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Tanks for the Memories: An Oral History of the 712th Tank Battalion in World War II by Aaron Elson
Aaron Elson's work as an oral historian has been used as source material in more than two dozen book in the U.S. and "across the pond," as well is in about a dozen documentaries including "The Color of War" and "Patton 360." "Tanks for the Memories" is the book that turned him into an oral historian. The stories and anecdotes range from descriptions of life in the horse cavalry, growing up in the Great Depression, food on the front, medical treatment after being wounded, to vivid descriptions of combat inside a tank and out. "Tanks for the Memories" was originally published in 1994. This expanded second edition was originally published in 2001.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FRG8SG/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005FRG8SG/
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B005FRG8SG/
They Were All Young Kids: The story of Lieutenant Jim Flowers and the first platoon, Company C, 712th Tank Battalion, on Hill 122 by Aaron Elson
On 10 July, 1944, four Sherman tanks went to the aid of an infantry battalion that was surrounded at the top of Hill 122 in Normandy by elite German paratroopers. The plan was for the tanks to create a path through the almost jungle-like tangle of trees and shrubbery and for a company of infantry to follow close behind, creating an opening that would let the rest of the battalion break out.
The plan seemed to be working as the tanks crashed through the German defenses on the steep front slope of the hill. At the bottom, the tanks crossed a road, climbed over a hedgerow, crossed a field, climbed another hedgerow and kept on going.
It was late in the afternoon when the first shell struck Lieutenant Jim Flowers' tank and caromed off, with a sound he would compare to "a big bell ringing." Within moments, all four tanks were knocked out, three of them burning fiercely. Nine of the 20 crew members were killed, several wounded, and two both wounded and captured. For Flowers and his gunner, Jim Rothschadl, their ordeal was just beginning.
This is the story of that battle as told by Flowers and several of the surviving members of his platoon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005L9YA7E/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005L9YA7E/
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B005L9YA7E/