Customer Reviews

G Company's War: Two Personal Accounts of the Campaigns in Europe, 1944-1945

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Among the mind numbing number of books on world war two, this book is in my top ten. Written from two perspectives within the same company, it is a lucid, real and above all believable account of what it was like on the sharp edge of combat. A real gem!

When I first got this book through the mail I said UGH! It is the ugliest Pepto Bismol color you have ever seen...but luckily the cover is not why you read the book. Inside are the combined memoirs of two members of the yankee division(26th) during the fight across France and Germany. The book is not always exciting but does offer a very good glimpse into the mind and life of a frontline infantry soldier. The combination of the two is good in that it offers a Lt and a pfc\sgt's perspective on the war. That combination can also get a bit confusing because you have to keep two separate stories in your head as you are reading. The editor does try and keep you up to date with a daily comment as to what the company was doing overall, but a vague mention of a random french or german town does not always help develop a picture in your head of what is going on. That is why I deducted a star. But the book is very good and worth adding to your collection if you are interested in the ETO during WW2.

It was so interesting to see how each of them had a different view of daily survival and combat.

G Company's War is WWII history (Europe 1944-1945) as recorded in the journals of two soldiers. Who doesn't enjoy reading someone's diary? My dad is mentioned 13 times and sometimes I think he's being talked about even though not mentioned by name: "Some of us who were lucky enough to have a farm boy in our group also had milk, as there were cows in almost every barn." (p. 59) I love this book because my dad is in it. But it's also an enjoyable read and a "YOU ARE THERE" experience. Different from learning about WWII from a textbook.

Note: I appreciate Amazon and its affiliates who can provide almost any book you are interested in purchasing.

This book has two stories. Each one is based on journals kept by soldiers of the 26th Infantry Division. Although the two authors vaguely knew each other neither knew the other was keepng a diary. They are very descriptive especially of the 26th's role in the Lorraine campaign which tend to get overlooked too often in the corpus of works on the ETO. This is a very interesting book.