"Man these recordings are a HOOT! As an ex-Cold War tank commander, these WW2 vets are lovable and easy to relate to. This is an absolute must for the military history student. Boy do these guys make my 1-hour commute go quick." -- Joe Reeder, Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
The Tanker Tapes trilogy
3 World War II audiobooks on CD
If you're a history buff, or have one in your family, you'll love this collection of oral history audiobooks with more than 30 hours of veterans sharing their experiences in World War II.
The 712th Tank Battalion turned Aaron Elson into an oral historian, and he's been recording the stories of its veterans for more than two decades. These are the stories the veterans share with one another at reunions, and often don't tell their families. They're the stories that wind up on the cutting room floor of documentaries and in the wastebaskets of authors trying to cram way more material than they can fit in the pages of a book.
This isn't your typical stroll down memory lane. It's more like a ride in the driver's seat of a Sherman tank from Normandy to Czechoslovakia, 311 days of not knowing whether the next bend in the road would bring you face to face with an anti-tank gun or a warehouse full of champagne.
The three audiobooks in this series are available for sale individually as well. Please check out our other eBay listings. Here's what you get in this set:
The Tanker Tapes
11 hours on 11 CDs In "The
Tanker Tapes," the veterans' stories are
presented in their own voices. These are the stories of ordinary men in an
extraordinary time: stories about war and fear, about courage,
the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps, hard times, horses and tanks,
rattlesnakes, beer, barroom
brawls and tonsillectomies. The 712th
Tank Battalion was activated on Sept. 23, 1943, but many of its original members
entered the service in the horse cavalry in 1941.
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are some of the things people who bought Elson's audiobooks are saying:
"These recordings are a hoot!" "Another great collection of WWII memories from guys who were there."
"Great WWII oral historical recordings/accounts!!!"
"Made Christmas shopping for my husband easy." "A
lot of good history I'll be able to enjoy for years." "An
amazing story; thanks for getting these for those of us that weren't there." -------
To read more
about the veterans in The Tanker Tapes, including transcripts of some of these
interviews, please visit tankbooks.com.
To hear more excerpts, visit
audiomurphy.com
George Bussell drove an M4A3 Sherman
tank from Normandy to Czechoslovakia. He was awarded the Bronze Star and had
three tanks shot out from under him. Yet his most serious injuries were
sustained in a barroom brawl in Phenix City, Alabama, while training at Fort
Benning. Listen to an excerpt.
real audio
mp3
Ed "Smoky" Stuever grew up in the throes of the Depression. His
father lost the farm and young Ed went into the Civilian Conservation Corps,
where he helped build the Skokie Lagoon in Illinois. He was part of a trainload of 500
recruits sent from the Chicago area to the California desert in 1941 to fill out
the ranks of the 11th Cavalry. As a maintenance
sergeant in the 712th Tank Battalion, Stuever spent 11 months in combat, from
Normandy to Czechoslovakia.
real audio
mp3
The Death of Shorty: Smoky Stuever describes the events leading up to the death of
his close buddy, Marion "Shorty" Kubeczko, in Normandy.
real audio
mp3
Dale Albee: The 712th had 14 sergeants who earned battlefield commissions.
Albee, who enlisted in the horse cavalry in 1936, was one of them. This riveting
interview offers a rare glimpse of both the highs and lows of combat.
real audio
mp3
Jim Flowers and the Battle of Hill 122: Lieutenant James Franklin Flowers, a
30-year-old Texan, led a platoon of four tanks to the rescue of an infantry
battalion that was surrounded at the summit of a hill in Normandy. After
breaking through the enemy defenses and leading the infantry down the hill,
Flowers' four tanks ran into an ambush of well-concealed anti-tank guns. The
shell that penetrated his tank
tore off his right forefoot and sent flames
shooting out the turret. "I like to dramatize this," Flowers said when I
interviewed him in 1992, "by saying I'm now standing in the middle of Hell." For the next two days, Flowers and his gunner lay in no man's
land waiting to be rescued. The first day American forces shelled the area, and
Flowers' left foot was blown off. When he was rescued the following morning and
brought to an aid station, the battalion surgeon, who'd heard about him in
advance, expected to see a morose patient, near death. Yet Flowers arrived
almost cheerful. Dr. William McConahey recounted the incident in his classic
book "Battalion Surgeon," and wrote that when he asked Flowers why he was in
such good spirits, Flowers remarked, "Well, Doc, I guess I had the will to
live."
real audio
mp3
Sam and Joe: Sam Cropanese, assistant driver, and Joe Bernardino, loader, were
crew members of the same tank which was knocked out in the battle of the Falaise
Gap. Interviewed separately, they both talk of some of the same things in a
riveting 45-minute audio CD.
real audio
mp3
More Tanker Tapes
10 hours on 10 CDs
This collection features some of the first veterans Elson interviewed and some of his favorites.
Dan Diel lost a tank and his driver was killed his
first day in action. He returned during the Battle of the Bulge and eventually
received a battlefield promotion to lieutenant. He earned a Silver Star, and is
sure to keep you entertained with some of his stories.
real audio
mp3
Forrest Dixon, the battalion maintenance officer,
was a fixture at battalion reunions until his death at age 87 a few years ago.
He was one of the the battalion's great storytellers.
real audio
mp3
The Replacements: Paul Wannemacher and Orlando
Brigano joined the battalion in Normandy. They've been fast friends ever since.
real audio
mp3
Jule Braatz: The very first veteran Aaron Elson
interviewed, Jule Braatz was a sergeant with a reputation for
losing lieutenants, including Elson's father, who was wounded. Braatz became the first of 14 noncoms in the 712th to
receive battlefield commissions.
Russell Loop: A farmer from Indianola, Illinois,
Loop became a gunner in the 712th. He was wounded three times.
real audio
mp3
Clifford Merrill: A company commander in the 712th,
Merrill served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and retired as a full colonel. Listen to an excerpt.
real audio
mp3
Tony D'Arpino: A tank driver who had at least three
tanks knocked out from under him, D'Arpino was one of only six members of C
Company to make it from Normandy to Czechoslovakia without being wounded. But
oh, that ringing in his ears!
real audio
mp3
Once Upon a Tank in the Battle of the Bulge
10 hours on 10 CDs
At dusk on Jan. 10, 1945, two tanks from the third platoon of Company C, 712th Tank Battalion, were sent to clear out a "small pocket" of resistance. The lead tank was knocked out and its tank commander wounded.
Forty-seven years later, four of that tank's five crew members sat around a table in the hospitality room of the battalion's reunion and relived those fateful moments during the Battle of the Bulge. Oral historian Aaron Elson also interviewed each of the crew members individually, and visited the tanker who wasn't there at his home in Pennsylvania.
The result is "Once Upon a Tank in the Battle of the Bulge," a ten-hour, ten-CD audiobook that shows through the voices of the courageous men who were there a deeply human side of World War II rarely seen in documentaries or books.
Tony D'Arpino real audio mp3
Jim Gifford real audio mp3
Bob Rossi real audio mp3
Stanley Klapkowski real audio mp3
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"Once Upon a Tank in the Battle of the Bulge" contains some graphic language and descriptions of violence that may not be appropriate for younger listeners.
For more information about the veterans in and transcripts of some of the interviews, please visit World War II Oral History at tankbooks.com. To hear more excerpts, go to audiomurphy.com
Order the Tanker Tapes Trilogy on eBay