Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment’s Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day

From my American perspective, most of the biographies and armored unit histories I’ve read span a relatively shorter time in combat. The Brits were involved earlier and served longer (if they survived), and had less manpower reserves to draw upon, compared to their cousins from across the “pond”. I was surprised at the number variations of the Sherman they used until the end.

I am always astounded to read of the young men who fought for our freedom, and this was a story I had never come across! Thanks for bringing these heroes back to life for us!

James Holland has done a tremendous research before writing this book. It was a pageturner for me. I recomend it for every one who has an interest in the history of WW2 and armoured vehicles.

I just looked at my Microsoft Excel spreadsheet listing my entire library. I currently have 860 books pertaining to just World War II. After just purchasing and reading "Brothers in Arms", I am happy to say it is one of the finest books about WWII that I have read in ages. There are 100s of books pertaining to tank warfare in the Eastern Theater of war, but not so many starting from the landing at Normandy to the final day of WWII. Mr. Holland has written an extraordinary book following one British tank regimen from beginning to end. Highly researched, compassionately written, I was in tears reading the Postscript! You actually feel as if you become friends with the members of the Sherwood Rangers. Job well done.

This is great if not horrific historical reading.We owe so much to these brave men to. Do what they did for six years is just incredible.

I learned how the English Army operated vs the American Army. War is brutal.

I have read several of James Holland's books and have enjoyed them all. Brothers in Arms was particularly enjoyable and hard to put down. I was in the tanks with the troopers experiencing with them those eleven months from Normandy to the end of the war in Europe. Very interesting, very well done and amply illustrates how ordinary men can rise to extraordinary fears of gallantry and valor.

Truly remarkable small unit history of a British tank regiment (US Tank Battalion equivalent) at war from D-Day to 5 May 1945. All the grim reality of tank combat in NW Europe.

英シャーウッド戦車連隊のノルマンディー上陸からドイツ敗戦に至るまでの戦歴。著者ホランド氏は部隊記録、生き残り兵からの聞き取りにより詳細に部隊の戦闘、日々の様子、兵の負傷、戦死の経過を辿る。英戦車部隊の史書は珍しい（米軍は多い）うえ、個々の戦車兵の活躍、苦難、日常に密着し、読者を部隊転戦の日々へ誘う点がユニークだ。シャーマン中型戦車での息詰まる戦闘、定説では独パンサーやタイガー戦車に歯が立たずだが、実際は圧倒的台数、敵に勝る砲速射でかなり善戦した。それでも部隊の死傷率40％が示す過酷な戦闘、特に砲弾・地雷などが命中した時の戦車兵達の様子が悲惨である。もし私が英人なら読後手を合わさざるを得ない。ホランド氏も部隊歴戦地を訪れ、思わず胸が詰まったとある。

If there one thing you will take from this book, google "Reverend Leslie Skinner". I cannot think of any greater instance of a man of faith acting for the good of others whilst completely neglecting their own wellbeing.

I admire Holland and enjoy his appearances on the Telly and on Podcasts, he comes over as a really good bloke, but his writing does nothing for me I am afraid.The idea of this book ticks all my boxes; the subject is one I enjoy reading about (WW2 history), from a point of view that I can easily get on board with (I am British and have some Nottinghamshire background in my family tree, maybe some of those boys in the Yeomanry were from my area?) I have visited some of the battlefields mentioned on various holidays over the years and enjoy “treading the ground” to work out what happened and where, I am a patriot and feel a yearning to understand how Britain ended up on the winning side in WW2 and what our lads contributed to that.So why didn’t I enjoy this book? Why couldn’t I even finish reading it?I think essentially that Holland just isn’t that good a writer. Why is he so lauded in all these reviews? It takes a special kind of talent to turn me off this subject, but somehow he has managed it.I am pretty sure it is nothing to do with lack of research, actually, maybe it is too much research. I think that the excess of research leads to an excess of earnestness, and to intellectual confusion and mismanagement, which muddles the thinking and leaves the reader struggling to keep hold of all the threads. A tendency to “gild the Lilly” not just creep, but floods, in.It’s almost like, because he has all these stories and testimonies, he is duty bound to put them in, whether they add to the understanding of events or just obscure them. I understand his instinct, but the whole effect is like someone has cut and paste various testimonies and opinions almost at random, interspersed them with tedious passages of unnecessarily basic explanation of stuff about the course of the war that anyone with even a passing knowledge of subject already knows, and then thrown in a good glob of 21st Century “wow, how amazing was that…?” Sentiment to season the mix. The recipe does not make for good eating (I mean “reading”) in my opinion.If Holland could address these issues and refocus, then I think he would be a truly good historian, maybe even a seminal one. As things stand, I don’t think anyone will be looking at these books in 10 years time.

I've read a lot of history books and a lot on the second world war, many of them excellent but this I have to rank as the best I have ever read and one that has affected me most. James Holland has to be commended for the amount of research and the great care and respect shown in how this immense work has been compiled and written. It must have been a monumental task but it does also feel like it was a labour or love.In one respect the way it is written means it it reads like a historical novel but you never lose sight of the fact that these were real people. In parts exciting - although I almost feel that I shouldn't use that word - but for instance when it describes how a German with a panzerfaust jumps out in front of a Sherman Firefly on which the Browning machine gun has just jammed, how else can you describe it? But the book is also shocking, horrifying, moving, inspiring and humorous. The book follows many of the individuals in the regiment and, unlike the Generals and Field Marshalls you may read about, you don't know what happened to them, the stories become something you want, even need, to know the outcome of. This book tells the story of the men at the front line, some of them professional soldiers, some citizen soldiers, it tells how they melded together, under an excellent commander, to become a truly professional, even elite, outfit. Young men, sometimes just in their teens, not only living with life and death every day (the regiment had over 100% casualties) but taking on huge responsibilities and doing their job to the best of their ability.For those who like their facts as well as the stories, you will find out in here why the Firefly wasn't so popular in built up areas or the bocage, why the so called 'inferior' Sherman managed to knock out so many Panthers and Tigers and, why the tank commander didn't wear his helmet.For me this book is as important as any war memorial in any town or village, and I say that with the greatest amount of respect. This book has the names, just as those memorials have, it also has their stories; the living and the dead, those who came back and those who sadly didn't. This is a truly fitting epitaph to those men.

Really amazing to see the British perspective of the battle for France and on. The British faced the toughest German troops and armour which is something that sadly gets forgotten in modern times. This book gives us the journey of a British tank regiment and really brings to life the time with eyewitness first hand commentary taken from diaries and letters and interviews. Really fascinating and a great read for anyone wanting to learn more about the war and British armour.