Why do so many WWII tank buffs hate this book?
Why do so many WWII tank buffs hate this book?
Jason Jenkins
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David Ortiz
Sherman memes mostly.
Josiah Davis
Because it contains a whole lot of bullshit, but retards who know nothing eat it up.
Jaxson Ross
Because the book is heavily baised and false in a world where the sherman is idealized out of proportion so it gets people even more booty blasted than books talking shit about the Tiger or T-34.
Jacob King
It destroys preonceived notions that sherman fanboys have about their beloved tank.
It is one of the better sources for info about the Sherman and how inferior they were compared to German armor at the time (the best of the war, by far).
Noah Brooks
Because its quite misleading and it has seriously messed up discussion of armor. Makers of documentaries and movies used this dramatized anecdotal account and spread it everywhere, thankfully the damage is slowly being undone.
Christopher Gutierrez
Ah, the infamous Sherman. Often referred to as the 'Tommy Cooker' by the Germans. The nickname referred to when the Germans starving from lack of rations, would scavenge destroyed Sherman tanks for the precious cooked meat inside. In fact, the designers of the Sherman designed it to light every time, so that cooking of the crews was guaranteed. Of course, the Germans would often eat the allied tank crews whether they were cooked or not, regardless. My grandpappy told me this in great detail when I was a young boy. Truly the horrors of war. Why couldn't we just use the war winning T-34 like the Russians?
Nathan Scott
Because its false bullshit
Andrew Sanders
"Death Traps" is a book that is largely responsible for shaping the perception of American tanks as being inferior to their German opponents. Written by Belton Cooper, this book paints a very unflattering picture of the M4 Sherman tank which served as the main battle tank for the USA during WW2. Cooper served as an ordinance Lieutenant in the European theatre of the war, and in this book he characterizes the M4 Sherman as a poorly designed tank, wholly inferior to the German tanks that it went up against.
Cooper paints himself as an expert on this subject, but his book has many issues which hurt his credibility. Despite being framed as a memoir, Cooper frequently exposits upon events which he had no direct connection to. For example, he criticizes General Patton for delaying the development of the M26 Pershing tank (which Cooper regards as vastly superior to the M4 Sherman) when there is actually very little evidence that Patton impeded the M26 in any way. Patton was a field commander and thus he had very little influence on the development of new tanks. A more detailed overview of "Death Traps" and its flaws can be found here:
tankandafvnews.com
The important takeaway here is that Cooper's book had a huge impact on how the M4 Sherman was perceived after the war had concluded. He was frequently invited into documentaries as a "tank expert" and thus his views leaked into the documentaries, which in turn were absorbed by viewers as factual.
Adam Butler
>wholly inferior to the German tanks that it went up against.
That's the part that gets me, he had no experience what so ever with German AFVs.