Jim:
It's a real shame when this happens. As far as I'm concerned, there's no excuse for this number of mistakes to occur in one book. With the internet, NARA, etc., at our disposal, this kind of sloppiness should not occur. Maybe it was rushed into publication, maybe not, but whatever the reasons, a real disappointment for many.
Marion,
Unfortunately, Yeide seems to stretch things a bit. In his book, Steel Victory, he makes the claim that Sherman tank crews routinely carried extra rounds of ammunition for their main guns inside the tank. This is not only next to impossible due to space limitations, but extraordinarilly dangerous. As more than one veteran tanker has said, where would we put these rounds, and who in their right minds would want them rolling around on the floor in the first place? When I challenged Yeide for his source on this he could come up with only a single memoir which was completely unvetted. Now I ask you, how does one take the claim of a single, unexamined source and extrapolate it to include all or most tankers?
I documented my findings regarding the error in First To The Rhine into a formal, academic style review of the book. Perhaps you would like to have the review posted on your website. If so, let me know, and I can send it to you as a Word attachment.
Jim