Post by Diana E on May 28, 2011 17:46:00 GMT -5
I just finished reading the book Unlikely Warrior. It is not about the 106th, but I feel it is worth recommending here, as I will explain further below.
It is the memoir of GI Robert C. Lovell, who served as a replacement in the Ninth Armored Division. The book is written in 1st person present tense. It is a fantastically detailed account from the time he signed up as an Oklahoma kid right after high school graduation, to the time he was discharged after the war. The book opens with a bit about his boyhood, including school, scouts and sports. From there he describes his experiences in basic training at Fort Riley in almost day-to-day detail, including training exercises, classes, meals and KP duty. He trained to be a radio operator. He described his time at home on leave, and the adjustment from life on duty to life on leave and then back on duty. He described his transfer to a base on the East Coast, where still in his teens, he spent Christmas 1944 in Washington DC away from his family. Though not the terror-filled Christmas the members of the 106th endured in Belgium, his Christmas dinner story was particularly sad...something I'll let you discover for yourself if you choose to read the book. From there he described his New Year's trip across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary, his train ride through France, and from there his life in and out of a halftrack, with frost bitten feet, moving through France, Belgium and into Germany. He passes through the Ardennes where the battle was fought, and they stop and camp there for awhile. He does not mention the names of the Belgian towns, which makes me think he didn't know where he was or wasn't allowed to write it in his letters home. He mentions putting in his letters home that he was writing from "somewhere in Belgium".
From the great amount of detail he includes in his book, I suspect the author must be someone who has for his entire life written daily entries in a diary. He writes that he also was able to use all of his letters home to reconstruct the story, as his mom had saved them all. I suspect he wrote very detailed letters home, subject to censorship.
The reason this book was valuable to me is that it helps me understand what my grandpa's day-to-day life might have been like from basic training through his tour in the ETO through to his discharge after the war. I have the few memorable anecdotes he has told me, and I can reconstruct where he was in Belgium and Germany at various times. But as to what day-to-day life was like 'round the clock, Lovell's book does a wonderful job of filling in the gaps.
I bought the book back in March at the Chisholm Creek Gun Show in Wichita, where the author was selling and signing his books. I had a delightful short conversation with him and his wife of 60+ years. She signed my book as well.
Publisher: Two Harbors Press, Minneapolis, MN
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 600
Price: $19.67 - 26.95
Where to buy:
1. www.twoharborspress.com/b-Unlikely-Warrior,-A-Small-Town-Boys-View-of-World-War-II_11755
2. amzn.com/1936198207
Author's email: unlikelywarrior@yahoo.com
Excerpt from the book:
Suddenly, the halftrack picks up speed. We have reached the famous Autobahn highway. It is four lanes wide and allows us to speed up and we do not have the start and stop of the narrow roads we have been on before.
About eleven in the morning, we reach the city of Limburg. Here we have to stop. The Germans have blown the bridge across the Lahn River. We pull off of the Autobahn and into a large field northwest of the city. We go into the field and circle back so that we are close to the opening in to the field and where we can see down into the city. The other vehicles follow us into the field. Soon there are hundreds of vehicles filling the huge field. From the hill, we an see the large church which looks over the city. This is a beautiful scene, but I know that there are enemy troops within the city and beyond.
Trucks come up carrying pontoons to make a bridge. They pull off of the Autobahn and down into the city to where the Lahn passes through. The engineers are working to get the bridge across so we can continue. Evidently someone fires on them, because they scatter and then one of them gets a bazooka and fires it towards the church. The Germans are known to use church steeples for observation posts and for snipers.
Guys are moving around through the vehicles. The lieutenant has gone to check with the other officers to see what we are to do next. The radio operator that lost his carbine comes over to my halftrack and asks if I have any food. I dig out a K ration for him and get one out for myself and the driver. I also give him one of my candy bars that I just got. We sit around eating and wondering what we are going to be doing next. About this time, a jeep drives up and the lieutenant riding in it says for us to move out, that we are blocking the other vehicles and we need to move. The driver starts forward following the jeep.
We move out of the field, back across the Autobahn and down towards the river. I get in the ring mount and man the .50 caliber machine gun. I look back and there are several self propelled 105's following us and behind them are all the other vehicles. The other operator is back by the radios. We follow the jeep down the bank of the river and up to the pontoon bridge. The engineers motion the jeep forward and it slowly starts across the bridge. When it is over, we move onto the bridge. The halftrack sways around as we cross, but we make it safely across.
We follow the jeep as it goes through the town. We go through the streets and work our way back to the Autobahn, on the east side of the river. When we reach the Autobahn, we turn on to it and start moving again. We go out east of Limburg. We are on a high rise, following it along, with a higher bank on the north side of the road. The south side of the road has a berm shielding us from the wide valley leading down to the river. We are moving along at a good pace when we get to a place where there is a break in the berm. A shell goes right across the hood of the halftrack and crashes into the bank on the north side of the road. It passes close enough that I could have reached out and touched it. I look back and the other operator is laying on the floor, trying to dig deeper with his fingers.
We continue on across the opening until we are back behind the berm again. The self propelled 105 behind us is hit in the side, just back of the front. The one behind it is hit right in the middle and the one behind it is hit in the side, right at the back. The next shell goes behind the next 105. The rest of the vehicles hold up where they are protected. In just a matter of minutes we have lost three of our cannons and I do not know how many men. The last 105 shot at, goes across the median and around the vehicles that are knocked out and joins us behind the berm.
It is the memoir of GI Robert C. Lovell, who served as a replacement in the Ninth Armored Division. The book is written in 1st person present tense. It is a fantastically detailed account from the time he signed up as an Oklahoma kid right after high school graduation, to the time he was discharged after the war. The book opens with a bit about his boyhood, including school, scouts and sports. From there he describes his experiences in basic training at Fort Riley in almost day-to-day detail, including training exercises, classes, meals and KP duty. He trained to be a radio operator. He described his time at home on leave, and the adjustment from life on duty to life on leave and then back on duty. He described his transfer to a base on the East Coast, where still in his teens, he spent Christmas 1944 in Washington DC away from his family. Though not the terror-filled Christmas the members of the 106th endured in Belgium, his Christmas dinner story was particularly sad...something I'll let you discover for yourself if you choose to read the book. From there he described his New Year's trip across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary, his train ride through France, and from there his life in and out of a halftrack, with frost bitten feet, moving through France, Belgium and into Germany. He passes through the Ardennes where the battle was fought, and they stop and camp there for awhile. He does not mention the names of the Belgian towns, which makes me think he didn't know where he was or wasn't allowed to write it in his letters home. He mentions putting in his letters home that he was writing from "somewhere in Belgium".
From the great amount of detail he includes in his book, I suspect the author must be someone who has for his entire life written daily entries in a diary. He writes that he also was able to use all of his letters home to reconstruct the story, as his mom had saved them all. I suspect he wrote very detailed letters home, subject to censorship.
The reason this book was valuable to me is that it helps me understand what my grandpa's day-to-day life might have been like from basic training through his tour in the ETO through to his discharge after the war. I have the few memorable anecdotes he has told me, and I can reconstruct where he was in Belgium and Germany at various times. But as to what day-to-day life was like 'round the clock, Lovell's book does a wonderful job of filling in the gaps.
I bought the book back in March at the Chisholm Creek Gun Show in Wichita, where the author was selling and signing his books. I had a delightful short conversation with him and his wife of 60+ years. She signed my book as well.
Publisher: Two Harbors Press, Minneapolis, MN
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 600
Price: $19.67 - 26.95
Where to buy:
1. www.twoharborspress.com/b-Unlikely-Warrior,-A-Small-Town-Boys-View-of-World-War-II_11755
2. amzn.com/1936198207
Author's email: unlikelywarrior@yahoo.com
Excerpt from the book:
Suddenly, the halftrack picks up speed. We have reached the famous Autobahn highway. It is four lanes wide and allows us to speed up and we do not have the start and stop of the narrow roads we have been on before.
About eleven in the morning, we reach the city of Limburg. Here we have to stop. The Germans have blown the bridge across the Lahn River. We pull off of the Autobahn and into a large field northwest of the city. We go into the field and circle back so that we are close to the opening in to the field and where we can see down into the city. The other vehicles follow us into the field. Soon there are hundreds of vehicles filling the huge field. From the hill, we an see the large church which looks over the city. This is a beautiful scene, but I know that there are enemy troops within the city and beyond.
Trucks come up carrying pontoons to make a bridge. They pull off of the Autobahn and down into the city to where the Lahn passes through. The engineers are working to get the bridge across so we can continue. Evidently someone fires on them, because they scatter and then one of them gets a bazooka and fires it towards the church. The Germans are known to use church steeples for observation posts and for snipers.
Guys are moving around through the vehicles. The lieutenant has gone to check with the other officers to see what we are to do next. The radio operator that lost his carbine comes over to my halftrack and asks if I have any food. I dig out a K ration for him and get one out for myself and the driver. I also give him one of my candy bars that I just got. We sit around eating and wondering what we are going to be doing next. About this time, a jeep drives up and the lieutenant riding in it says for us to move out, that we are blocking the other vehicles and we need to move. The driver starts forward following the jeep.
We move out of the field, back across the Autobahn and down towards the river. I get in the ring mount and man the .50 caliber machine gun. I look back and there are several self propelled 105's following us and behind them are all the other vehicles. The other operator is back by the radios. We follow the jeep down the bank of the river and up to the pontoon bridge. The engineers motion the jeep forward and it slowly starts across the bridge. When it is over, we move onto the bridge. The halftrack sways around as we cross, but we make it safely across.
We follow the jeep as it goes through the town. We go through the streets and work our way back to the Autobahn, on the east side of the river. When we reach the Autobahn, we turn on to it and start moving again. We go out east of Limburg. We are on a high rise, following it along, with a higher bank on the north side of the road. The south side of the road has a berm shielding us from the wide valley leading down to the river. We are moving along at a good pace when we get to a place where there is a break in the berm. A shell goes right across the hood of the halftrack and crashes into the bank on the north side of the road. It passes close enough that I could have reached out and touched it. I look back and the other operator is laying on the floor, trying to dig deeper with his fingers.
We continue on across the opening until we are back behind the berm again. The self propelled 105 behind us is hit in the side, just back of the front. The one behind it is hit right in the middle and the one behind it is hit in the side, right at the back. The next shell goes behind the next 105. The rest of the vehicles hold up where they are protected. In just a matter of minutes we have lost three of our cannons and I do not know how many men. The last 105 shot at, goes across the median and around the vehicles that are knocked out and joins us behind the berm.
Thanks for the recommendation!