more-than-most level of technical accuracy, it chronicles the people and machines of a (at that time) possible battle at the opening of the next world war.

Since I enjoy future fictional war scenarios, this book starts off with a star for just that. Add a couple more for decent writing and knowledge of the gear. Add one more for good characters and a believable plotline.

If you like this kind of thing and haven't been soured to the US vs USSR WWIII idea, Team Yankee is certainly worth a few nights of your reading time. (less)

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Jun 16, 2010 Jay Javier rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: military-fiction

Team Yankee is a speculative fiction novel written in 1987 by Harold Coyle, then a major in the United States Army, whose subject is the actions of a company-sized armor unit of the United States Army in the World War III scenario as depicted by General Sir John Hackett in his novel, The Third World War. General Hackett's scenario takes place in 1985; Coyle never specifies the year, but it is assumed to take place in the late 1980s.

Coyle paints a realistic, gritty and non-patronizing portrait of...more

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Oct 01, 2007 Momdad rated it 5 of 5 stars

Harold Coyle's first novel, and one of his best. This follows a mechanized infantry company in action during the fictional stages of World War III in central Germany during 1985. A good group of characters that have a range of physical and emotional experiences. His narrative is much more balanced between technicial military details and character development. Later books dwell in more detail on the people than the military aspects of events.

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Oct 12, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: military-fiction

A bit dated by now, since it was written at the height of the Cold War, but still a really good piece of military fiction.

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Jul 01, 2012 Jeff Colllins rated it 2 of 5 stars

Not a bad novel from the late 80's but a little slow for my liking. It was interesting from the perspective that I recognized the call signs, tactics and theories from my time in the Militia (late 80's). It was like a quick journey down memory lane for me, but this type of novel is not my style any more.

If you are fan of armour and like the intrigue of NATO/ Warsaw Pact tension of the late 80's... give this book a try.

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Jun 16, 2011 Cameron Stewart rated it 4 of 5 stars

A great read. I read this when I was around ten, it was the late eighties and war with the USSR was still a very real possibility.
This is a great insight into company-level mechanized warfare. Sometimes you feel a little in the dark as to the strategic position of the war; I imagine this is intentional to illustrate what the soldiers on the front lines feel.

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Feb 29, 2012 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

At the time I read this, the Soviet Union was considered to be a powerful threat. This novel depicts the actions of a tank company and all the issues it has when a limited war breaks out between the US and the USSR. This is a great look at armored combat in the infamous Fulda Gap.

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May 07, 2011 Mike rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was one of the first books that I can recall reading. If memory serves me correctly, it was a comic book series and, through that, I was led to read the novel (see! comics lead to reading books!). While I will admit that I did not finish it the second time around, my young self probably had no clue as to what was happening in the book. My old self (that's me currently) couldn't get into the dated story. However, I did enjoy skimmimg through it because of its nostalgic value for me.

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Jul 03, 2012 David Gray rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I have read this nearly 20 times since I was in 7th Grade. This novel is what helped me decide my career within the US Army. Specifically about Team Yankee, this tale is timless as it desceibes armored combat. I recommend this book to everybody and anybody.

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Oct 30, 2011 Johnny Stone rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm an old tanker, and I love this book. Very down to earth from the gun-site view of war, especially since I was in that exact same position while stationed in Germany back in the 80's
Like almost all of Coyle's writing except some of his newer stuff.

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Feb 18, 2012 Kamas Kirian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: military, wwiii, favorites, europe

One of my favorite WWIII stories. It's fast paced account of a US tank company racing across the German landscape at the beginning of WWIII. I highly recommend this book.

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May 03, 2012 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was pretty good, if you're a strategy junkie or a tank commander. I am neither, but it was still entertaining.

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Sep 20, 2009 James rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Adolescents and adults

Shelves: alternate-history, action, military, death-dying-killing-bereavement

A tense and grinding novel - now outdated, of course - about a Warsaw Pact blitz against western Europe, following the experiences of an American Army tank unit. More realistic and less glamorized and Rambo-ized than most military fiction; you get the feeling that this author has actually spent some time being cold, wet, hungry, tired, dirty, and scared. Superior to Tom Clancy's stuff, IMHO, for two reasons, equally important - the characters are more rounded and developed, and there's a more ac...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Danny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, military-history

A thought provoking account of a fictional land battle in Europe between NATO and WARSAW pact forces.

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May 22, 2010 Ken Miller rated it 5 of 5 stars

The first and the best cause I knew what I faced in Europe and the civilians in the states didn't.

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Apr 26, 2009 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow! I recall being impressed by this account of ground combat from a tanker grunt p.o.v.

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May 09, 2013 Andrew Morgan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: military, world-war-3

A very fast moving novel, loved the battle's and detailed references to technology

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May 14, 2012 P.T. McHugh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent story, made you feel as if you were riding in the tank with the crew!

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Aug 14, 2011 Bamajohn rated it 5 of 5 stars

An amazing work of military fiction. Coyle sets the standard for military based fiction.

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Sep 16, 2011 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: action

The war that never happened...but seemed ready to for 30 plus years. East Germany and West Germany spark the action. This brings about the confrontation that was long feared, the United States vs. the Soviet Union WWIII. Again (I've said this before about other books) the phrase 'I enjoyed it" seems inappropriate in a novel about WWIII. We see the "war" fought from platoon level and follow the soldiers in said platoon. If you like techno-thrillers, action, military fiction or speculative works l...more

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May 01, 2013 John Henshaw rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very thought provoking book. The world before the end of the Cold War.

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Jun 14, 2012 Rob rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my all-time favorite books! Full of grit, guts, and heart.

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Oct 07, 2011 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read it multiple times and have always enjoyed it.

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May 05, 2012 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: militaria

Cold war Fulda Gap story...fun.

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Feb 17, 2013 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow, reading this story now seems so unreal.
In the age of global terrorism.....this story seems like from a different age. When it seemed that world was ona brink of a 3rd world war.

The thing what suprised me...after the wars in Iraq...the supremacy of the american war machine described here is truly believeble.
Also pretty interetsing to note that after 30 years and well into the next decade the way of fighting a conventional war has not changed at all. Still using the same warmachines.

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Jul 23, 2011 Clyde rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, alternate-history, military

I first read this book in the late 1980s and quite enjoyed it at the time. Now having re-read it years later (2012), I find that the story holds up very well. I think Team Yankee was originally intended to be a "what could happen" story, but it is now a "what could have happened" story. In other words, it is firmly in the speculative fiction genre.
That said, it is still one of the best novels about armored warfare available. Highly recommended.

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Mar 22, 2013 Stefan Vucak rated it 5 of 5 stars

What so many books try to do, but fail! Superb story of modern warfare.

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Dec 28, 2007 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars

Oh, not too great, but okay for what it is. I don't think I've ever read a book so fast. Interested in this book because of a wargame called World at War:Eisenbach Gap. WoW used some of the tactical situations found in this book for game scenarios. Good review of army gear used in the 80's (which is when I served in Germany), but disappointing because the Red Army troops exist only as clay pigeons in this book.

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Sep 08, 2008 JW rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical

A good read. Not particularly well written, the characters tend to be a little talky. But it's paced well and nicely detailed. When I checked it out it seemed like a nice throwback, but with recent events....

Enough of that.

If you recall Red Storm Rising by Clancy, this is like a snapshot of a single unit going through about the same thing.

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About Harold Coyle

Harold Coyle is an American author of historical, speculative fiction and war novels including Team Yankee, a New York Times best-seller.He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1974 and spent seventeen years on active duty with the U.S. Army.He lives in Leavenworth, Kansas.

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