Customer Reviews

Fire Mission!: The Siege at Mortain, Normandy, August 1944

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Fire Mission! recalls the harrowing experiences of a 20-year old second lieutenant and his artillery unit during the critical Battle of Mortain in August 1944. This is a sober first hand account of how intelligence, bravery and sheer luck can combine to tilt the outcome of battles.

If the reader scans only the prologue and the first chapter, Fire Mission! might be dismissed as a self-congratulatory memoir written by an aging WWII veteran. Skip these pages. The meat of the book begins on page four. Weiss chronicles in unsentimental terms the role he played as a forward observer on behalf of the 30th Infantry Division. What unfolds is part historiography and part psycho-drama.

I read the book cover to cover in one sitting. It's a gripping story.

I am a longtime World War Two buff. I had always thought of artillery as sedentary, marginally responsive, and relatively ineffective. Robert Weiss's book changed all that. His description of the August 1944 Battle of Mortain is a compelling story of the value of artillery precisely guided. At Mortain, artillery was the deciding factor in the conflict. The narrative is written in a wonderfully clean and straight-forward style, with interludes of deeply pondered introspection about the blood and guts of combat and the vagaries of war. This is an absorbing book for anyone interested in World War Two, in warfare in general, or in the human spirit.

This story is the memoirs of Lt Robert Weiss, a 20 year old who had been in Normandy a month, when he was deployed on top on Hill 314 on Aug 5th as a Artillery Forward Observer for the 230th FAB. He was deployed with Easy Company of the 2nd Battalion, 120th IR of 30th ID just hours before the Germans began their offensive toward Mortain and Avranches 20 miles to the west. The main theme of the story will be the discharge of his duty as the leader of his observation crew in keeping the critical Hill 314 in American hands for the next six days.
The author does a good job in describing the terrain in his jurisdiction, his job as observer and the dedication and bravery of him and the men near him in keeping the enemy from taking that hill, southeast of the small town of Mortain. The Germans had quickly broken through the front lines and bypassed the hill in their attempt to reach the important city of Avranches, with the intent of isolating 3rd Army from 1st Army. The hill became isolated and the defenders were unable to be resupplied. For most of those 6 days, those soldiers were out of food, water, medical supplies and bazooka shells and were running out of M1 shells when the Germans started to retreat. After bypassing the hill to head west, the late arriving Germans concentrated on taking the hill for it was key in holding the area west of town. Using artillery, mortar and tank, the Germans blasted that hill for most of those six days and the author does a good job of describing the hardship experienced on that hill as well as the job Mr Weiss performed as forward observer.
This story is just a microcosm of the entire German offensive, just the sliver of the battle that involved Easy Company and the support that the 230th FAB had in helping the infantry hold that hill. I would like to suggest that you'll need to supplement your reading with Mark Reardon's "Victory at Mortain" for a more complete picture of the whole campaign.

What a wonderful book. Written by a true hero! The book is exciting (even though we all know we won the war), but Bob Weiss keeps you on edge to the very last. Mr Weiss writes with descriptive words that paint a picture of the area and the feelings of all his fellow soldiers. We met the author on vacation and found him to be very intelligent in an unassuming way. It is wonderful that many former and talented soldiers are finally telling their tales before we loose them in death. Mr. Weiss inspired us to purchase this book from Amazon.

A great book about an often forgotten battle that features desparate German forces and a heroic stand be American soldiers.

This book describes how the "Old Hickory" Division held off Hitler's counter attack to stop the Normandy Invasion in France. It is very descriptive of how the field artillery played a very important role in assisting the foot soldier in repelling attack after attack!My father was in the 30th Division and I remember how he would describe this battle to me,especially being surrounded and not knowing if he would survive.This book is a must to understand how the Normandy Invasion was saved.