Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 153

BOOK REVIEWS

book. DiNicolo chooses not to address the issue of race
again until the end of the book.
The early chapters do get you to think about the question of segregation in the military and some of the issues
those soldiers faced. DiNicolo does a good job of looking at
the issues from several different viewpoints. He also does
an admirable job of identifying the major players, both
in and out of the Army, who affected not just the 761st
Tank Battalion but all of the “colored” units. DiNicolo does
not take sides when presenting this information but does
provide enough information so that the reader has a better
understanding of the arguments.
The unit was activated 1 April 1942 at Camp
Claiborne, Louisiana. It was then transferred to Camp
Hood, Texas, where it served as a training unit in support
of units of tank destroyers being prepared for deployment.
The 761st Tank Battalion took part in the Louisiana
Maneuvers of 1943. The unit then deployed to Europe;
its soldiers landed with high morale at Omaha Beach in
France on 10 October 1944.
The 761st Tank Battalion was attached to the XII
Corps’ 26th Infantry Division, assigned to Gen. George S.
Patton Jr.’s Third Army (an army already racing eastward
across France) and committed to combat on 7 November
1944. As a result of the soldiers’ great fighting abilities,
their unit spearheaded a number of Patton’s moves into
enemy territory. The unit forced a hole in the Siegfried
Line, allowing Patton’s 4th Armored Division to pour
through into Germany. It fought in France, Belgium, and
Germany, and the soldiers were among the first U.S. forces
to link up with the Soviet Army at the River Steyr in
Austria.
At the end of the book, the issue of race is revisited.
The author discusses events that immediately followed
the war as well as some of the actions and events that
happened after the unit was disbanded. Two of the
notable events were the eventual awarding of the unit’s
Presidential Unit Citation in 1978 and the upgrading of
Staff Sgt. Ruben Rivers’ Silver Star to the Medal of Honor
in 1997.
I would recommend this book for armor history
enthusiasts and students studying the subject of separate
tank battalions in World War II. The book is well written
and well researched but does not fully explore the issue of
race in a divided army.
Lt. Col. David Campbell Jr., U.S. Army, Fort
Leavenworth, Kan.
MILITARY REVIEW  March-April 2015

SAVAGE WILL: The Daring Escape of Americans
Trapped Behind Nazi Lines
Timothy M. Gay, New American Library, New York,
2013, 352 pages

O

n 8 November 1943, an American C-53 aircraft
crash landed in Nazi-occupied Albania. The
plane, with its Army Air Force crew of four,
carried 13 female Army nurses and 13 male Army medics from the 807th Medical Air Evacuation Transport
Squadron. For the next two months, 27 members of
group battled incredible odds to finally be rescued. The
remaining three members of the contingent, separated
from the group, were eventually rescued two months
later. Timothy Gay’s outstanding volume, Savage Will,
captures their unbelievable story of courage and physical and mental stamina.
Gay provides an engrossing account of the action,
taking readers from the days prior to the crash to the
successful rescue of the group. In between, he describes
the brutal hardships they faced, including a lack of food
and water, brutal weather, and a trek of more than 600
miles over extremely challenging terrain, wearing poor
footwear and possessing little winter clothing. To make
matters even more precarious, their entire journey
involved traveling through a country heavily occupied
by German soldiers—and in the midst of a civil war. It
is a powerful testimony to the ability of human spirit
to meet and overcome the substantial challenges they
faced.
The author also details the experiences of those
who assisted in the rescue. This diverse group includes
members of the Albanian resistance, local villagers who
provided what little they had to the group, members
of the British Special Operations Executive, and the
American Office of Strategic Services, more commonly
known as the OSS. Each played a special role in either
the survival or the rescue of the group, and Gay aptly
details their roles.
One of the interesting aspects of the volume is Gay’s
ability to interweave the rescue itself with the bigger
picture of the war. In particular, he includes significant
discussion on the country of Albania, addressing the
country’s history, its cultural aspects, and the impact
of the war inside the nation. Throughout the volume,
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