Reading advice sought: Tank warfare?

[zorg]

I'm looking for some books on modern (-ish) tank warfare; something like Ed Macy's Apache, only for, well, tanks. Best would be the POV of an actually involved soldier, but I'll also take fiction. It's relatively easy to find similar books focusing on infantry operations, but that's not what I'm after right now.

I'm less interested in a tactics manual, and more in how those involved experienced things.

Do you have any ideas? Thanks a lot!

[grant]

http://www.amazon.com/The-Heights-Courage-Leaders-Golan/dp/0275942694

The Heights of Courage: A Tank Leader's War On the Golan
Avigdor Kahalani

This is tank warfare!

[Conquistador]

I always think the Library is a source of first resort.

Ah, the joys of the term "modern" - here are a few by one author:

http://www.amazon.com/Tank-Aces-Ralph-Zumbro/dp/0671536125/ref=pd_sim_b_3/184-1978932-4189247

A collection of firsthand accounts from combat tanker soldiers who served in wars during the twentieth century covers a range of historical moments surrounding such figures as Patton and Saddam Hussein

http://www.amazon.com/Tank-Sergeant-Ralph-Zumbro/dp/0671639455

From tearing roads through the jungle to blasting out Viet Cong positions, from convoy escort to rescue operations, the tank crews in Vietnam did it all. Here is the best account ever of this fascinating aspect of the Vietnam War: Sgt. Ralph "Zippo" Zumbro's evocative, action-packed memoir of a year with A Company, 1st Battalion, 69th Armor.

Always bold, sometimes reckless, the "tread heads" who manned "The Ape," "Assassin," and "The A-Go-Go" devised new combat tactics -- often in the heat of battle. Cut off from supply lines, they became master jury riggers and scroungers. They shared a unique perspective of Vietnam: from smiling Coca-Cola girls who betrayed you to Charlie, to buddies who stayed above the hatch a moment too long -- and took an anti-tank rocket in the chest; from impromptu fish fries to the Tet Offensive. When Sgt. Zumbro's tour of duty ended in June 1968, A Company was the most highly decorated unit in Vietnam.


http://www.amazon.com/The-Iron-Cavalry-Ralph-Zumbro/dp/0671013904/ref=pd_sim_b_1/184-1978932-4189247

Placing the reader inside yesterday's mechanical beasts as well as today's sophisticated, night-seeing machines, this book shows how armies throughout the world have utilized tanks, retaliated against them, and why the next land war will be more mobile, more armored, and more deadly than ever before

and some others:

http://www.amazon.com/War-Stories-Tankers-American-Armored/dp/0760332975/ref=pd_sim_b_2/184-1978932-4189247

These are the war stories few can tell, the harrowing firsthand accounts of armored combat, from the days of the centurys first tanks to the latest encounter on the streets of Baghdad. Here are the still-vivid impressions of the brave young men who fought in the mud and trenches of no-mans land during World War I.


http://www.amazon.com/Praying-Slack-Marine-Corps-Commander/dp/0760320500/ref=pd_sim_b_5

Two different wars were fought in Vietnam, the jungle-and-booby-trap one down south, and the WWII-like one up on the DMZ. "I was one of a handful whose Vietnam tour was evenly split between the First and Third Marine Divisions, and saw, firsthand, the difference 170 miles could make during the war's bloodiest year." Corporal Robert Peavey was a tank commander in I Corps (Eye Corps) on the DMZ when LBJ ordered a bombing halt over the North. His compelling first-hand account chronicles operations just south of the 'Z, operations that most Vietnam War histories have completely ignored. Peavey offers detailed, understandable explanations of combat strategy, strengths and shortcomings of standard-issue armament, and inter-service rivalries.

http://www.amazon.com/Blackhorse-Riders-Desperate-Extraordinary-Mission/dp/B00BDHX862/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Winner of the 2012 USA Best Book Award for Military History

Philip Keith's Blackhorse Riders is the incredible true story of a brave military unit in Vietnam that risked everything to rescue an outnumbered troop under heavy fire—and the thirty-nine-year odyssey to recognize their bravery.

Gracias,

Glenn

[Cubs]

I once read a book called 'Chieftains', set in a mid-1980's WW3 (it's fiction, in case you wondered how you managed to miss that particular war). From what I recall the story is told mainly from the POV of a British tank crew in a Chieftain tank, desperately trying to pinprick hordes of advancing Soviet armour, but there are other main characters too. It's all told from a NATO perspective.

It was kind of entertaining from what I recall, very dark, very realistic (as regards the very human military errors committed by both sides) but I seem to recall it was written some time before the story was set (1979?1980?) and did not include some technical and/or tactical advances that had happened by 1985.

[zorg]

That's already quite a bit - thanks! I knew I could count on you