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by Timothy J. O’Keefe.
Softcover (6.0×9.0 inches). 336 pages. 2025 reprint of 2011 book.
Subtitle: The Fighting Men of the 14th Armored Division in World War II
This unit history borrows heavily from the Division History and the 68th Armored Infantry Battalion history. No bibliography, but notes mention diaries, interviews, and some original reports. This seems almost entirely from the US side — German observations seem few and far between.
Yet the unit’s progress into Germany and the German counterattacks offer considerable detail for a tabletop scenario — Battles of Hatten and Ritterrshofen are two off the top of my head. You can pull the details from the text and the maps are sufficient enough.
Couple typos: “l4” (p51) should be “14”; “towns a kilometer or so part” (p108) should be “apart”; and “m1” (p183) should be “M1” (as in rifle).
The book contains 24 black and white photos, two black and white illustrations, and five black and white maps.
The recounting of events offers good coverage, but I wouldn’t say this was scintillating prose. It seems a tad too sterile, as if it is just a recitation of facts in an outline. Excerpts pop up frequently, many interesting if interrupting the narrative flow. Part of writing is knowing when not to include factoids and other research. Still, ties go to the author.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
