By Tank - D to VE Days

 

Like most of his comrades, Ken Tout was just 20 years old in Normandy 1944. Not until the 1980s did he feel able to gather their memoirs in three books, "Tank!", "Tanks, Advance!" and "To Hell with Tanks". Now these adventures are condensed into this one continuous narrative. Follow the very ordinary young lads of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry through the massive enemy defences on Bourguebus Ridge, to the snows of the Ardennes, the night crossing of the River Rhine, when Sherman tanks were traded in for amphibious Buffaloes, and final roll-call in Zwolle's Grote Kerkl, where they celebrated with liberated Dutch citizens. The author graphically describes the total experience - the heat, noise and smells - inside the Sherman tank, nicknamed by their enemy the 'Tommy Cooker'. Hit in the engine the Sherman exploded within seconds, instantly cremating any crew members unable to escape. These were not professional soldiers but young conscripted lads willing to 'do their bit', knowing that their Shermans were outgunned by the enemy's much heavier Tiger and Panther tanks. "By Tank: D Day to VE Days" vividly recalls, in one complete volume, the whole experience of battle with utter authenticity: the fear, confusion, boredom, excitement and grief. Ken Tout's books attracted plaudits such as 'masterpiece', 'a very special book', 'one of the best books ever written on the subject' and was described as a Second World War classic, and are now being read by the grandchild generation of those young tank crews of 1944-5.

 

Ken Tout

Hardcover 256 pages

Book Code:  AW0394