"Bravo, Amerikanski!": And Other Stories from World War II [Paperback]

Ann Stringer (Author), Mark Scott (Contributor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: 1st Book Library (October 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587215284
• ISBN-13: 978-1587215285
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,778,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Ann Stinger 's remarkable story finally told, August 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: "Bravo, Amerikanski!": And Other Stories from World War II (Paperback)

This is the first book I am aware of to set down the extraordinary life and career of Ann Stringer in the detail it deserves. It's all the more compelling because it is autobiography---Stringer tells her story in a clear distinctive voice. Stringer's life is fascinating for its accomplishments and contradictions. She was tough enough to make it as a "newspaper man" under the most difficult conditions---as a war reporter during World War II. In the chauvinist world of war reporting --her reputation as a skilled reporter remarkably transcended her distracting physical beauty, including what one colleague called her "butter-melting eyes." Stringer's life and career seemed to begin and end with the loss of her fellow war-correspondent husband (Bill Stringer) to a badly timed burst of German gunfire somewhere in France. Bill's death prompted Stringer to take up where he left off and become a war reporter in the first place--a brilliant one at that---who stayed on even after the war to cover the Nuremberg Trials. But, her post-war life took incomprehensible and disastrous turns. This reader winced (as one suspects Ann did, herself) when she recounts how she ended up in the 1950s and 60s in Europe "baking meringue pies" for use in her German photographer-husband's pictures. Yet, as Ann Stringer tells her story, you somehow understand why she married a man whose countrymen killed her beloved Bill, stayed with him for several decades, and came gracefully to terms (better than many of us could) with her tragic life-wasting mistakes. There is something quintessentially female about the trajectory of Stringer's life in a really modern sense that makes you want to understand it better. This book provides a chance to begin to do so.

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling collection of personal stories, June 6, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Bravo, Amerikanski!": And Other Stories from World War II (Paperback)

Featuring an introduction by Walter Cronkite, "Bravo, Amerikanski!" And Other Stories From World War II by Ann Stringer (as told to Mark Scott) is an impressive and compelling collection of personal stories (sometime uplifting, sometimes heartbreaking) narrated by Ann Stringer, who lost her journalist husband in Normandy during World War II, and subsequently found the courage to take his place as a reporter. Beautiful, determined, and one hundred percent focused on her duty, Ann Stringer encountered both the horrors of war and the celebrations of freedom, including the liberation of Nazi concentration camps and the linkup of American and Soviet armies at the Elbe River. A highly recommended look at a unique woman's experience as a war correspondent, and the experiences and observations that would change her life forever, "Bravo, Amerikanski!" And Other Stories From World War II is a welcome and valued contribution to the growing library of World War II autobiographies and memoirs.

5.0 out of 5 stars A poignant recollection of what is known as "the good war.", March 23, 2001

By 

Charolett Baker (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Bravo, Amerikanski!": And Other Stories from World War II (Paperback)

I found Ann Stringer's story and recollections, as recorded by Mark Scott, to be exciting, sad, and poignant. She is a reminder to women of today that there were outstanding women like Ann Stringer who were making their own destinies by taking bold steps into unknown territory many decades before the "feminist movement" took hold in this country. Ann was one of a few courageous women who chose to be war correspondents and really put their lives on the line on the front lines of the war. The sad aspect was that she had hoped to do it all with her husband, who was also a war correspondent, but he was killed just outside Paris before she could join him. Even in the midst of her grief, she was determined to carry on, for herself and for his memory.

I personally experienced in 1985 the phenomenal 40th anniversary reunion of World War II American and Russian soldiers who had linked up at the Elbe River in Germany during the last days of the war so her recollection about being the second war correspondent to reach troops from both armies was particularly exciting. She got there while they were still joyously celebrating the reality that, now that the two great armies had met up, the German soldiers would be surrendering and the war would soon be over. Her true gutziness was revealed with her story about the lengths she went to in order to get back to Paris and be the first to file the story about the historic link-up! Yet her recollections did not end with the conclusion of the war. The book goes on to share her experiences following the war--going into the ravaged cities of Europe, seeing the despair, hopelessness, and hunger of the people throughout. She also covered the Nuremberg Trials for 11 months, witnessing first-hand the Nazi leadership on trial in the Palace of Justice. Finally, I was especially touched by the poignant way in which she reflected towards the end of the book about lessons to be learned: "Wars are cruel to all sides, no matter whether you win or lose. One of the major issues of the Trials was the condemnation of aggressive wars. Another was recognizing how vicious a doctrine of hatred can be. Yet another was that orders are not always enough. Just to obey an order does not absolve you of all guilt. We can still prevent wars by getting to know each other, to realize that "they" have some of the same problems "we" have...." For this and for historical reasons, everyone should read this book.