Book Description

Fate’s Finger is a fictionalized memoir based on the author’s experience as a combat-inexperienced 2nd lieutenant sent to the ETO late in 1944 as a replacement platoon leader in an armored division. He arrived at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge and fought with his division through three campaigns in Europe. Each chapter is introduced by a newspaper headline appropriate to the times, followed by a letter to or from a character in the book to folks back in the U.S. The events described in each chapter are based on reality, but dialogue, as well as personal names and character development are fictional. Graphics include photographs, news clippings, and maps. Authenticity, verisimilitude, and readibility were the author’s aims, and so the book is meant to be read as a military historical novel written by an old soldier attempting to preserve a micro-history of tank warfare in WW II. “….a ‘bottom-up’ account of tank warfare, unique in the annals of WW II, based on the cold, hard, terrifying facts of armored combat. The way the author develops the humanism of the characters, their language, their down-to-earth thoughts and emotions is truly remarkable.” Col. Arthur F. Pottle, WW II troop commander, 86th Cav Rcn Sqdn, 6th Armored Division, Third Army “Fate’s Finger is a great military micro-historical achievement, telling it like it was for the men on the line in WW II armored divisions, and it reeks with verisimilitude: the contemporaneous U.S. newspaper headlines, and the wonderful human insights in the letters to and from the folks back home. Absolutely authentic, a ‘been there, done that’. I couldn’t put it down!” Capt. Perry Swirsky, WW II tank company commander, 752nd Tank Bn. “Only a rare few WW II accounts have captured as this one has the turmoil that small groups of tankers and their machines endured to make the ‘big picture’ succeed. A must read for old – and new – tankers.” 1st Lt. George A. Campbell, WW II tank platoon leader, 8th Armored Division.