Another River, Another Town: A Teenage Tank Gunner Comes of Age in Combat--1945 [Hardcover]

John P. Irwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 2002

Many narrative accounts of men in combat during World War II have conveyed the horrors and emotions of warfare. However, not many reveal in such an intimate way the struggle of innocent youth to adapt to the primitive code of “kill or be killed,” to transform from lads into combat soldiers.

Another River, Another Town is the story of John P. Irwin, a teenage tank gunner whose idealistic desire to achieve heroism is shattered by the incredibly different view of life the world of combat demands. He comes to the realization that the realm of warfare has almost nothing in common with the civilian life from which he has come.

The interminable fighting, dirt, fatigue, and hunger make the war seem endless. In addition to the killing and destruction on the battlefield, Irwin and his crew are caught up in the unbelievable depravity they encounter at Nordhausen Camp, where slave laborers are compelled to work themselves to death manufacturing the infamous V-rockets that have been causing so much destruction in London, and that are expected one day to devastate Washington, D.C.

At the end of the war, the sense of victory is, for these men, overshadowed by the intense joy and relief they experience in knowing that the fighting is at last over.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Irwin, a 76-year-old retired philosophy professor at Pennsylvania's Lock Haven University, offers a brief account in 10 chapters of his WWII service. Born in Norristown, Pa., Irwin enlisted in the army in August 1944 at age 18 and was honorably discharged in July 1946. An eventful march through Germany, including a surprise capture of enemy soldiers that turned out to be more of a nuisance than a triumph for the American side, accentuates the battle-weary and ultra-realistic tone of the memoir, puncturing illusions about the so-called grandeur and glory of war. Its tragic culmination occurs when Irwin and his company arrive at the Nordhausen slave labor camp, where the V-rockets that destroyed much of London during the infamous Blitz were manufactured. This undeniably important and exciting historical setting is rendered in a deliberately flat style that conveys the tedium of service, interspersed with moments of combat. Trying for general conclusions tends to twist that style into knots (e.g., "There is something about the semi-conclusion of a battle-not-lost that encourages men to continue to believe in a future"), and sometimes a mildly bemused stretch at humor effectively bowdlerizes the account: "I choose to omit here the captain's ensuing tour de force of specialized military vernacular." Yet readers looking for a balanced first-person report from the greatest generation will find this measured look-back genially winning.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

"In spite of the disaster, it seemed almost glorious." This spare, honest memoir of an 18-year-old GI tank gunner on the German front in 1945 conveys the romance of combat as well as the fear and slaughter with a wry honesty and with no slick talk of innocence lost. Now the writer is a retired philosophy professor; in the memoir, he's a high-school dropout, a virgin ("Somehow war and testosterone mix well"), a civilian in uniform. His commentary frames the history, but the heart of the book is the daily slogging action. He sees his friend die. He shoots a 12-year-old boy to death point-blank. He bonds with his combat crew, obeys his decent officer, shares a cigarette with a captive, ridicules the pompous army authority. He cannot forget the horror of Nordhausen: the piles of stinking corpses and skeletal survivors in the slave-labor camp where the Nazis assembled the V-3 rockets. Military buffs will appreciate Irwin's ironic detachment, which still never denies the righteousness of the cause and the courage of those suddenly at war. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Random House (May 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375507752
• ISBN-13: 978-0375507755
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,303,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tanker's Story, June 17, 2002

By 

John Fraser (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Another River, Another Town: A Teenage Tank Gunner Comes of Age in Combat--1945 (Hardcover)

This brief story of a teen's experience in combat in the final months of WWII in Europe gives the reader a nice perspective of the war from the armor branch of the US Army. It kept my interest as the unit advanced across Germany toward Berlin. The
author writes a running narrative as they move from town to town in pursuit of the retreating Wehrmacht trying to prevent the final collapse of the Reich. The story is well written. I highly recommend it for your consideration.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine writing documenting experience of armored in Germany, January 4, 2003

By 

John P. Rooney "John" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Another River, Another Town: A Teenage Tank Gunner Comes of Age in Combat--1945 (Hardcover)

"Another River, Another Town" by John P. Irwin, sub-titled "A Teenage Tank gunner Come of Age in Combat-1945." Random House, New York, 2002.

With the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944, there was a great demand on the United States Army for replacements in the European Theater of Operations. Pennsylvanian John P. Irwin had just completed tank gunner training in Fort Knox and was shipped to France. He was immediately put in charge, as ranking soldier, of a Sherman tank, and, after completing repairs, instructed to join up with the 3rd Armored Division. Running as a single tank, trying to catch the main column, Irwin and his crew promptly get lost. They end up in a German occupied town, and, happily for them, the Germans want to surrender. Corporal Irwin leads the German column back to American lines, where he is chewed out by Captain Harker for delivering unwanted prisoners! Thus begins Irwin's tour of duty in the closing period of World War II in Europe.

His book describes the relations among the five-man crew, the agony of having a tank shot out from underneath them, and the daily drudgery in going from town to town, river to river, bridge to bridge. Their replacement tank is one of the new Pershing Tanks, and Irwin describes how the Pershing's extra armor, its ability to fire while still moving and the Pershing's rapid gun turret movement saved them in many situations. (For a complete comparison of Sherman and Pershing, see, "Death Traps" by Belton Y. Cooper.) This book is well written and easy to read.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good honest story, June 11, 2002

By 

Bert Krages (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Another River, Another Town: A Teenage Tank Gunner Comes of Age in Combat--1945 (Hardcover)

This is an especially interesting memoir because it describes the experiences of an ordinary eighteen-year who serves as a tank gunner towards the end of WWII in Europe. I thought the book was well written and the author does an excellent job of presenting the war from the perspective someone who was neither privileged nor publicly known. Irwin does a good job of describing combat as well as other aspects such as the relationships with other soldiers and how they dealt with fear.