1944, THE AMERICAN ARMORON

The decisive success of Operation “Cobra” left in the collective imagination an indelible impression of omnipotence. Images of surges of tanks that we still associate today with an all-powerful US Army. And yet! Four years earlier, in July 1940, the US Army did not have a tank worthy of the name, not an armored division! The purpose of this book is to retrace, through the 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions, the path which led from the beginnings of the Louisiana maneuver fields to the battlefield of Normandy. The victorious Blitzkrieg of spring 1940 shook the decision-makers in Washington! From one day to the next, everything has to be done in terms of mechanized warfare. The creation of an Armored Force, the units it will supervise, the men who will lead them into battle, equipment and employment doctrines, everything has to be created! And in a hurry! The baptisms of fire, the feedback from experiences, in the Mediterranean, then in Normandy. Landings