A Fighter Tanker’s Story by John F. Marshall is the true memoir of a farm-boy-turned-soldier and his poignant, crushingly real, and often unexpectedly funny experiences in World War II. In stark and almost poetic prose, the reader joins Marshall and his tank crew as they defy the odds and battle across Europe. On the first day of combat his tank commander is killed before the tank fires a single shot. But he and his crew continue to fight through every stage of the War in Europe: the Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge and in the small and sometimes deadly hamlets of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. From “regular” days (such as digging latrines and KP duty) to events that could appear in a movie (like a chance meeting with General Patton), Marshall’s descriptions recount one soldier’s everyday life in World War II.
