Landing with the British and Canadians in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, was the 1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers, a specialized armored unit tasked with removing obstacles and mines from Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches. To support this mission, the engineers modified their tanks with ingenious innovations, such as replacing the main gun with a giant mortar or attaching a steamroller-like device to flatten a path in the sand. In the early hours of D-Day, the brigade landed under fire, and took serious casualties in some areas, but achieved many of its key objectives and cleared the way for the infantry.
<li>Refreshingly different perspective on the momentous events of D-Day </li>
<li>Nuts-and-bolts narrative of how the landings were carried out along with details on the unique British armored vehicles used in the invasion </li>
<li>The controversy over the U.S. refusal to use these vehicles, which may have contributed to bloody American losses on Omaha Beach</li>

Cracking Hitler's Atlantic Wall: The 1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers on D-Day

History

Anderson Jr., Richard C.

Europe

Stackpole Books

If the machine gun changed the course of ground combat in the First World War, it was the tank that shaped ground combat in World War II. The tank was introduced in World War I in an effort to end the stalemate of the machine gun versus barbed-wire trenches, and by World War II, the tank's mobility and firepower became a rolling, thundering difference-maker on the battlefield. In this detailed, deeply researched, and heavily illustrated book, tank expert Richard Anderson tells the story of how the United States developed its armored force, turning it into a war-winning weapon in World War II that powered American ground forces and supplied armies around the world, including the British and Soviets. For decades, American tanks of World War II have been undervalued in comparisons with German and Soviet tanks--and it's true that the best of American armor tended to underperform the best of German and Soviet armor during the war. That's because the U.S. had a different goal: not only to create battleworthy tanks like the Sherman, and to develop other tanks, but also to supply American allies with serviceable, combat-ready tanks. The United States did all this, but until now the complete story of American tanks in World War II has yet to be told. Anderson's book is deeper and more thorough a chronicle of American tanks in World War II than has ever been done. This book is colorful, vivid, and thought-provokingly insightful on how the U.S. produced a tank force capable of conducting its own battlefield efforts and sustaining key allies around the world. This will be the go-to volume on American tanks for years to come.

American Thunder: U.S. Army Tank Design, Development, and Doctrine in World War II

Military

September 17, 1862, at Antietam Creek was the bloodiest day of the Civil War, as both armies made heavy use of field artillery, the "long arm." In Artillery Hell Curt Johnson and Richard C. Anderson, Jr., provide a detailed examination of the role of field artillery in the Battle of Antietam. Johnson sets the context with an overview of organizational problems on the eve of a great battle. Anderson's concise discussion of different types of artillery and their capabilities and ammunition is presented in accessible language. The heart of Artillery Hell is Maj. Joseph Mills Hanson's unpublished 1940 report, "Employment of Artillery." It includes compilations of the batteries in the respective armies at Antietam, a review of the battle actions of the "individual batteries," and a "list of battery positions in a tentative order." Johnson and Anderson build upon Hanson's reports with individual chapters on the Union and the Confederate artillery at Antietam. Utilizing previously untapped or unavailable sources, especially the Henry Jackson Hunt Papers at the Library of Congress, they answer questions that have long challenged historians and others interested in the battle. Artillery Hell discusses virtually every aspect of field artillery used during the Civil War. Battlefield visitors can use it to identify and understand the different types of cannon and their capabilities, and historians will find in it the military perspective so many studies of the battle lack.

Artillery Hell: The Employment of Artillery at Antietam (Volume 38) (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)

Johnson, Curt

Americas

Texas A&M University Press

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Books by Anderson Jr., Richard C.