Marine Corps Tank Battles in Vietnam
Author: Oscar Gilbert
Hardback - 304 pages
Publisher: Casemate
Price: £19.99
ISBN: 978-1-932033-66-3
Introduction
There are some people that think of the Vietnam War, many of whom would have no idea if there were any Marine tanks employed in country. Many higher-ranking officials were under the impression that Vietnam was not Tank country, this being mainly true but due to the dedication, loyalty and ingenuity of those Marine tankers deployed in country they overcome the skeptics and battled on through the Jungles, Villages and rice paddies that concealed a determined enemy.
The Book
The Author Oscar E. Gilbert brings Marine Corps Tank Battles to life and tells the story thought the eyes of the tankers themselves, along the way you are introduced to several tankers through personal interviews and live their real life experiences and stories during their five years deployment in country.
A great problem Gilbert had with the research of this book was the little known fact that the records of combat were only ever compiled as a monthly command chronology which was written at the infantry and tank battalion levels. Gilbert goes into some detail of the problems he encountered, because of this reporting procedure and found that because the responsibility of document preparation was the battalion's operation officer's (The S-3) responsibility this then meant the S-3 often did not know any of the combat details or the day-to-day activities of the battalions tanks or the tankers duties.
Another problem that was encountered in trying to recover details of specific battles was the infantry reports could be varied, If they reported of any tank involvement they often neglected or did not know the specific tanks involved or report on any of the crew involved. So even after all this and some meticulously gathered Oral interviews Gilbert is able to produce such a great incite into he world of the Marine Tanker in Vietnam.
From the first moment the Marine Tankers loaded onto ships destined for the coast of Vietnam there is some great first hand accounts from tankers that first rolled onto the beach at Danang to take up some defensive positions around the air bases that wee being set up to help ARVN forces. This continues throughout the book with some fascinating accounts of battles up and down the country, Taking in all different scenarios Inter city fighting with Onto's, amphibious assaults, jungle clearing and fighting, Direct point blank 90mm fire, adding Mobility and firepower to the convoys that supported the isolated fire bases and lastly (H& I) Long-Range harassing and interdicting.
At the end of the book the author has added a great little chapter, Where are they now? This goes on to list the interviewed tankers and in a brief paragraph what they done after the war right up until today.
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Vinnie Branigan
