US Tank operations in WWI - reference material?

[John Tapsell]

I'm looking for suggestions about good quality books on US Army tank use during WWI. I'm aware of a few Osprey-style titles that cover aspects of this, but I'm looking for something with more depth. I can find a range of good books on British and French tank battles (plus development, production, organisation and tactics), but I'm not finding anything of similar detail on US Army units and the background to their introduction and use.

 

Any titles or places to look would be great - thanks

 

Regards,

John

Edited October 19 by John Tapsell
Title error

[M3talpig]

8 hours ago, John Tapsell said:

I'm looking for suggestions about good quality books on US Army tank use during WWI. I'm aware of a few Osprey-style titles that cover aspects of this, but I'm looking for something with more depth. I can find a range of good books on British and French tank battles (plus development, production, organisation and tactics), but I'm not finding anything of similar detail on US Army units and the background to their introduction and use.

 

Any titles or places to look would be great - thanks

 

Regards,

John

John have you tried the Tank Museum gift shop? that's where I would start, some links that might help

https://www.bookworldws.co.uk/

https://www.casemateuk.com/

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/WWI/c/23

https://www.paulmeekins.co.uk/

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/

https://tankmuseumshop.org/pages/books?srsltid=AfmBOoqEOoOKtaPXJgsN39AJ-NC49Pd-zvb0vFKFk2kQHBrMTvJCdW_0

[John Tapsell]

18 hours ago, M3talpig said:

John have you tried the Tank Museum gift shop? that's where I would start, some links that might help

https://www.bookworldws.co.uk/

https://www.casemateuk.com/

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/WWI/c/23

https://www.paulmeekins.co.uk/

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/

https://tankmuseumshop.org/pages/books?srsltid=AfmBOoqEOoOKtaPXJgsN39AJ-NC49Pd-zvb0vFKFk2kQHBrMTvJCdW_0

I am already familiar with those websites - I buy far too many books from most of them!

What I'm looking for are specific titles that people are aware of and would recommend.

[M3talpig]

4 hours ago, John Tapsell said:

I am already familiar with those websites - I buy far too many books from most of them!

What I'm looking for are specific titles that people are aware of and would recommend.

Sorry to have wasted your time

[John Tapsell]

No time wasted - they are good shouts for places to look. I should have been clearer about what my usual haunts are and that I was looking for sources outside that environment.

[Kingsman]

It's is a subject not well covered because it is a very short story. The Zaloga book on US Battle Tanks 1917-1945 is probably the best single volume.  The Osprey book on French WW1 tanks covers US use of FTs.

 

Only 3 US Tank Battalions were mobilised to active service, the 301st with British Mk V/V* and the 344th and 345th with Renault FTs.  The light Battalions aren't in action until 12 Sept 1918, mostly supporting the Meuse-Argonne offensive through until the Armistice. The 301st took part in 4 actions between 29 Sept and 23 Oct, taking heavy losses. The Wikipedia article on the 301st is pretty good. The US tank HQ in France was the 1st, later 311th, Tank Centre.

 

The other 7 heavy tank Battalions and a third light tank Battalion that had been approved were not mobilised before the Armistice.  And in any event would have relied on US-built M1917 Light Tanks and Mk VIII heavy tanks built in a French factory for 1919. British and French tanks sufficient for 4 of the 10 Battalions were only supplied as a stop-gap

 

Major George S Patton - yes, him - is quoted as saying in 1918 that "unless I get some Tanks soon I shall go crazy for I have done nothing of any use since November and it is getting on my nerves".  Or, as one of his Lieutenants put it, " if there was anything Major Patton wanted it was to make the Tank Corps tougher than the Marines and more spectacular than the Matterhorn"!  Another famous face involved with the formation and training of the US Tank Corps in the USA was one Dwight David Eisenhower. Still a mere Captain in 1918.

[John Tapsell]

Thanks Kingsman - I'm familiar with the personalities involved but I'm more interested in the background to the American involvement with tanks - decisions made, policies developed, manufacturing delays, training of, employment of, first person (crew) accounts and assessment of the outcomes. What for example, led to the almost total stagnation of armoured vehicle development in America post-WWI? Was it the same drivers we find in other nations after 1918 or was it due to other factors? I can find limited data on those aspects in other sources, but little or nothing dedicated to it.

There is a vast array of such material relating to British tank development during WWI and the post-war inertia, a lot less (although still detailed) english language material about French tank development and as you say, virtually nothing on US tank development.

 

I'm not expecting a wide range of titles to exist, but I would have expected more than I'm finding from American authors.

[Kingsman]

The Zaloga book devotes about 47 pages to US tanks and tank destroyers between the wars.  Your original question was about WW1.  Like the UK, the US set about dismantling its Tank Corps after WW1 - even disbanding it completely.

 

For original unpublished material I imagine you would be looking at the Patton Museum, the Hunnicutt Papers and the US National Archive.  Whether the Armor and Cavalry Collection in the Armor Center at Fort Moore or the Ordnance Training and Heritage Center at Fort Gregg-Adams would have anything is a question.  Rock Island Arsenal, where most inter-war tank development took place, has a museum and archive.

Edited October 22 by Kingsman
Bad spelling

[Kingsman]

I've just had a flick through the Hunnicutt books and there is very little in there on the doctrinal thinking behind the genesis and predecessors of the subjects he covers.  I think Zaloga covers the interwar period better.  Whether Hunnicutt collected other information he did not include in his books is another question.  I believe that his papers are held by either the Patton Museum or the Armor & Cav Collection.

 

Looking at reviews of the long-awaited new American Thunder book, of which I don't yet have a copy, it doesn't seem that this covers the interwar period in much depth either.  Just the immediate prelude to WW2.

 

[John Tapsell]

Thanks Kingsman - I have most of the Hunnicutt books and agree he doesn't really cover the early armour (or armor) period in any real detail. The recent Zaloga book is an option.

Somebody has contacted me offline with a couple of suggestions that look promising:

 

Treat 'Em Rough: The Birth of American Armor 1917–20, by Dale E Wilson

Pershing's Tankers: Personal Accounts of the AEF Tank Corps in World War I, edited by Lawrence M. Kaplan

The Wilson book is not a recent one, but has been reprinted in recent years - not sure about the other one.

 

[Kingsman]

Titles unknown to me.  But not a subject I've looked-at much.

 

Treat Em Rough is on Amazon right now for less than £19 new.  I've just snaffled a used copy for about £7 inc shipping.  Pershing's Tankers is on there too for about £35.

[Kingsman]

I've just got my copy of Treat Em Rough.  Most of the content is about the formation and combat action of the US Tank Corps.  Only the 10 pages of the Epilogue cover the immediate post-war period until 1920.