My Book, American Thunder, has been released.

It is available from Amazon.

UK release 14 May?: https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-T...d=1715095891&sprefix=american thunder,aps,242

US already released: https://www.amazon.com/American-Thu...books&sprefix=american thinder,stripbooks,144

If you happen to be on the Kitsap Peninsula, Washington State, on Saturday 25 May 2024, I will be signing at the Kitsap Mall Barnes and Noble from 12:00 to 15:00.

A recent review:

 

Editorial Reviews
Review
American Thunder is an exceptionally fine account of U.S. tanks in World War II. It provides a broad perspective on technical development, army tactical doctrine, and tank unit organization. Most importantly, it clearly connects how all of these factors influenced the combat effectiveness of U.S. tanks on the WWII battlefield. It addresses the many controversies about U.S. tanks head-on in a very convincing fashion. Very detailed and thoroughly researched, this book is a “must” for anyone seriously interested in the U.S. Army of World War II.

-- Steven Zaloga, author of Armored Thunderbolt: The US Army Sherman Tank in World War II

American Thunder: U.S. Army Tank Design, Development, and Doctrine in World War II is an in-depth history of the mobilization of U.S. armored forces for WW II. Starting practically from scratch, the Army equipped, trained, and fielded 16 armored divisions and more than 70 separate tank battalions. In minute detail, the author relates the successes, failures, and controversies involved in this accomplishment. This book is destined to become a classic reference work for students of U.S. armor in WW II.

-- Joe DeMarco, coauthor of the website, Sherman Minutia

The publication of Richard Anderson's study of the development of U.S. armored fighting vehicles for World War II will be welcomed for its value as a wide-ranging reference that stimulates one's understanding of how myriad concepts and persons contributed to resolving so many difficulties and false steps in an era particularly fraught with dangers. His meticulous use of contemporary documents, reports, and studies clarifies many obscure developments with detailed analyses of the ways taken to produce such a highly successful military arm. The reader will be treated to new assessments of decision making, lessons learned, and controversies that remain controversial to this day. I was impressed equally by the excellent layout of the book and well-chosen photos. Enjoy the read!

-- Kenneth W. Estes (Colonel U.S.M.C., Ret.), author of Marines Under Armor and Tanks on the Beaches

 

One of the tank crewmen on the cover of your book wears a USAAF flak helmet. First time I've seen that.

 

Congrats Richard!

All the best

Andreas

 

Congratulations! I look forwards to reading your book

 

Good catch, I never noticed.

 

Oh, I hope it is somewhat better than Kurowski.

 

The story of the price changes is kind of funny and related to the size of the book. Originally when I finished the book after a marathon covid-mandated writing session it was nearly 900 pages in draft, which they insisted I cut back to under 700 pages. I cut out about 150 pages related directly to the Tank Destroyers, which I hope to turn into a separate volume eventually, and after about 50 photos had to be deleted because the resolution of the image wasn't good enough to print, we were down to 735 pages, which they accepted.

The planned price was set as $39.99, but then they discovered no American printer could bring in the job at that cover price. So they shopped it overseas with a $49.99 price point an even then couldn't bring it onshore at that and so the $75 end price.

 

Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense and should have been an issue item. It fit over the standard tanker crash helmet with room enough for the headphones and probably worked better than the standard M1 helmet also seen worn by American tankers. Then there is the French tanker helmet worn by John DeRiggi, the Cannoneer of the T26E3 Eagle 7 at the Cathedral Duel in Cologne...

 

Apparently DeRiggi's headgear was a rare, limited edition French helmet introduced for trials and it appears that a collector found a vintage sample some years ago:

John DeRiggi's Experimental Tank Helmet

I have the Kindle edition of your book and read it gradually in my spare time. Just an FYI, there is a LIFE magazine photo of Lt. Karl Kellner's M4A1 in Cologne, showing a dead crewman in the driver's hatch. Someone identified him as Pfc. Julian Patrick, but I think that he may have been the loader. A contemporary death notice for T/5 Curtis Speer claims that he was the driver.

Was the tech rating required to get certified for driving a tank?

 

Speer was the "Cannoneer", i.e. the loader. Patrick was the driver. At least according to everything I found, but these things do get mixed up. I do not know of any rank requirements for the crew, except that the commander was of course the senior man. Next was the Gunner, Loader, and Driver, with the Co-Driver typically bottom of the totem pole, but there were likely many variations. I did not include that photo for obvious reasons and unfortunately I do not think you can use it to match to either man.

 

Is there a document type that might list the last known MOS?

 

I doubt it, since most of the U.S. Army personnel files from World War II were destroyed in a fire in 1973.

 

Just discovered that this was examined earlier ...

http://www.ww2f.com/threads/ww2-us-mos-codes-armored.58266/

 

Oh, sorry, yes the codes are known from the TM, but I thought you meant what their particular MOS was. Interesting, I never ran into that conversation when searching the Cologne battle. The MR indicates the Duty "Dy" of all three SSN were Tank Crewmen, a 1203 Officer and two 736 Enlisted Crewmen. However, their MOS was respectively Kellner - 1203 Platoon Commander (and thus TC), Patrick - 616 Undifferentiated Crewman, and Speer - 736 (Driver). So from that it well might mean that Speer was the driver shown in the photo, while Patrick was the Cannoneer in the turret.

It is also odd that in the MR both Patrick and Speer are listed as Pfc, when other documents indicate Speer was a T/5 (a Pfc equivalent as a technician). The T/5 in the Medium Tank Company T/O&E were supposed to be the Company Armorer, Company Cook, nine of the Tank Drivers (the other nine were T/4), the Driver of the Company 1/4-ton Truck (Jeep), and two Mechanics (one doubling as the TRV driver and the other as the Company halftrack driver). That too indicates that Speer may have been the driver.

You learn something new every day.

 

The later MR indicates a correction made to the rank of Curtis Speer.

His draft registration card and headstone request were found on Fold3 and the articles on Newspapers.com. I ran his serial number through the World War II enlistment records at NARA, but nothing returned. Maybe the original form was illegible or garbled by the OCR scanner.

 

Yes, the enlistment records at NARA are problematic for many reasons.

BTW, the notion expressed in that WW2Forum thread that there was no infantry and that thus no medical aid was available to save Kellner is simply wrong.

 

And a Forrest Gump moment for the legendary reporter Andy Rooney, among the last individuals to see Kellner alive and up close.

The producers of a video, posted last year, claim that more camera men were on the scene than reported previously, adding to the confusion. They calculated the shots that hit the turret of Kellner's tank were fired from a distance of 340 meters.



Wondering how many M4 Jumbos were in Cologne and would the upgraded gunshield deflect the shots that holed Kellner's tank.