By Tank Into Normandy (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

Rating:
Summary: A good tanker's tale
Review: First off I should say this book probably deserves five stars just for its very existence. Tankers from WW2 do not seem to have written very much and any works are sorely needed. Perhaps the casualty rate for tankers was too high. Anyway, Mr Hills delivers a solid account of his time as a tank and scout platoon leader (Sherman and Stuart tanks) with the British Sherwood Rangers. Mr Hills saw considerable action from D-Day itself through to the end of war in Germany. Overall he does a fine job of describing his experiences.

What keeps the book form earning five stars is that, first of all, he skimps on the details of most of his actions as well as his equipment and day-to-day duties. Mr Hills had a real opportunity to inform the reader of what it was really like to be a tanker. Unfortunately he just does not go into enough detail. He doesn't even tell you what versions of the Sherman he was on (and every German gun is an 88mm). A couple of his battle accounts approach a fair level of detail but always end-up just shy of really letting you know what happened and he rarely makes you feel like you are reliving the action with him.

My second complaint is that Mr Hills is British and unfortunately, for readers not from the UK, writes like one. What I mean is that he uses lots of references to all things British that are simply lost on the non-British reader. Starting with his childhood school experiences right through to various pop-culture references he simply assumes the reader understands all things British. This is not a huge distraction from the book but does add to the somewhat distant feel too it (along with the semi-formal, British stiff-upper-lip thing). This tendency combined with the lack of overall detail makes for a less than stellar read and is certainly history's loss.

Overall Mr Hill does do a good job and the book is interesting and informative. The problem is simply that there are so few tankers' tales that it is a shame he did not take the book the extra mile.