Tanks for the Memories: An Oral History of the 712th Tank Battalion in World War II

Aaron Elson attended a reunion of the 712th Tank Battalion, with which his father served in World War II, a few years after his father's death. He returned two reunions later, in 1989, with a tape recorder, and has been preserving the stories of World War II veterans ever since. When he arrived at that first reunion, one of the first things he saw was a bumper sticker on a car outside the hotel. It said "Tanks for the Memories." What he quickly realized was that the memories the veterans shared in the hospitality room, they rarely shared with their families. Aaron Elson's work as an oral historian has been used as source material in more than two dozen book in the U.S. and "across the pond," as well is in about a dozen documentaries including "The Color of War" and "Patton 360." "Tanks for the Memories" is the book that turned him into an oral historian. The stories and anecdotes range from descriptions of life in the horse cavalry, growing up in the Great Depression, food on the front, medical treatment after being wounded, to vivid descriptions of combat inside a tank and out. "Tanks for the Memories" was originally published in 1994. This expanded second edition was originally published in 2001.