Claustrophobic conditions were the norm for the Sherman tank. And then there was the terrible noise.
The Sherman’s engines “make a constant, loud, pulsing ‘VROOum, VROOum, VROOum’ sound that you soon learn to ignore when concentrating on tasks like loading the main gun or trying to see through the small periscopes,” the authors write. “However, a day, even a half-day, is exhausting and the noise and fumes cause fatigue and headaches.”
America relied on Shermans more than any other tank in World War II, and they were far from comfortable. Loaders often fainted because of the stifling conditions and the fumes. “The constant shaking and impacts were brutal! The tanker’s helmet was absolutely necessary to cushion blows to the head from the interior walls even on flat ground.”
Buy ‘Tanks in Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa’
Nor could the crews hear much going on outside the tank given the vibration and noise — or even each other without shouting. Coordinating with troops outside a tank was always a problem, but the tankers learned quick at Tarawa.
The battle was nearly lost.
Tarawa represented a shift in America’s war strategy. After blunting the Japanese advance in the South Pacific, attention turned toward the Gilbert Islands farther north. It was a test-case for the Marines’ amphibious warfare doctrine — but tanks were still untested on a defended beach.
Making matters worse, the Japanese had turned the island in a web of traps, killing zones and bunkers constructed from coconut trees.
Marine dead at Tarawa. U.S. Navy photo
“The carefully rehearsed logistics plan was a complete disaster,” the authors write.
The Marines mistimed the tides, and combat engineers tasked with clearing landing zones for supply transports took to destroying bunkers, necessary to stop their occupants from worsening the slaughter of trapped Marines. The tanks were short on ammunition and spare parts. The Marines’ radio net failed, and most of the tanks lost their intercom systems with it.
“Despite the numerous pre-war exercises, the Marine Corps still had no formal tank doctrine.”
One veteran of the battle, Joe Woolum, recalled in Tanks in Hell that “Our instructions were ‘You drive across the island, don’t even bother to shoot or nothing. Instructions were to push across the island as quickly as possible and return, firing only as necessary, turn around and come back. Then if you happened to see something, shoot it.’”
Woolum thought this was “asinine.”
Tanks needed infantry scouts to steer the lumbering Shermans away from log barriers, shell holes left by naval gunfire and trenches filled with flammable diesel fuel. Without infantry cover, the tanks risked being swarmed by Japanese infantry armed with attachable mines or being knocked out by anti-tank guns.
The stories of scouts deliberately exposing themselves to gunfire in order to guide the tanks inland make for some of the most courageous tales in the book.