Considered one of the most appreciated British military historians who have taken up the baton of the previous generation, that of Antony Beevor or Max Hastings, James Holland (Salisbury, 55 years old) looks at you with the same blue eyes with which Brad Pitt observed the battlefield from the top of the turret of his Sherman tank Fury In hearts of steel (a film that the historian hates by the way). The comparison is helped by the fact that Holland is wearing a military jacket from the Second World War, a conflict to which he has dedicated sensational books and about which he now publishes brothers in arms (Attic of Books, 2025), the story of a British armored regiment, the Sherwood Rangers, throughout the war, a bit like Stephen Ambrose did with Easy Company in Blood brothers.
Ask. What was tank fighting like in World War II?
Answer. Brutal and raw. And very dangerous. The numbers of the Sherwood Rangers are enormous: statistically, the chance of any of the regiment’s tankers emerging unscathed from the war was zero. By the end of the war, not a single tank from the unit that landed in Normandy on D-Day had avoided taking a hit to their tank. Luck determined whether you were incinerated on the inside, left in pieces, lost a limb, or suffered only a minor injury; but something was definitely touching you. The human body is very vulnerable.
Q. Beevor thought it was worse to be a paratrooper…
R. The tank gives a false sense of protection, but when they reach you it becomes a hellish place. People vomited as they retrieved the remains of their burned comrades inside. It is also true that if an armored vehicle passes over you… the images of soldiers crushed on the roads are recurrent in the regiment’s testimonies.
Q. Curiously, more Sherwood Rangers tankers died outside the tank than inside. Partly because of the tea.
R. Yes, getting out of the tank was very risky, 75% of the victims – like that of the poet Keith Douglas – occurred outside the tank, quite a few while the crews were preparing tea: this is what it means to be English. And many commanders died because they had half their body left outside the turret, which was essential to observe, of course. It was essential to see the enemy before he saw you. War in a tank required a lot of courage and concentration.
Q. How would we feel inside one of those tanks?
R. A tub is a place where you can get very hot and very cold, dark, damp, dirty, claustrophobic and in the countryside you are at constant risk. You can’t hide. You can be hit in many ways, in fact, tank combat only makes up 10% of the tank combat experience.
Q. He says he didn’t like it hearts of steel.
R. It seems horrible to me. Three Shermans (precisely the American tanks carrying the Sherwoods) attack in line, almost close together and completely exposed. When its advantage was mobility and high rate of fire. It’s a movie, sure, but the whole battle with the Tiger thing is ridiculous. And the dialogue: the tankers didn’t talk like that, we have recordings. In the film they look like video game players… And the final scene is ridiculous: in reality the crew would have notified the air force.
Q. You think the Tiger tank, icon of the Panzers and the Third Reich, is overrated.
R. YES. I know it has a lot of fans and if I were a WWII soldier I would rather take on a Sherman than a Tiger. It was a huge, ugly tank and it was very impressive. But very few were made, they were expensive and complicated. Driving a Sherman is easy, I’ve done it, if you know how to drive a car you can do it. But the Tiger was very complex. Almost more casualties were lost due to mechanical failures than due to enemy action.
Q. Do you think young people are becoming disinterested in World War II?
R. No, it is still a very recurring theme in films, series, documentaries and games, the museums dedicated to it are very popular and in my opinion podcastsFor example, the average follower is 35 years old. It still provides many lessons.
Q. He is writing a book about the Battle of the Atlantic.
R. Yes, in the first part there are incredible naval actions such as the sinking of the Hood and of Bismarck, courage, horror… Ultimately it was the most important theater of the war.
Q. Tank or submarine?
R. Uh, but I prefer the tank, I’m not a sea dog, and sinking in a submarine must be terrifying, even if in reality brothers in arms I explain the terrifying experience of the amphibious Shermans sunk during the Normandy landings…
