"[An] incredible, thrilling narrative of armored, combined-arms WWII. This chronicle brings the reader right into the horrors of combat, the fatigue the men felt, the mud, the fear, and the constant awareness of the law of averages that chases every soldier on the battlefield. . . . cannot be recommended strongly enough for anyone interested in the full, harrowing details of the crucial blood-and-guts grind of America’s armored spearhead into Nazi Germany." — Booklist
"[A] capable nuts-and-bolts, often gruesome description of small-unit action that undoubtedly resembles what actually occurred. Readers will learn the smell, sound, operation, and defects of the Sherman tank; the makeup, command structure, and tactics of an American armored division; and personal stories of scores of men under and above Sam Hogan." — Kirkus Reviews
“Powerful, needful, detailed, and moving, Task Force Hogan is a must-read for fans of World War II nonfiction. The author is a well-credentialed Army veteran who writes with a skillful hand. His respect for the subject—his father and his tank battalion—clearly shines through.” — Marcus Brotherton, New York Times bestselling author of Shifty’s War and A Bright and Blinding Sun
"Former U.S. Army officer and fourth-generation soldier [William R.] Hogan debuts with a fast-paced and immersive chronicle of the wartime exploits of his father, Samuel Hogan, who fought in WWII as a member of the Third Armored Division. . . . Hogan captures the constant danger, uncertainty, and stress of combat. The result is an action-packed tribute to a father from his son." — Publishers Weekly
“Wars are won by bravery, smarts, and determination. In the toughest battles of World War II—Normandy, the Siegfried Line, the Bulge, the Rhine crossing, and beyond—one famous outfit set the standard for all the rest. Soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 33rd Armored Regiment reflected the inspiration and perspiration of their tough, unrelenting commander: Lieutenant Colonel Sam Hogan. This is their story, told as only Sam Hogan’s son can tell it. A combat veteran himself, Will Hogan takes us into the heart of his father’s war. Ride with Task Force Hogan!” — Daniel P. Bolger, author of The Panzer Killers and Lieutenant General, US Army (retired)
“For so many of us, our fathers and grandfathers never spoke about their service during the deadliest conflict in human history. Gratefully, William Hogan absorbed the fabled exploits of his father's gallantry with the Third Armored Division and seeks to share them now. An energetic tale of the Allied spearhead across Western Europe, Task Force Hogan stands as a vivid exemplar of family history as a meaningful narrative of men at war.” — Jared Frederick, author of Dispatches of D-Day and Fierce Valor
"From the opening chapter’s fiery battle scenes to the tearful partings of men embittered by war but thankful they survived together . . . Task Force Hogan takes the reader through the last months of that war through the eyes of the author’s father’s tank battalion. . . . The battles are told with you-are-there realism. . . This is a detailed, moving account of the task force that [Will Hogan's] father commanded, all the planning and determination needed to finally fulfil the mission, and the sad loss of many comrades." — Nonfiction Book Awards, silver-medal winner
2023-08-25
World War II story of a tank unit battling to victory, from the Normandy beaches across France, Belgium, and Germany.
Hogan, a fourth-generation soldier, chronicles the story of his father, Lt. Col. Sam Hogan, who was only 28 when he led his battalion onto the beach on July 10, 1944, a month after D-Day, and immediately joined the fight. “A West Pointer, he was firm in personality and convictions; but to armchair generals and colonels pressuring him to move his people forward from the safety of a command post ten kilometers behind him, he could be irreverent and understatedly sarcastic.” Following this assessment of his courageous father, the author combines official sources with family correspondence, journals, and interviews with surviving members of the task force to deliver an admiring account of 10 months of brutal combat. This is a docudrama with invented dialogue and the characters’ inner thoughts, but the author has done his homework, delivering a capable nuts-and-bolts, often gruesome description of small-unit action that undoubtedly resembles what actually occurred. Readers will learn the smell, sound, operation, and defects of a Sherman tank; the makeup, command structure, and tactics of an American armored division; and personal stories of scores of men under and above Sam Hogan. The author also delivers plenty of vivid descriptions of the enemy, whose soldiers were (in the author’s eyes) elite and fanatic, with better weapons and vastly superior tanks. (Unmentioned are the facts that the enemy’s men and tanks were vastly outnumbered, and their experienced commanders were regularly overruled by Hitler, with disastrous results.) What readers will not get is the big picture, as the author rarely steps back to describe the overall campaign. Readers searching for an overview should consult Stephen Ambrose or Max Hastings.
An adequate account of ground-level fireworks in the war’s final year.