Customer Reviews

Fearsome Battle: With The Canadian Army In World War II Europe

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A realistic and grabbing account of war in the European Theater. As the Editor of the newsletter of the National Museum of the Pacific War, I read many accounts of combat on both the European and Pacific fronts. This extremely well written book gives an unflinching view into the shattering of boyhood ideals and the horrors and sacrifices of war. The book is notable because it gives the unique view of an American volunteer serving with the Canadian Army in Europe; in addition, the author's use of the third person allows him to talk about things that otherwise might have been too painful to share openly with others. I highly recommend this narrative which goes a long way to dispell any of the so-called glories and glamour associated with the waging of war.

     "Fearsome Battle tells the story of a young American who enlisted in the Canadian Army before America went to war. The writing of Mr. Robert Rogge unceremoniously grabs the reader from the onset. An unusual aspect of Fearsome Battle is that this account has been written in the third person. Mr. Rogge had considerable difficulty writing of the horrors of war he had experienced first hand, from the first person or as seen through his eyes. However, he manages to capture the mind and attention of the reader by describing each account in the short memoir as if from a disinterested bystander reporting the chilling events as they unfolded.

     This World War II personal account narrates small snippets of horrific battlefield action as witnessed firsthand by Mr. Rogge. It delivers a masterful portrayal of a young man's innocent entry into combat and the fulfillment of his coming to age as a seasoned veteran. The war finally ends with his felling a German soldier just prior to hearing that the war has finally ended. The soldier was but a boy, maybe fourteen years of age, but one who would have killed his adversary had he been given the chance.

     Fearsome Battle keeps the reader on the edge of anticipation from the first page to the last.

     I highly recommend this book for any person interested in reading what is in the mind of a combat soldier who fully expects that the next moment in time will be his last.

     Mr. Rogge, Thank You, for an excellent observer's narrative of the brutality of war."

     Joe Richard, web master, World War II Stories -- In Their Own Words.

Fearsome Battle: With The Canadian Army In World War II Europe is the gripping true memoir of Robert Rogge, a 22-year-old American volunteer who served with the Canadian Army during the perilous era of the second world war. Robert personally participated in the assault on Normandy on D-Day, and survived eleven months in the thick of battle until the war's end. Vividly graphic (almost to the point of disturbing) in portraying hand-to-hand combat, artillery bombardment, and the sad, sometimes gruesome job of picking up the dead after the fighting settled, Fearsome Battle is a candid and informative picture of the horrors the Greatest Generation endured to protect the world against Nazi ambitions and fascist intentions. Highly recommended reading and a welcome addition to the growing library of World War II memoirs and autobiographies.

This author tell his story in third person in order to keep the haunting reality of war at a manageable distance, yet he takes the reader into battle with his poignant tellng of it. Told in vignettes, the reader is not fettered by the minutia of a soldiers life, but feels it, tastes it, smells it nonetheless. Rogge exposes the poetic, celestial soul of humanity in the mundane savagery of war through the experiences of one weary, intrepid man who understands that the horrific and the sublime are complementary.

Using his considerable skills as a writer, Rogge drops the reader into the cage of war and unleashes its terrors and hardships on us. This book is the real deal. Its images linger and affect me still. I read it with horrible fascination and a growing appreciation for what these men endured to win the war.

With the greatest respect to the author, Robert Rogge, an American volunteer with the Canadian Army, I must admit that I do not share my fellow reviewers high opinion of the book. What prompted me to purchase it was the unique perspective of an American in the Canadian Army. I have read many tales of Americans joining the RCAF and RAF but nothing on Americans joining the army so I was intrigued. Rogge provides a range of vignettes of varying quality and engagement. His decision to deliver it in a third person style proves clumsy and distracting. He truly has many fine tales to tell but they do not hold together as a book and many do not stand on their own. More insights on the differences between Americans and Canadians would have been interesting. Once again, I have nothing but respect for his service and recollection but it would have been better served as source material for a more comprehensive history on the European Campaign and not a book unto itself. It was also very brief at 149 pages so I was pleased to have bought the Kindle version at the discounted price purely from a value standpoint. I would recommend Mowat's And No Birds Sang instead.