US European War memoirs

[Larso]

No Surrender by James J. Sheeran

Berkley Caliber, NY, 2011. Hardcover , 311 pages.

James Sheeran, the son of a WW1 veteran and his French war bride volunteered for the airborne. He served with the I Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regt, 101st Airborne Division in Normandy, Holland and Bastogne. Between the first two campaigns though he was also a POW and following his escape, aided the Resistance while on the run in France.

Sheeran gets quickly into the action. His D-day jump lands him amidst significant German forces and despite doing his best to take the battle to the enemy he is captured on D+1. There follows a horrendous experience as a POW. The captured Americans are treated quite badly and over the next few weeks they are all debilitated with lack of food and water. It is clear that being taken POW does not mean safety and it is revealed there are still many ways to die. Sheeran and a friend however manage to escape and then spend some months on the run with the aid of many gallant French civilians. They are also able to give training to a Marquist group before finding themselves in Sheeran’s mother’s home town, where he is able to pierce together the story of her tragic youth. These adventures amount to about half the book.

Following being liberated by advancing US forces Sheeran insists on rejoining his company for Market Garden and then duly fights in the battle for Bastogne. Sheeran is very much in the thick of the combat. In Holland he duels with snipers and goes on some hair raising patrols. At the Bulge, his unit is deployed around Foy and there is much in the way of tank attacks and extreme shelling. The author does write on killing, though without too much detail on his own part. While the confusing nature of battle is quite clear, it was also hard at times to know why things happened as they did. Such is war I suppose but I was perplexed a few times.

A few other reviewers have commented on the accuracy of some things. I am happy to accept the book at face value but there were some incredible things and I did wonder if they were a bit too incredible? There were also some odd errors, like naming the British trapped at the point end of Hell’s Highway as an armored division? (It was of course 1st British Airborne, though elsewhere he calls them the 6th.) There are others too, which is surprising for a man who makes a lot of his ability to recall detail. More concerning was the passage where he and his friends destroyed two Tiger tanks with a 37mm anti-tank gun! Perhaps these details were gotten wrong by the people who completed the book following Sheeran’s death in 2007. They don’t necessarily discredit the whole story of course but potential readers who place value on these sort of things might take note.

These things aside, it is an extraordinary story that was well worth telling. The passages involving the French Underground are quite interesting and offer something new compared to the experiences most other soldiers had. 3 ¾ stars

[Larso]

A Long Way Home by Robert W. ‘Bob’ Buntin

Alexandra Books, Nth Carolina, 2008. Paperback, 160 pages.

Buntin fought with C Company, 62nd Armored Infantry Battalion of the 14th Armored Division. He and his unit see combat in the Vosges Mountains in November 1944 and for Buntin it ends in very early 1945 after being captured in Bannstein during operation Northwind.

Like many authors of his genre, Buntin writes in some detail of his boyhood during The Depression. It is a tough time but it is also informative of small town life in the 1930s. He also writes a little of his coming of age and then it’s into the army. Buntin spends about 5 weeks in combat but this is not too revealing. The most detailed passage here is the final action and Buntin’s attempt to regain American lines. An interesting element is when his guard carefully escorts him past an SS position, to ensure he is not shot! The POW section has a bit more to tell, with the main issue being lack of food and water. He is prompted though to consider some of the big questions of life. Following his release and return to civilian life he is remarkably candid about his poor behaviour towards his fiancée and his excessive drinking. In many ways these pages were some of the most significant of the book.

With pictures comprising over 20 pages, there is actually less than 140 pages of text. Buntin doesn’t unnecessarily pad things out then but this does spell out that his experiences are less fulsome than those of most of the other men on this thread. He does have a few interesting things to say, his thoughts on Patton (who had accused the 14th of cowardice) for instance. More intriguing is his words on the surprising number of men in his unit with health, age and discipline issues that made them poor soldiers at the front. All up though, this is a slighter war memoir than most. 2 ½ stars.

[Pips]

Larso, many thanks for your reviews, they're excellent. But a question if I may.

Almost all deal only with US soldiers experiences. Is that because that's your field of interest? Or are US bio's the only ones currently being printed? Just odd that there are none on British experiences.

[JonS]

Thread title is "US ETO Memoirs." There are plenty of, for example, UK memoirs about, with more being published at a fairly good rate, but we all have our niches and interests

Larso, I recently pointed someone at this thread when they were asking about WWII memoirs. Your great work here is getting noticed and used.

Thanks
Jon

[Larso]

Hi Pips, yes British memoirs do very much interest me and I have this thread going -

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 9&t=170523

I have others to read yet but haven't had the time so far. I am running out of US ETOs though, so I should get to them next year. I think there's a different tone to Brit ones compared to US ones. The respective armies were quite different and so too were the societies that produced them. One day I might try to write about it all. I think I got into US memoirs because they're a bit thicker on the ground and I came across a few great examples early on. The good exchange rate lets me get them at a good price too.

Thanks for passing that info on too Jon. I'm currently putting together a list of all the US memoirs I have discovered. I want to list them by unit but a lot are defying my research skills - some are fairly obscure - limited runs/self published etc. Once I've identified as much as I can I'll post them on a seperate thread so they can be easily found. It's proving to be quite a job. Intriguing for me, exasperating for my wife.......

[Mord]

Hello Larso, I am the dude Jon mentioned (hey Jon). He turned me on to this thread a few days ago and between it and some recommendations on another board he and I frequent, I have been steadily checking out/reading up on various books for my Christmas list. You've got a lot of great stuff here and I just discovered you guys have another list on Brit stuff as well...which will be fun and cool to browse.

I noticed in a lot of your newer posts you went to a single rating system. I have to say I really LOVE the other system you had, personal combat, situational combat, military life, and writing quality...those four categories are brilliant and exactly what's always stood out for me when reading these types of books though I never had quite put my finger on it on a conscious level. Those four little numbers say almost as much at a glance as a full blown review when you are looking for specifics. For my list I was looking for as much action as possible and you helped narrow that down right away. I hope you will consider returning to that rating system.

One of my main hobbies is a computer WWII war game and right now it's focus is Normandy, France and soon Holland up until September of 44. So, though I have had recommendations on really good East Front, Desert and other books, and seeing my list can't be infinite (at least for now!), I am looking for mostly stuff in that time frame...which you've covered nicely from the U.S. perspective. I have found some decent German oriented stuff both for infantry and armor, and will check out the Brit list more thoroughly too...Do you know of any other lists I might look at? And any recommendation for some US Armor memoirs? Looks like you guys have quite a few Brit Armor accounts over on the other list.

Ok...I am done running my chops. Thanks for putting this together Larso, and thanks again, Jon, for pointing the way.


Mord.

[Larso]

Hi Mord, welcome to the Forum.

Thanks for those comments about my earlier rating system - looking back, they are kinda helpful - even to me! I think I stopped because I started putting my reviews on Amazon and lazily followed their rating system. I think it was also getting too much like work! I'm beginning to run out of ETO books but I might revisit that method on the last few.

As I've written above, I'm trying to catalogue US ground combat memoirs and it's a tough job. Details are very sketchy on some and the Worldcat site doesn't allow me to view the whole list as comprehensively as I'd like. But here are the armor ones I've found so far. There's quite a few more than I was expecting given the apparent paucity of Tanker memoirs.


Tank
A Lieutenant’s Story by Stephen Slaughter (2nd Armd Div, 67th Tank Bn) 267p, 2000.
Another river, another town by John P. Irwin (3rd Armd Div, I/33rd Tank Regt: Germany) P176p, 2002.
A Tanker’s View of World War II by C. Windsor Miller (9th Armd Div, 14th Tank Bn: Ludendorf Bridge) P144p, 2004.
Christmas in Bastogne by Marshall N. Heyman (10th Armd Div, 3rd Tank Bn: Bulge) 327p, 1994.
From Anzio to the Alps by Lloyd M. Wells (1st Armd Div, : Africa, Italy, Germany) H251p, 2004.
Grinning from ear to ear by Irving C. Strawder (737th Tank Bn: W/Europe) P108p, 2002.
Journey to Dachau: An American soldier’s odyssey by Charles H. George (692nd Tank Destroyer Bn) H235p, 1997.
Spearhead: Advance & Defend by H. Harris & Mark Graham (3rd Armd Div, 1/32 Armd Rgt (mtr?): Normandy) 197p, 2005.
Surviving the Reich by Ivan L. Goldstein (11th Armd Div, 41st Tank Bn: POW) H240p, 2010.
Take the High Ground by S. Roger Koontz (1st Armd Div, 13th Armd Regt: Africa, Anzio, Italy) P107p, 2002.
Tank Driver by Ted Hartman (11th Armd Div, 41st Tank Bn: ????) H192p, 2003.

Armored Infantry
A Civilian Soldier: World War II by Carlton Parrish Russell (3rd Armd Div, 36 AIR: Lt Col, Bulge) 140p, 1978.
Bob’s Story’ by Bob Moranda (7th Armd Div, 38th AIB: Bulge, POW) P352p, 2001.
I Walk through the Valley by Bruce C. Zorns (14th Armd Div, 62nd AIB: POW) P232p, 1991.
Norville, Outpost of Bastogne by D. Addor (10th Armd Div, HQ/20th AIB:WIA) P192p, 2004.
Our Blood & his Guts! by Eugene W. Luciano (4th Armd Div, C/10th AIB: Normandy, Rhineland) H203p, 1995.
The Replacement by Robert Kauffman (3rd Armd Div, D/36th AIB: Normandy, Bulge, WIA) P198p, 2011.
Too Young to Die by Cliff Japs (11th Armd Div, C/21st AIB: ) 98p, 1991.
Unless You Have Been There by Paul J. Andert (2nd Armd Div, 41st AIB: Africa, Sicily, Europe) P186p, 2006.
Wartime Memoirs of Combat Rifleman PFC Reginal L. Sawyer 34998876 (9th Armd Div, C/60th AIB: Bulge, Rhineland) 649p, 2000.

Artillery
A GI’s view of World War Two by Peter A. Belpulsi (4th Armd Div, B/66th Armd FA Bn) H291p, 1997.
Caissons across Europe by Richard M. Hardison (8th Armd Div, 399th Armd FA Bn) H306p, 1990.
From Horses to Armor by Odbert Delmas Linder (83rd Armd FA: ETO ) 237p, 2005.
Granddaddy, tell us about the War by Kenneth K. Gowen (69th Armd FA: Africa, Italy, Anzio, Sthn France) 357p, 1998.
Observers Edge by Donald Emerson Allen (1st Armd Div, 68th Armd FA: Italy) P234p, 2004.
The wonder of it all by Howard L. Carlson (62nd Armd FA Bn: Africa, Sicily, Omaha) P162p, 2005.
Time on Target: The World War II Memoir of William R. Buster (2nd Armd Div, 92nd Armd FA Bn: Africa, ETO) H176p, 2001.

Recon
Mount Up, We’re Moving Out! By V.M. Brown (14th Armd Div, D/94th Cav Sqn: Northwind, Germany) P178p, 2005.
My Lonely Walk Through Hell by William Eisenbarth (2nd Armd Div, 82nd Recon Bn: Sicily, Normandy, Rhineland) P108p, 2005.
Naked Heart by Harold Pagliaro: (106th Cav Group, 121st Cav Sqn: Vosges) P238p, 1990.
Recon Scout by Fred H. Salter (91st Recon (attached to 1st Inf, 1st Armd, 10th Mtn): Africa, Sicily, Monte Cassino) P376p, 2001.
Recon Trooper by Hugh Warren West (14th Armd Div, 94th Recon Sqn: Europe) P198p, 2010.
Return to the Rapido by L. Anderson (81st Rec Bn/1stArmd, Italy)
The Ghost of the Rhine and other War Stories by Fred A. Datig (12th Armd Div ) 425p, 2009.
War not Forgotten by John P. Souther (1st Armd Div, 81st Recon: Africa, Italy, Anzio) 229p, 1995.

Command
A Colonel in the Armored Divisions by William S. Triplet (2nd & 7th Armd Divs) H320p, 2001.
Armor Command by Paul M. Robinett (1st Armd Div, 13th Armd Regt: Africa. Armor School) 252p, 1958.
As you were, soldier: recollections of a thirty-year veteran by James Solon Moncrief (6th Armd Div) 138p, 1996.

Various
A Citizen-soldier remembers by George E. McAvoy (9th Armd Div, 149th Sig Co: Bulge, Remagen, Buchenwald) H238p, 1991.
Death Traps: Survival of American Armd Divs by Belton Cooper (3rd Armd Div, ordnance) P380p, 2003.
How I saw the War by Oswald Jett (1st Armd Div, 47th Medical Bn: Africa, Italy) 643p (unpublished?), 1988/9.
The Way it Was by Rusty Moulton (14th Armd Div, Maint & Recovery) 194p, 2007.
World War II: as a combat engineer with the Third Armd by Robert T. Gravlin (3rd Armd Div, 23rd Armd Eng Bn) ??? 1999.

Unknown Battalion
A front seat in Hell by J. W. Arbuckle (12th Armd Div??? : ) H335p, 1991.
From Bastogne to Bavaria with the Fighting Forth by Charles Wilson (4th Armd Div: Bulge, Buchenwald) H445p, 1993.
Patton Trooper by Charles F. Hinds (2nd Armd Div: ) H335p, 1998.
PFC at War: Normandy to the Elbe by Donald Abbott (3rd Armd Div) 211p, 2002.
The Incredible Year by Donald J. Willis (3rd Armd Div ?????) H159p, 1988.
Hard’s Luck by Howard F. Tucker (11th Armd Div: ) P180p, 1995.

There are surely more but that's all I've got at the moment.

[Mord]

Thank you VERY much! That is a great jumping off point! I am gonna research those ASAP. Sorry it took so long to respond, all of a sudden life got busy but I am glad I got back here and saw this.

Thanks again and Merry Christmas to you. I am going to enjoy checking out the above.


Mord.

[Larso]

A Dangerous Assignment by William B. Hanford

Stackpole Books, 2008. Paperback, 247 pages.

The author served with the 928th Field Artillery Battalion of the 103rd Infantry Division, fighting in the Vosges, Ardennes and Siegfried Line battles and on into Germany. His particular role is as radioman for Forward Observers and he subsequently sees a lot of action in the front line.

He is the first to admit that his role is not as consistently dangerous as that endured by the infantry but he does make quite a bit of the danger (hence the title I suppose). Indeed, his best friend is his unit’s first fatality and it was interesting to read how this was met by a green unit. He is quite cynical it must be said but there is often a lot to be cynical about in the way armies do things. In any case, this allows him to explore one of his recurring themes, the relationships between officers and enlisted men and more specifically, the quality of his officers. While some were excellent, he also encounters glory-hounds, incompetents and outright bastards. The pressures of war and the hierarchal structure of the army (and society it came from) contribute to this but Hanford has a sense of grievance stronger than most veteran authors writing of similar experiences.

As for combat, Hanford is not called upon to use his rifle but he is shelled extensively, including by his own unit! It is estimated that artillery inflicted half of the casualties in WW2 and Handford’s account spells out what this meant. The strongest section for me, was his account of supporting the G/411th Regt in its attacks in the Haardt Mountains against fixed defences. Machine gunners firing from strong bunkers, snipers and ground expertly exploited by the defenders shred the attackers, yet they are continually ordered to try again. It is sobering stuff.

In addition to Handford being spared such frontal assaults, he and his section also get a lot more time in billets. Often the residents are still on hand and he has considerable exposure to ordinary people. There are some interesting stories here, both in France and Germany. In the later, he sees some remarkable things at the end of the war before being transferred and shipped home for service against the Japanese. Fortunately, the war ends and he returns to civilian life. The last chapter or two cover his post war life, with some news on the lives of his war-time comrades.

This is a solid piece of war writing. Handford seems to have been part of the ATSP and is an educated writer. There is some dry humour at times and a distinct cynical tone regarding some facets of his service. Handford’s story is interesting but, as terrible as his war was, it points to the even greater danger and discomfort of being in the infantry. In comparison to the many other memoirs I have now read, I give it three stars. It is certainly a worthwhile read but the experiences of an artilleryman, even a Forward Observer, are significantly different to those of an infantryman.

[raymerriam]

Found this thread interesting, especially the reviews of two of the titles, which I am the publisher of: "Not Me!" and "Mount Up! We're Moving Out!" The reviewer made a comment about my getting veterans to write their memoirs. That made me chuckle, because I have never really sought out veterans for their memoirs or asked them to write their memoirs. They come to me with their memoir already written. In fact, I usually get TOO many memoirs.

As the reviewer mentioned, the second one is on the short side. That was all the veteran wanted to write about, or, more likely, all he could remember. I am always amazed at how much these guys DO remember! I know I couldn't write much of a memoir - I'm lucky if I can remember what happened five minutes ago.

As for the lack of combat stories in these books, some of these guys don't like to dwell on that aspect of their service. They saw friends (and enemies) get wounded and killed and that had a profound effect on them. To dredge all that up can be incredibly emotional for them. I once received a letter from the wife of a veteran. He had passed away some years before. She was reading a book I published that was written by a journalist who, during the war, interviewed dozens of veterans of the air groups on the USS Yorktown who survived it's sinking at Midway. She told me she had trouble reading the stories (her husband was featured throughout the book and survived the battle and war); she would have to read it a few pages at a time because it brought back so many memories, some happy, some sad.

And the manuscripts I publish are not edited for space reasons, as many publishers do.

[Larso]

Hi Ray, thanks for posting.

I mean no criticism of the authors when I say that the combat described is slight. I write what I write 'for the record'. My goal is to describe the books as fully as I can so that others can see if it would suit their area of interest. As for those two you mentioned, I enjoyed them both but the potential for both was tantalising. 'Mount Up' in particular was about a role that not much else has been publised on. I thought 'Not Me' had a real charm. The author there really conveyed a sense of wonder about his experiences. I'm glad you were on hand to see them both reach an audience. I'm currently reading another of yours - 'Victory Road', which I will post about next month. My research over the past few years has revealed over 500 memoirs by members of the various US ground forces in WW2. I know there are many more too and I am always on the lookout for more - so keep putting them out!

[Larso]

Victory Road by Robert C. Baldridge

Merriam Press, Bennington, Vermont, 2006. Paperback, 349 pages.

Baldridge was one of those prescient types who saw trouble in Europe coming. He was also a member of a remarkable family who saw it as a duty and a privilege to serve. Anyway he did ROTC and was a very militarily aware young man in general. After being accepted into active service he is assigned to the 9th Infantry Division and sent to England. After a narrow escape from becoming an MP he gets where he wants to be, the 34th Field Artillery Battalion and it is in this formation he goes to war.

While Baldridge is with his battalion from Normandy, it had of course seen action in the Mediterranean, so it is a professional and experienced unit. He does a variety of roles, including survey, observation and some actual gun crew roles too with the 155mm Long Toms. Despite being in action throughout the European campaign and fighting in Normandy, the Hurtgen, the Bulge, at the Remagen Bridge and through Germany (including looks at concentration camps), the author writes surprisingly little of his actual combat experiences. There is some technical information from time to time and he mentions casualties but it is a very general account in this sense. There is a lot of greater context about the battles the 9th fought, appraisals of generals and the situation on the German side but I have to say, detailed as some of this was, it was all a little dry.

I certainly liked the author himself. He could’ve had an easy war but bulled his way to the front. He was no fan of the Germans and calls them on their ‘no Nazies here’ post-war attitude. It is a slightly unusual memoir where the author wants the focus to be on the campaign rather than on his own story. This is commendable in a way but it won’t suit every reader. There is a lot of personal material in the many photos and copies of documents. It is very well researched and gives a flavor of the times. Of interest.

[raymerriam]

Regarding the review of Victory Road, it is an unusual "memoir," and Bob was a very "unusual" guy. I met him twice when he visited as we worked on his memoir in 1995, and for several years after that we had lengthy talks on the phone many times, until his death, which occurred just a few days after he gave a talk about his wartime experiences to a group in New York City (Bob lived on Long Island).

Since Bob was in an artillery battalion, combat was not something he saw a lot of. Granted they did fire missions that was combat of a sort, but as an artilleryman, he saw little frontline service - until he became a forward observer and by then the war was starting to wind down. Like so many veterans, he felt his comrades, especially those that did not return, deserved the accolades and thus he did not dwell on his exploits.

Larso's comment about the 155mm weapon Bob crewed being the 155mm "Long Tom" is incorrect. Bob crewed a 155mm howitzer, not the 155mm gun, nicknamed "Long Tom" (there is a huge difference between the two weapons).

[raymerriam]

I wanted to add another comment to a previous message of mine in this thread. I mentioned that some veterans will not talk about their service, especially combat, because they saw buddies killed and that had a very profound and personal affect on them. Reading the review of Victory Road it reminded me of a phone conversation I had with Bob one day when we were dealing with some tweaking of the book prior to publication. One of the parts we were tweaking involved a soldier of his unit who went into a forest and as it turned out the area was mined. He stepped on a mine and was killed, but when the explosion occurred, another member of the unit and a buddy of Bob's, went running to help the soldier who had stepped on the mine (no one was aware he had been killed at that point). The second soldier also stepped on a mine and was killed needlessly. As we were working on this section of the book, Bob started talking about that and soon became emotional and almost broke down on the phone and was unable to continue our work that day.

As historians and hobbyists, we sometimes forget that these men and women experienced things that affect them deeply. We have to be thankful for what they do leave behind in their writings and understand that they leave out sme things that are too painful for them to deal with, and too personal for them to tell the world about.

[Larso]

I remember that section. I think the fellow received a postumous decoration for his heroism? There might have been another couple of guys injured as well? I can well understand the author's grief about such tragic deaths.

I have a friend who wrote a book about his school's 'old boys' and their war service. There were several times he too sat with men who broke down remembering. He greatly valued the trust they gave him and he left out things the veterans didn't want put in print and since then he has gone to many of their funerals.

People like my friend and you are in a remarkable and humbling position with the connections you have with the veterans.