I had the honor of saluting then four star General Creighton Abrams when he visited a communications compound in Bangkok in 1970. I had never seen a four star general before and I was quite surprised to see him standing alone outside the mess hall. I said good morning, Sir! and he came to attention and saluted back. But the surprise was short lived as 2 and 3 star generals started coming out of the mess hall. That was no place for an enlisted man so I forgot about breakfast and booked.

A man with a Cause is a very dangerous man. There were a lot of men who fought for a Cause in that war, men on all sides. We Americans have many reasons to be proud that we're Americans and Abrams is one of those reasons.

A Four-Star General that can allow his picture to be published while his hands are in his pockets is in a class with Omar Bradley. OBJECTIVE!

Thank you for this great video.I love your presentation and seriousness to the tank battles of WW2.I served on 5 different tanks during my service.My favorite tank was the M-60 A3 high rise .That tank could perform forever without all of the high tech.Low maintenance,high output.The XM1,theM1,M1A1,M1A2,were and are great tanks with low silhouette profiles.However all of the computers,components,and air flow systems need servicing often.But,the Abrams has the best fire control systems of any tank that I am aware of,and is very deadly and very fast on the battle field.If I was an enemy tanker,my prayer would be that I never encounter one in battle!

There is a great book by Nat Frankel that you might enjoy, "Patton's Best: An Informal History of the 4th Armored Division." Nat Frankel was a tanker in the 4th Armored Division and he shares his experiences. U.S. soldiers learned a great deal from captured Germans. Many German soldiers believed that the 4th Armored Division consisted of insane "condemned" men who had nothing to live for. Often the Germans would surrender without much of a fight upon seeing the tanks of the 4th Armored Division. The book explains the reason why, so I won't spoil it for you.

@6412mars

2 жыл бұрын

It is a great book I agree💯👍

Such incredible research and presentation - we learned so much!

Honest and courageous men like him are immortalised forever , raw courage always matters when it comes to winning any war . Salute to such brave persons .

Col. Abrams was the last American armor/calvary officer to line up his battalion on a hill...and yell CHARGE!...true story.

Great Compelling Documentaries.

That was a great video. I am a military historian and didn’t know this story. Thank you.

@mariodelgado9729

2 жыл бұрын

I'm not a historian and have know about General Abrams and the 37th TB since high school!!! Where did you get your history degree to call yourself a military historian????

Fantastic content again - thank you! One of my favorite history channels and honestly, my favorite narrator's of all

@markaxworthy2508

2 жыл бұрын

I think he is a middling narrator. His gung-ho style allows for no nuance. It is also incongruous to hear an English voice using US phraseology. I guess he is trying largely to appeal to a US audience, but it rather grates on my British ears. He should jump one way or the other and be consistent.

Good work. Always! Thanks...!

Great video, honoring a great man. Thank You.

Is there any evidence at all that German troops generally knew of Abrams, let alone mistakenly believed he might be an "avenging Jew", or lived in fear of him? How would they even know where he was? This seems, on the face of it, to be a dubious bit of legend building. What have we actually got on this? Anything?

@simonvirus6417

2 жыл бұрын

I doubt you will get a fact based response mate, Abrams was obviously a great leader and brave as hell..... BUT to many the Germans in WW2 were like those portrayed in the movies.. There's a reason it took all of Russia's army backed up by the US, BRITAIN, FRANCE over 3 years to defeat Germany after it took the Germans a year to nearly do the same.

@1982nsu

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Mark Axworthy. There is a great book by Nat Frankel that you might enjoy, "Patton's Best: An Informal History of the 4th Armored Division." Nat Frankel was a tanker in the 4th Armored Division and he shares his experiences. U.S. soldiers learned a great deal from captured Germans. Many German soldiers believed that the 4th Armored Division consisted of insane "condemned" men who had nothing to live for. Often the Germans would surrender without much of a fight upon seeing the tanks of the 4th Armored Division. The book explains the reason why, so I won't spoil it for you.

Cool Documentary.

The British started naming American tanks after American commanders.

MY dad was presented a Bronze Metal from him in WW11. I worked as an illustrator in the Army during the Vietnam War directly under this man. Mainly battle plans to get the officers on the same page!

I was a 2 stars sergeant in the Egyptian army (its mandatory here, and if you've a certain bachelor degree you might unfortunately serve 3 mandatory years, good pay and excellent benefits though) P.S.: most of us prefer not to serve since it is a peace time, but... Anyway! I was in a guided missiles anti tank battalion attached to an air defence division on the western boundries, its an accessory division to the second army, only four divisions in the entire army serves as accessory divisions, two to the second army and two the third army (funny and ironically we dont have a first army, since it was actually the Syrian army during the union, Egypt and Syria were one country for six years, I'm sure most of the world don't know this fact).... Our entire three years we were training on hitting the the most famous two tanks, the M1A1 and the Abrams, we trained to fire on them with the most accurate most perfect and most efficient hit, one single missile (the average remains 2.3 missiles) And we did! We learned how to hit them with one single missile and blow them along with their crew out of the surface of this planet earth.. War is awful, destructive and smells bad, i mean it literally! Nevef wish for war, no absolute good comes out of it, (generally speaking) However i wish peace and love to the world The Egyptian army gave me the toughest most hard times of my entire life (I'm 52 now, i was 20 back then) but it made us men, real men I love you all. I love this channel so much! ❤😎✌😘😘

@dennisfordii9737

2 жыл бұрын

I'm 52 as well , reading your comment brought back a memory from my youth - Anwar Sadat getting assassinated while watching a military parade . I remember all the news Channels talking about it for weeks . I am curious .... Do most Egyptians know who he is /was ? And for those that do remember him how is he remembered ? "Good" guy? "Bad " guy ?

@douglasturner6153

2 жыл бұрын

That's a little bit of a BS comment. The M1 Tank is the Abrams Tank. And in 1992 Egypt had been at peace with Israel for ten years. I don't see how you could have "blown them and their crew out of surface earth"!

@marchellochiovelli7259

Жыл бұрын

@@douglasturner6153 He can dream, can't he?

He didn’t die from cancer, he died from a heart attack in the pentagon.

Abrams attended and graduated from Agawam High School in Agawam Massachusetts. "Gen. C. W. Abrams Way" is named in his honor.

@shyrafrancisco2248

Жыл бұрын

@Karl with a K Countries', not countries.

@shyrafrancisco2248

Жыл бұрын

@Karl with a K The possessive form requires an apostrophe.

Salute to a great CO!

Still a back seat to the great German aces.

It wasn't named after Norm Abrams?

3:35 for this video to start after all the bullshit. Wow

❤️

Why did Abrams spend his entire combat career in WWII (about 9 months) in a single post as a regimental commander? Why no promotion to a larger command?

The only tank commander better then me

👍🏻

I´m sorry, but I have never heard of the guy.

WOW. He was a champion. Shame about all that "international good-will" more or less blunting every effort they (Patton and his boys) wanted to make.

@markaxworthy2508

2 жыл бұрын

Patton couldn't even establish "good-will" within his own forces, let alone internationally!

@stillcantbesilencedevennow

2 жыл бұрын

@@markaxworthy2508 so? Troops don't need to adore you, just respect you. Particularly as a general.

@markaxworthy2508

2 жыл бұрын

@@stillcantbesilencedevennow True, but "good-will" and adoration are two different things. If the generals are operating in an atmosphere of "ill-will", this is unlikely to help operations. Patton was an mixture of irritating poseur and effective general. The poseur side of him caused friction with other generals and did not much help US internal "good-will", let alone "international good-will".

@stillcantbesilencedevennow

2 жыл бұрын

@@markaxworthy2508 tbf, we don't need generals to get along, just to maintain the battle plan. I wouldn't put him up for "Mr congeniality" but he got stuff done.

@markaxworthy2508

2 жыл бұрын

@@stillcantbesilencedevennow We need generals to win and Patton did that. However, it doesn't help many army of there is friction between its leaders or allies.

sat cong

Stud

Maybe the fact that his last name was mistaken for "Abraham" contributed to Ze Germans thinking he was Jewish?

Arracourt was characterized by superior tactical preparation and lucky weather.

@douglassauvageau7262

2 жыл бұрын

Like all great commanders, Abrams took the good luck and capitalized.

There’s literally more German tank commanders with over 100 kills than Abrams had kills at all.

@markaxworthy2508

2 жыл бұрын

Yup, but the Germans had six years to accumulate their scores against qualitatively inferior opponents. Abrams had 9 months against the Germans. By the way, the Germans did not keep close tallies of their individual tank kills at the time. That is a retrospective, post-war piece of book keeping by others trying to quantify events.

@barrymccokiner7559

2 жыл бұрын

@@markaxworthy2508 they painted rings on their barrels to denote kills. Go be wrong somewhere else. Fuckin hell.

@markaxworthy2508

2 жыл бұрын

@@barrymccokiner7559 Errrrr.... did they? If so, precious few German tank gunners ever hit anything, judging by the photos! You need to look at a KZread interview with a German tank specialist by Military History not Visualized on the subject. There was no list kept of German tank aces (a word not used of them at the time) and some apparently didn't even keep score.

@barrymccokiner7559

2 жыл бұрын

@@markaxworthy2508 you definitely don’t need anymore drugs. Go away now

@markaxworthy2508

2 жыл бұрын

@@barrymccokiner7559 What? No contradiction? No quotes or sources to back your position? Just an insult as you run from the scene of your crime? I wonder why?

The German tanks outnumbered the American tanks 2:1...well thats a first to me. Specialy in july 1944. But well, i dont know from what sources this guy got this data, But its very unlikely to be True. Because in the American sector There werent Tigers at all. Just another American gloryifying storie, of some events that happened, But not as well has they are portraited here. But it is what is.

Rationing has to implement. Fir all allow nature to decide . If not another like a supply of poison goes to the heart. The issue is the male not able to know why. The peace shatters in peace.

Abrams graduated in the bottom third of his class at West Point and died of lung cancer from smoking cigars at age 59. He must not have been terribly bright.

Served with 1st Battalion 37th Armor, Katterbach Germany 1971-1974. Courage Conquers.