Marine Tank Battles in the Pacific (1 Viewer)

[DMNamiot]

Hi All,

I just finished reading this book and thought there might be a few of you who would be interested in the subject matter.

Marine Tank Battles in the Pacific By Oscar E. Gilbert. Published by Da Capo Press. 2001, ISBN: 1-58097-050-8


The author does an exceptional job of covering a subject area that has been over looked for a long time. The book is well organized and has a lot of personal accounts of the various battles from the Marines who fought through them. There are also some very good photos that compliment the story line very well. Mr Gilbert also documents his sources and where possible has verified the stories by cross referencing them from several sources. The bibliography is detailed and gives many other sources for those who may want to dig deeper into this often over looked aspect of the Pacific Theater. I highly recommend it for the tank enthusists out there.

All the best

Dave

 

[binder001]

Good selection! Ed Gilbert is one of the major living experts of USMC tank trivia. He is often answering questions of a couple of the modelers' sites.

By the way, Ed has a follow on book "Marine Tank Battles in Korea" and said that he is working on "Marine Tank Battles in Viet Nam". Both of Ed's available books are VERY good and have a lot of interesting material.

Gary

 

[Louis Badolato]

Were there a lot of tank on tank battles in the Pacific? I would imagine most of the time our tanks were up against dug in gun positions, mines and booby traps rather than other tanks. I know the Japanese had the "Chi Ha", and have learned from this forum that they also used captured Stuarts and outdated Renaults, but how did these and their tanks stack up against the Sherman? Did we have the kind of advantage over the lighter armored and armed Japanese tanks that the German Tiger and Panther Tanks had over ours? Who had the advantage of numbers (I'm assuming we did, but I don't know for sure). Finally how did the terrain on the Pacific Islands effect the use of armor? I guess I better buy the book, as I imagine these issues would all be addressed therein.

 

[Chuck Harris]

Were there a lot of tank on tank battles in the Pacific? I would imagine most of the time our tanks were up against dug in gun positions, mines and booby traps rather than other tanks. I know the Japanese had the "Chi Ha", and have learned from this forum that they also used captured Stuarts and outdated Renaults, but how did these and their tanks stack up against the Sherman? Did we have the kind of advantage over the lighter armored and armed Japanese tanks that the German Tiger and Panther Tanks had over ours? Who had the advantage of numbers (I'm assuming we did, but I don't know for sure). Finally how did the terrain on the Pacific Islands effect the use of armor? I guess I better buy the book, as I imagine these issues would all be addressed therein.

Louis

China was the Japanese mostly used their Tanks. They were used on larger islands. They did not stand up to a Sherman.

 

[binder001]

Yes, the few Japanese tanks deployed in the Pacific were pretty ineffective. Often as not the few encounters with Japanese armor resulted in the Japanese tanks being destroyed by AT guns, bazookas, naval gunfire, or SPM's* before a Marine tank appeared. The few tank-on-tank encouters were decidely in the Marines' (or Army's) favor. The use of armor in the PTO went back to the old doctrine of "facilitating the advance of the rifleman in the attack".

The major exception to the effect of US armor was the unfortunate performance of the Provisional Tank Group in the Phillipines in 1941-42. The two tank battalions were hastily assembled from National Guard tank companies, rushed to the Phillipines with 108 new M3 tanks that few had even seen before. Training was absent, support was minimal and the doctrine for their use was weak.

The biggest enemies of the Sherman were mines, the Japanese 47mm AT gun or the 75mm AAA.

Gary

* "SPM" or self-propelled mount, was the Marine name for the M3 halftrack tank destroyer.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Thanks Chuck and Gary for the information.

 

[Leadmen]

Hamilton Books has Gilberts book Marine Corps Tank Battles in Korea for $6.95. Nov.24, supplement. Leadmen
http://www.edwardrhamilton.com/