Origins through 1939 -- An introduction -- Dawn of the tank -- The Great War and its wake -- American armor during the interwar years -- Guderian and the German attack on Poland -- Panzers in France -- Summer 1940-Fall 1944 -- Creating the US armored force -- African desert, British troops, American tanks -- World War -- El Alamein -- Disaster in Tunisia -- Lessons from the desert -- The 781st Tank Battalion, Fall 1944-VE day -- The Mediterranean and France -- The separate tank battalion -- Battalion operations, October-December 1944 -- Hunting tanks, improving tanks -- Battalion operations, January 1945 -- Battalion operations, February-March 1945 -- Battalion operations, April-May 1945 -- Postwar and review.