From the Vault: Spearhead in the West 1941-1945

August 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Spearhead in the westLately we have noticed a number of older public domain publications being listed for sale as Kindle books on Amazon.  We would suggest that before people spend money on these items, do a quick Google search.  In many cases, you can find a free PDF of the same document.  One example of this is Spearhead in the West 1941-1945.  This book, written in 1945, documents the history of the US 3rd Armored Division during the Second World War.  The book can be downloaded as a PDF file here.  If you don’t mind spending six bucks for the kindle version, you can do so here.  For those that prefer a physical hard copy, it appears that this this book was reprinted in 1980, new copies of this reprint are going for around $35 on Amazon currently.

 

 

 

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We Are the Mighty blog on Lafayette Pool.

September 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Lafayette_G._Pool_1949The blog “We Are The Mighty” has posted an article about the WW2 exploits of US tank commander Lafayette Pool.  Part of the 3rd Armored division, Pool and his crew would become one of the most famous tank crews of war, credited with destroying 12 enemy tanks and dozens of other vehicles in their M4A1 (76) tank dubbed “In the Mood.”  Pool has been sited as the inspiration for the character of “Wardaddy” in the recent film Fury.  Pool and his crew lost their own tank to enemy action three times, the final incident resulting in the end of Pool’s career as he sustained an injury which lead to the amputation of his leg.  Pool would rejoin the 3rd Armored Division after the war and serve as an instructor until his retirement in 1960.

The “We are the Mighty” article is relatively short.  For those looking for more information on Lafayette Pool, here are several  links to some more in-depth articles.

Yank Magazine 1945 

Journal of Military Ordnance

Tribune-Herald 1987

Filed Under: Historical Vehicle News Tagged With: , ,

Spotlight on 3rd Armored Division WW2 history

April 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment

3rd2For those interested in the history of the US 3rd Armored Division in World War 2, the website www3ad.com is worth checking out.  3AD.com is the official website for the 3rd Armored Division Association.  Of particular note are the following sections:

Soldier’s Memoirs – 50 different soldier memoirs in various formats.

Lafayette Pool – A page dedicated to US tank ace Lafayette Pool, containing his own writings as well as various articles about him.

Feature Articles – An index of almost 60 feature articles about the 3rd Armored Division.

General Maurice Rose – A page of information and resources about 3rd AD commander Gen. Maurice Rose, the highest ranking US officer to be killed by enemy forces during the war.

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From the Editor: Debunking Deathtraps Part 1

January 29, 2015 by 31 Comments

(Editors note: this originally appeared in my old blog – tankandavf.blogspot.com – on 2/26/2015.)traps

When it comes to the history of armored warfare in the Second World War, the US M4 Sherman tank is always sure to draw controversy and a good bit of discussion.  Invariably, when this topic is raised in an online forum, someone will bring up the book “Death Traps” by Belton Cooper.  With a forward by popular historian Stephen Ambrose and the backing of a major publisher, Death Traps has become quite well known amongst WW2 history aficionados.  Mr. Cooper has been featured in TV documentary specials as well, including the history channel series “Engineering Disasters“, which has further increased awareness of his book.

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Filed Under: Book News, Book Reviews, From the Editor, Original Articles/Content Tagged With: , , , , ,