Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II

by Belton Y. Cooper and Belton Cooper

Book Overview

"An important contribution to the history of World War II . . . I have never before been able to learn so much about maintenance methods of an armored division, with precise details that underline the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0891418148
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Length: 355 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.0" x 4.1"

Customer Reviews

Riveting Personal Account from Insider Point of View

Deathtraps is an engrossing personal account of a of the American Tanker's experience in World War II from a unique insider's perspective, the man in charge of recovering and fixing destroyed tanks. It is a deeply personal and moving account of a man coming to grips with the horrors of war while at the same time rejoicing at the traces of humanity that remained even in the worst situations. Despite some inaccuracies and repetition it once again reinforces the fact that the M4 Sherman tank was totally outclassed for most of World War II by its German opponents. While the GI grapevine isn't 100% accurate it captures the feelings and beliefs of the armored infantry and tankers who fought and died in the Sherman. It is this insight that makes this book so valuable. Belton Cooper speaks for those who didn't make it back. The author writes with an earnestness that gives voice to those who went into battle knowing that the odds were against them. Logistics efficiency was purchased at the expense of battle losses. Whether or not that was the right choice will be debated forever but the author has earned the right to present his argument from firsthand personal experience. Unfortunately, the lead reviewer who gave this book one star used two outrageously misleading points (among several others) to disparage this book, and rather unwittingly, the tens of thousands of American tankers who fought and died in the Sherman. He misses the point of this book by playing the part of a not-so-accurate-self-proclaimed-fact-checker and misses the story of the bravery of the crews who knowingly went into battle with an inferior weapon. Whether or not the Sherman was or was not inferior is not the point. The point is that these men believed that they faced certain death and still did their duty each day until the end of the war. (See notes below). Additional Notes for Armor Nerds: Armor nerds will point out that limited supplies of special HVAP ammunition and add-on armor brought some Shermans up to a survivable level at the very end of the war. The inescapable fact is that without overwhelming air superiority and artillery support, an unsupported Sherman pitted against a Panther or a Tiger without overwhelming numerical superiority was doomed. Fortunately, towards the end of the war, that became an exceedingly rare occurrence. Official Army guidelines stated that 5 Shermans were needed to knockout a Panther and thanks to the maintenance crews of the U.S. Army; there were always plenty of Shermans. The Sherman was an excellent anti-infantry weapon. It was a terrible anti-tank weapon. Lead Reviewer's misleading "fact" checking points: ONE: Claiming that German tank kills by U.S. armored divisions refuted the assertion that the Sherman was at a disadvantage to German tanks: Ridiculously misleading. The overwhelming bulk of German tank losses were caused by combined air and artillery support. In the case of Normandy (and Anzio), even the U.S. Navy

Riveting Personal Account from Insider Point of View

Deathtraps is an engrossing personal account of a of the American Tanker's experience in World War II from a unique insider's perspective, the man in charge of recovering and fixing destroyed tanks. It is a deeply personal and moving account of a man coming to grips with the horrors of war while at the same time rejoicing at the traces of humanity that remained even in the worst situations. Despite some inaccuracies and repetition it once again reinforces the fact that the M4 Sherman tank was totally outclassed for most of World War II by its German opponents. While the GI grapevine isn't 100% accurate it captures the feelings and beliefs of the armored infantry and tankers who fought and died in the Sherman. It is this insight that makes this book so valuable. Belton Cooper speaks for those who didn't make it back. The author writes with an earnestness that gives voice to those who went into battle knowing that the odds were against them. Logistics efficiency was purchased at the expense of battle losses. Whether or not that was the right choice will be debated forever but the author has earned the right to present his argument from firsthand personal experience. Unfortunately, the lead reviewer who gave this book one star used two outrageously misleading points (among several others) to disparage this book, and rather unwittingly, the tens of thousands of American tankers who fought and died in the Sherman. He misses the point of this book by playing the part of a not-so-accurate-self-proclaimed-fact-checker and misses the story of the bravery of the crews who knowingly went into battle with an inferior weapon. Whether or not the Sherman was or was not inferior is not the point. The point is that these men believed that they faced certain death and still did their duty each day until the end of the war. (See notes below). Additional Notes for Armor Nerds: Armor nerds will point out that limited supplies of special HVAP ammunition and add-on armor brought some Shermans up to a survivable level at the very end of the war. The inescapable fact is that without overwhelming air superiority and artillery support, an unsupported Sherman pitted against a Panther or a Tiger without overwhelming numerical superiority was doomed. Fortunately, towards the end of the war, that became an exceedingly rare occurrence. Official Army guidelines stated that 5 Shermans were needed to knockout a Panther and thanks to the maintenance crews of the U.S. Army; there were always plenty of Shermans. The Sherman was an excellent anti-infantry weapon. It was a terrible anti-tank weapon. Lead Reviewer's misleading "fact" checking points: ONE: Claiming that German tank kills by U.S. armored divisions refuted the assertion that the Sherman was at a disadvantage to German tanks: Ridiculously misleading. The overwhelming bulk of German tank losses were caused by combined air and artillery support. In the case of Normandy (and Anzio), even the U.S. Navy

Death Traps review by one who was there

I reviewed this book 2 years ago when I first read it because it was so truthful and realistic as written by this man. He was the young ordinance officer of my 3rd Armored Division, 33rd Armored Regimment. I was in Recon. Company and in his book he tells it as it was. I wrote the first review because of the impression it made on me. It is a book every military buff, every history teacher, every politican and every America should read especially those interested enough in our past wars to try to prevent the events in this book from happening again. WW II could easily have been lost or been like Vietnam and ended in a no win situation. I stongly recommend the reading of this for enjoyable, informative story line told from the veteran's level and prespective. I traveled to a 3rd Armored Veteran's reunion to meet the author and get his autograph. It was worthwhile. He is a fine , friendly man who wrote this book mainly as a tribute to his fellow soldiers and to tell a story that neederd telling which was how our soldiers died and suffered because of the inferiority of our tanks, guns and other equiptment to that of the Germans.

The "Good War" wasn't. (Apologies to Mr. Studs Terkel...)

Belton Y. Cooper was an ordnance officer with the 3d Armored Division in W.W. II, where his unit's central task lay in the the immediate, post-battle recovery of those knocked-out M4 Sherman's which could be repaired in the field, and the marking for the salvage teams of those 'brewed-up' M4s -- tanker speak for catastrophic battle damage resulting in fire -- which could not. Thus, Cooper bore witness to the terrible consequences of the Sherman's late-war obsolescence when faced against the Wermacht's vastly superior tanks, and the resulting tragic and disgraceful cost in American lives. ('Disgraceful', for the proposition of fielding the superbly designed M26 Pershing in large numbers well before Operation Overlord (D-Day) was foolishly rejected on the basis of the recommendations of no less an Allied general than George Patton, in late '43/early '44.) Every bit as powerful as E.B. Sledge's memoir of his experience as a Marine in the Pacific War, ("With the Old Breed"), what lend's Cooper's book such a visceral power is his most unself-conscious and rigorous honesty in recounting his war. Like Sledge, he is obviously a very perceptive and humane individual, who trusts that each anecdote which he has judged to be most illustrative of the urgency and horror of the events which surrounded him in '44-'45, will strike home to the reader with a poignancy borne of his refusal to indulge in any of the petty embellishments which ultimately weaken the impact of the memoirs of lesser writers. Brutal honesty in a literal sense...

An Excellent Account of Armored Combat in the ETO

Belton Cooper's description of the inadequacies of the M4 Sherman Tank and the superhuman efforts of maintenance crews to restore damaged ones to combat is very gripping. His book reflects his frustrations at having to send young, undertrained tank crews out to almost certain death in the face of Mark IV, Mark V and Mark VI German tanks. The author spares no criticism in his description of George S. Patton's recommendation to empasize manufacturing of the M4 Sherman over the M26 Pershing tank. Patton could not have been more wrong. "Death Traps" is about survival and resourcefulness in the face of brutal conditions. This book is a must read for anyone interested in America's armored forces in WW2.