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

Stephen Ambrose said Cooper “saw more of the war than most… and he writes about it better than almost anyone.” Publishers Weekly called it “Without a doubt, this is one of the finest WWII memoirs ever written.” Maintenance seems an unlikely place to encounter in danger. When author Belton Cooper found himself assigned to the hard-charging 3d Armored Division, he discovered that recovering the division’s broken-down, battle damaged, and even destroyed tanks often took him and his team of technical experts to the front lines, and even beyond. So critical was the need for replacement combat-ready tanks that Cooper and his recovery team had to go to extreme lengths to pick up the pieces from the battlefield, even if the battle was not yet over. Particularly notable is his criticism of the Sherman tank and of General Patton.