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By Tank: D to VE Days
Normandy 1944. Like most of his comrades Ken Tout was just 20 years old. Not until many years later did he feel able to gather their memoirs in three Hale books, Tank!, Tanks, Advance! and To Hell with Tanks!. Now these adventures are condensed into this one continuous narrative. Follow the ordinary young lads of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry through the massive enemy defences on Bourguebus Ridge, to the snows of the Ardennes, to the night crossing of the River Rhine, and finally to Grote KerkI, where they celebrated with liberated Dutch citizens. They were not professional soldiers but young conscripts willing to 'do their bit', knowing that their Shermans were outgunned by the enemy's much heavier Tiger and Panther tanks. By D Day to VE Days vividly recalls, in one complete volume, the whole experience of battle with utter the fear, confusion, boredom, excitement and grief.
- GenresWorld War IIHistory
240 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 6, 2020
A classic Memoir of young men enduring (and dying in) armored battle on the European western front during WW2.
January 22, 2021
Definitely a contender for one of the best books depicting armored warfare in WWII from the viewpoint of a tank crewman. The author's descriptions of life and death inside a Sherman tank, the portraits of his fellow crew members and the troopers in the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, the details he provides of operating the main gun and coaxial machinegun, all the while waiting for the sound of an 88mm shell tearing into the vehicle, giving the survivors two or three seconds to bale out before it becomes a crematorium will convince most anyone that they never want to go through the experience. Brilliantly written.
July 10, 2023
This is an excellent book of soldiers at war.
Ken Tout gives a first-hand account of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry's close quarter armor battles through the Norman hedgerows right up until the time he is hospitalised during the race to the various Dutch bridges during Operation Market-Garden.
Tout, who served as a gunner and a vehicle commander, gives the reader a tankers eye-view of the conflict through his periscope or his gun sight. While his visual impressions are confined to the inside of his Sherman or the narrow areas viewable through the tanks optical system, he provides an overall panorama of his battalion's operations by recreating the radio conversations he overheard on that unit's network through his headset during combat.
Thus we are privy to not only what's happening with his crew (Tommy defecating inside an empty ammo can and stinking up the inside of the Sherman or Tout doing contortions inside the cramped turret to fix the jammed coax machine-gun during the middle of a nasty German infantry assault), but we hear other British crews dying or triumphing as well.
After Tout leaves for the hospital, the narrative goes from first person to third person perspective and becomes more episodic. It covers the fate of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry from the Ardennes though the Rhine River crossings to VE-Day. I imagine Tout kept up with the unit through letters or post-war reunions and incorporated that info into his books.
This book shows the every-day courage of the British crews in mounting their M4 Sherman tanks with the knowledge not only were they usually outgunned by the German high velocity 75mm and 88mm guns, but their own 75mm gun lacked the penetrating power to destroy their adversaries in most cases.
Tout does not trumpet glorious exploits. Instead he highlights the get-down-to-business attitude of these young men as they clambered into their tanks, closed down their hatches and advanced into combat only to be knocked out by their German counterparts. If they survived being ‘brewed’ up they were usually assigned to another crew or provided another tank and off they went again, only for their tank to be hit and destroyed again. Some men did this not once or twice, but three, four or even five times till their luck finally ran out.
Mr. Tout paints a picture that you will never forget.
Ken Tout gives a first-hand account of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry's close quarter armor battles through the Norman hedgerows right up until the time he is hospitalised during the race to the various Dutch bridges during Operation Market-Garden.
Tout, who served as a gunner and a vehicle commander, gives the reader a tankers eye-view of the conflict through his periscope or his gun sight. While his visual impressions are confined to the inside of his Sherman or the narrow areas viewable through the tanks optical system, he provides an overall panorama of his battalion's operations by recreating the radio conversations he overheard on that unit's network through his headset during combat.
Thus we are privy to not only what's happening with his crew (Tommy defecating inside an empty ammo can and stinking up the inside of the Sherman or Tout doing contortions inside the cramped turret to fix the jammed coax machine-gun during the middle of a nasty German infantry assault), but we hear other British crews dying or triumphing as well.
After Tout leaves for the hospital, the narrative goes from first person to third person perspective and becomes more episodic. It covers the fate of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry from the Ardennes though the Rhine River crossings to VE-Day. I imagine Tout kept up with the unit through letters or post-war reunions and incorporated that info into his books.
This book shows the every-day courage of the British crews in mounting their M4 Sherman tanks with the knowledge not only were they usually outgunned by the German high velocity 75mm and 88mm guns, but their own 75mm gun lacked the penetrating power to destroy their adversaries in most cases.
Tout does not trumpet glorious exploits. Instead he highlights the get-down-to-business attitude of these young men as they clambered into their tanks, closed down their hatches and advanced into combat only to be knocked out by their German counterparts. If they survived being ‘brewed’ up they were usually assigned to another crew or provided another tank and off they went again, only for their tank to be hit and destroyed again. Some men did this not once or twice, but three, four or even five times till their luck finally ran out.
Mr. Tout paints a picture that you will never forget.
December 3, 2020
Five stars for the first two books, dragged down a bit by the last
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews