Tanks in Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa

Oscar E. Gilbert

Aug. 2015 · Open Road Media

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An extraordinary slice of untold WWII history: how unproven Marines driving untested Sherman tanks turned the tide against Japan in the Battle of Tarawa.

In May 1943, a self-described “really young, green, ignorant lieutenant” assumed command of a new US Marine Corps company. His even younger Marines were learning to operate an untested weapon, the M4A2 “Sherman” medium tank. Just six months later, the company would be thrown into one of the ghastliest battles of World War II.
 
On November 20, 1943, the 2nd Marine Division launched the first amphibious assault of the Pacific War, directly into the powerful Japanese defenses on the atoll of Tarawa. In that blood-soaked invasion, a single company of Sherman tanks—of which only two survived—played a pivotal role in achieving a legendary victory.
 
In this fascinating study, Oscar E. Gilbert and Romain V. Cansiere use official documents, memoirs, and interviews with veterans, as well as personal and aerial photographs, to follow Charlie Company from its formation. Tracing the movement, action, and fall of individual tanks, Tanks in Hell offers “a personal, beach-level view of the Marine island campaign” (Marine Corps History).
 

Autoren-Profil

Oscar E. Gilbert, PhD, was a Marine artilleryman, geoscientist, and military historian. His published works include the widely acclaimed Marine Tank Battles in the Pacific, Marine Corps Tank Battles in Korea, and Marine Corps Tank Battles in the Middle East. His best-known work, Tanks in Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa, was awarded the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s 2016 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award for outstanding nonfiction.