The Panzer Killers: The Untold Story of a Fighting General and His Spearhead Tank Division's Charge into the Third Reich

Nominally a biography of Gen. Maurice Rice, whose death in action at the end of World War II in ETO made him something of a martyr, the available details of the man's life are so sparse that one is mostly left with speculation about what really motivated him. So what one is left with then are

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basically two themes. One, this is a good campaign history of the 3rd Armored Division and its war in Western Europe, a division that deserves one. Two, the other matter that really concerns Bolger is generalship, and what constitutes good generalship, as might be expected from a man who became an officer at a time when the U.S. Army was very concerned over what professional failures it had made in Vietnam. Bolger essentially sees the trap to be escaped as failing to differentiate between military management and military leadership, and Rose was certainly a front-line leader; maybe too much. Earnest Harmon, another noted American tank general, and something of a mentor to Rose, thought the man took too many chances, and those chances eventually caught up to Rose.

As for downsides to this book, it is written for a popular audience, and some of Bolger's rhetorical choices can be a little off-putting. It was also off-putting to spend the first twenty or so pages mostly reading about the famous "Easy" Company of 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment before one really gets to the point of the book, though that was probably a framing device for said popular audience. Still, Bolger does seem to have his sources in order, and if you can overlook some of what I consider misplaced flippancy, this is a worthwhile study of a mechanized unit in action.

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