The dominating Blanc Mont Ridge complex in the Champagne region of France was home to some of the most complex German defenses on the Western Front. Its heights offered artillery observation that made even approaching the ridge virtually suicidal. 
Pessimistic about the ability of depleted and demoralized French units to capture the position, Général Henri Gouraud was granted the use of two American divisions: the veteran 2nd “Indianhead” Division, including the 4th (Marine) Brigade, and the untested 36th “Arrowhead” Division of the Texas and Oklahoma National Guard. 
This fully illustrated book describes this Allied offensive with American troops in the vanguard, and shows how despite the heavy losses it sustained to both manpower and supporting armor, they eventually forced the Germans to abandon most of the region in one of the largest withdrawals of the war.

Blanc Mont Ridge 1918: America's forgotten victory (Campaign, 323)

History

GILBERT, ED

Cansière, Romain

Americas

Osprey_Publishing

Drawing upon personal testimonies from veterans, official reports, and never-before published photographs, this superbly detailed title explores the duels between the USMC M4A2 and the Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go, which often proved to be epic and unique. The different national tank doctrines of the United States and Imperial Japan resulted in a terrible mismatch of the predominant tank types in the crucial Central Pacific campaign. A flawed Japanese doctrine emphasized light infantry support tanks, often used in small numbers. Tactically, tanks were often frittered away in armored versions of the familiar banzai attacks. Meanwhile, the Americans saw the tank as an infantry support weapon, but developed a more systematic tactical doctrine. They settled upon a larger medium tank--in the case of most Marine Corps tank battalions, the diesel-powered M4A2 (unwanted by the US Army). This superbly detailed title reveals how both the two sides' tactical and technical differences in the approach to armored warfare soon became apparent over a series of deadly engagements, from the first tank fight at the battle of Tarawa in November 1943, through to engagements on Parry Island, Saipan, and Guam, before ending with Peleliu in September 1944.

USMC M4A2 Sherman vs Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go: The Central Pacific 1943–44 (Duel, 108)

Tanks on Iwo Jima 1945 (New Vanguard, 329)

Military

Winner of THE GENERAL WALLACE M. GREENE, JR. AWARD for outstanding nonfiction In May 1943 a self-described “really young, green, ignorant lieutenant” assumed command of a new Marine Corps company. His even younger enlisted Marines were learning to use an untested weapon, the M4A2 “Sherman” medium tank. His sole combat veteran was the company bugler, who had salvaged his dress cap and battered horn from a sinking aircraft carrier. Just six months later the company would be thrown into one of the ghastliest battles of World War II. On 20 November 1943 the Second Marine Division launched the first amphibious assault of the Pacific War, directly into the teeth of powerful Japanese defenses on Tarawa. In that blood-soaked invasion, a single company of Sherman tanks, of which only two survived, played a pivotal role in turning the tide from looming disaster to legendary victory. In this unique study Oscar Gilbert and Romain Cansiere use official documents, memoirs, interviews with veterans, as well as personal and aerial photographs to follow Charlie Company from its formation, and trace the movement, action—and loss—of individual tanks in this horrific four-day struggle. The authors have used official documents and interviews with veterans to follow the company from training through the brutal 76-hour struggle for Tarawa. Survivor accounts and air photo analysis document the movements –and destruction – of the company’s individual tanks. It is a story of escapes from drowning tanks, and even more harrowing escapes from tanks knocked out behind Japanese lines. It is a story of men doing whatever needed to be done, from burying the dead to hand-carrying heavy cannon ammunition forward under fire. It is the story of how the two surviving tanks and their crews expanded a perilously thin beachhead, and cleared the way for critical reinforcements to come ashore. But most of all it is a story of how a few unsung Marines helped turn near disaster into epic victory. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PREFACE Romain Cansiere PREFACE Ed Gilbert FOREWORD Edward L. Bale, Jr., Colonel, USMC (Ret) 1 A NEW DOCTRINE FOR A NEW WAR 2 SALAD DAYS—FORMATION AND TRAINING 3 THE TANKS OF CHARLIE COMPANY 4 THE CLOTHES ON THEIR BACKS—CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT 5 OBJECTIVE: CODE NAME HELEN 6 DAY ONE—THE REEF 7 DAY ONE—INLAND 8 DAY TWO—SECURING THE BEACHHEAD 9 DAY THREE—SWEEPING THE ISLAND 10 DAY FOUR—THE FINAL CARNAGE 11 AFTERMATH EPILOGUE: The Legacy of Tarawa LATER LIFE APPENDIX A: Charlie Company Chronology APPENDIX B: Tank Company Organization and Equipment APPENDIX C: Inside the M4A2 Tank APPENDIX D: Charlie Company Personnel at Tarawa APPENDIX E: Historical Research and Photographic Analysis NOTES REFERENCES CITED

Tanks in Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa

Biographies & Memoirs

Gilbert, Oscar E.

Historical

Casemate

The Casemate Short History Series presents readable and entertaining introductions to military history topics. Today tanks are synonymous with the modern army; imposing, essential pieces of high-technology equipment, seemingly impregnable. But how did the tank come into being, and how did it develop and influence conflict in the 20th and 21st centuries? Why do different countries use tanks so differently in combat and what was the biggest tank-on-tank battle? The Casemate Short History of Tanks addresses all these questions and more in an informative and entertaining introduction to this iconic weapon of the last hundred years. Tanks first ventured into battle on the Somme in 1916, and by the end of the war countries were beginning to choose “heavy” or “light” tank designs to suit their preferred doctrine. Design stagnated between the wars, until World War II brought about rapid change. Tanks would prove integral to fighting in almost every theater; the Germans swept across Europe using tanks to spearhead their blitzkrieg method of war, until Soviet tanks proved more than their match and led to some epic tank battles on a huge scale. After World War II, tank designs became increasingly sophisticated, and armor undertook a variety of roles in conflicts, with mixed results. American armor in Korea was soon forced into an infantry support role, which it reprised in Vietnam, while Soviet armor was defeated in guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan. However, tanks played a pivotal role in the American “shock and awe” doctrine in two wars in Iraq, and tanks remain a crucial weapons system on the battlefield. Table of Contents Tank Component Terminology Introduction Timeline 1: The Great War of 1914-18 and the Birth of the Tank 2: The Inter-War Years 3: World War II 4: The Cold War and Wars of National Liberation 5: Wars of the Regional Powers 6: The Arab-Israeli Wars 7: The New Order in the Middle East and Beyond 8: The Present and the Future of the Tank Acknowledgements

Tanks: A Century of Tank Warfare (Casemate Short History)

“Retreat, hell! We just got here!” The words of Captain Lloyd Williams at Belleau Wood in June 1918 entered United States Marine Corps legend, and the Marine Brigade’s actions there—along with the censor’s failure to take out the name of the Brigade in the battle reports—made the Corps famous. The Marines went to war as part of the American Expeditionary Force, bitterly resented by the Army and General Pershing. The Army tried to use them solely as labor troops and replacements, but the German spring offensive of 1918 forced the issue. The French begged Pershing to commit his partially trained men, and two untested American divisions, supported by British and French units, were thrown into the path of five German divisions. Three horrific weeks later, the Marines held the entirety of Belleau Wood. The Marines then fought in the almost forgotten Blanc Mont Ridge Offensive in October, as well as in every well-known AEF action until the end of the war. This book looks at all the operations of the Marine Corps in World War I, covers the activities of both ground and air units, and considers the units that supported the Marine Brigade. It examines how, during the war years, the Marine Corps changed from a small organization of naval security detachments to an elite land combat force. Table of Contents List of Plates Authors’ Preface Maps 1 Background to War 2 Making Marines 3 Over There 4 Into the Lines—Les Eparges 5 Belleau Wood 6 Replacements 7 The Sick, the Wounded, and the Dead 8 Soissons 9 The Women Marines 10 St. Mihiel 11 Always on the Job: The Atlantic Fleet and Foreign Interventions 12 Blanc Mont Ridge 13 Marine Aviation 14 Meuse-Argonne 15 Victory and Occupation 16 Aftermath Appendix: Equipment and Weapons Endnotes Bibliography Index

First to Fight: The U.S. Marines in World War I

One of the most difficult types of warfare to master, landing on a hostile beach requires scrupulous planning and intense coordination between the forces in the air, sea and land. With a history reaching back to the Persians landing on the Greek shores at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, it was the First World War that marked the beginning of modern amphibious warfare, with the Royal Marines combining their efforts with the Royal Navy. Despite the disastrous Gallipoli amphibious operation to seize the Dardanelles Straits in 1915, the Royal Navy and US Marine Corps continued to develop new landing crafts throughout the inter-war years. The Second World War proved more successful for amphibious warfare, with the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941 crushing the American forces who were defending the Pacific islands and the D-day landings by the Allied troops in 1944 initiating the beginning of the end of the war in Europe. This accessible short history looks at the historical development of amphibious warfare, telling the stories of particular landings, and the units that have taken part in this unique type of warfare. The Royal Marines and US Marine Corps continue to evolve and play a crucial role in defense today, with specialized amphibious warfare ships being deployed to enable elite forces to respond promptly to threats across the globe.

Amphibious Warfare: Battle on the Beaches (Casemate Short History)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cansière, Romain. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cansière, Romain

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cansière, Romain. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Blanc Mont Ridge 1918: America's forgotten victory (Campaign, 323)

USMC M4A2 Sherman vs Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go: The Central Pacific 1943–44 (Duel, 108)

Tanks on Iwo Jima 1945 (New Vanguard, 329)

Tanks in Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa

Tanks: A Century of Tank Warfare (Casemate Short History)

First to Fight: The U.S. Marines in World War I

Amphibious Warfare: Battle on the Beaches (Casemate Short History)

Tanks in Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa