Customer Reviews

Foot Soldier: A Combat Infantryman's War In Europe

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

To list all the statements in Roscoe Blunt's book "Foot Soldier" that are factually incorrect would take more space
than a review should use. I will cover only one action, the Roer River crossing. I made this crossing with the first assault in a boat at 0330 23 February 1944. I was a member of the 1st Battalion Headquarters Company Antitank Platoon 334th Regiment 84th Division. For the Roer crossing I was part of a bazooka team attached to Rifle Company C. This operation is accurately portrayed in the 334th Regimental History "Fortune Favored the Brave", Mannheimer Grossdruckerei, August 1945. My name PFC Douglas J Harvey on page 136 establishes that I was in this attack. The Divisional History "The 84th Infantry Division in The Battle Of Germany" states Blunt's Regiment, the 333, crossed the Roer River on the 24th on the well-established bridgehead. His account indicates tanks were crossing at the same time. The first tanks crossed noon of the 24th establishing that he was not in the first wave. Only two air attacks by individual aircraft, ME 262s, one of which was shot down, are mentioned in the 84th divisional history. However, artillery hits were frequent. Blunt's stories of throwing grenades, being strafed by waves of planes, and hand to hand fighting after crossing on the foot bridge are pure fantasy. This all supposedly took place 36 hours after the initial attack of which I was a part. I had difficulty in reading all of Blunts book because of my frequent anger by his distortion of facts. No star was not an option or I would have used it.

Douglas J Harvey
PFC 1st Battalion Headquarters Company Antitank Platoon 334th Regiment 84th Infantry Division

here is an infantryman using a 1 1/2 ton truck supposedly to carry various types of 57mm shells and other ordinance, he, to carry loot that he shows like a kid finding a prize in a crackerjack box. and his the youngest soldier to win the sharpshooters badge?c'mon roscoe, where and when, that was a stateside award in about your 4th week of basic.have you heard from any railsplitters lately,? i have., l, like you, a former gun corporal 335th reg't 3rd battalion anti tank platoon. what did i bring home? the honor of being a railsplitter. the heroes who stopped the german push after they circled bastogne to the north. if they crossed the ourthe river and through us, they were on their way to antwerp our main supply port. but the 84th held and held even though exhausted from weeks of combat in the 9th army at geilenkirchen outside aachen on german land, before being rushed south to the ardennes to plug the gap.... did i read your book? yep bought it right here may 03Foot Soldier: A Combat Infantryman's War in Europe

I started reading this book inspite of the fact that all the 84th veterans I know said it was "Pure B.S." I could not finish it because it was obviously fabrication. In my years of researching what the 84th did, specifically the 2nd Btn 333 in which my dad was a 1st Sgt I have not been as disappointed as when I read this book. To all those who thought it was so inspiring, wouldn't the truth be more inspiring? Mr Blunt did serve with the 84th. It would have been nice to find out what he really did.

I have read many books on fighting in the European theater in WWII. I have also heard first hand accounts from my uncles who fought in Europe including one who was a tank driver under Gen. Patton. I must say I found Roscoe Blunt's book hard to believe. He states he received special training to defuse landmines and bombs. But after being in combat for serveral months he never was called upon to use his special training. At one point during the Battle of the Bulge he mentions he leaves his foxhole alone, at night to reconoiter thru a minefield toward German lines then becomes disoriented and lost. If that is an example of how a "battle tested" soldier acts then it's amazing he lived to tell the tale.
I have to believe most of what is written in this book is highly embellished to say the least.

As personal memoirs go, you have to give them a lot of slack but this one pushes the limits. The reader is challenged to swallow the author's story that in a little more than six months he single-handedly killed the enemy (occasionally in hand-to-hand), captured large scores of Germans, shot down aircraft, knocked-out tanks, and most importantly looted his way across war-torn Europe. I was left wondering if I had somehow missed his personal discovery of Hitler's bunker. Small wonder there was no other collaboration with anyone else in the 84th.

As only a few WW2 survivors have succeeded in doing (notably Don Burgett and E.B.Sledge), Mr Blunt has proven once again that vivid, detailed accounts of combat by men who were there, are simply the best. The fact that this work has been ignored by mainstream book reviewers, as well as that 'Guru of WW2 history', Stephen Ambrose, does not surprise me. This book, first published in 1994, is curiously missing from the bibliography of 'Citizen Soldiers', but it is the best ETO Combat Infantryman's account I have ever read. This book is "too honest", and gives the blemishes right along with the glory. The author had to march from Omaha Beach to Paris in the fall of 1944, and he literally passed out twice under his 100 lb equipment load, while enroute. Among other things, he was pelted with rocks and apples along with his fellow GIs as they marched past Caen-this by French farmers, who were incensed over the thousands of French lives lost to Allied bombing raids. That, plus the cold blooded murder of some German prisoners which Blunt describes, are not the stuff to be found in Ambrose's rose-colored view of the war in Europe. Blunt also describes SS atrocities, hand to hand combat, being knocked unconscious by explosions, and the incredibly horrible weather conditions endured by footsoldiers in the Bulge. He also describes the lust for frontline souvenir collecting in a way I've never seen written by any survivor of the war against Nazi Germany. If there was a way to give this book more than five stars, I would do it. You might have to order it from an online book dealer, but don't miss it-it may be the best combat book ever written by an ETO survivor.

It's really easy for me to believe how Mr. Blunt could be one of the primary contributors to the WWII HD series. It's the utterly fantastic embellishments that draw attention to Hollywood stories like these. I have the utmost respect for those of the greatest generation; but doggone if I'll swallow this conrtrivance. I'm a veteran of 15 years--and still serving; and, cannot hold a candle to the hell those boys of WWII went through, so it's not like I'm personaaly insensed. When I saw the series, WWII in HD, I wondered then if Mr. Blunt was embellishing a little. Having reviewed the book and its subsequent reviews, I think my suspecions were confirmed. Honestly, I would have not used Mr. Blunt for the series--it saddens the credibility of a series that otherwise is worthy of critical acclaim. Actually, I would bet that the men (who actually served then) are correct in their one star reviews of the book. However, on a more cheerie note, I do hope that both the author of the book and those who made the series made some good money------now that's Hollywood at it's best.

As a retired veteran, I very quickly recognized Blunt (from his own words) as one of the slackers and undesirables in military service. In that light, the book is interesting as a memoir of someone who should have been run out of the service on a rail instead of being a member of the famed RailSplitters. However, from other accounts by members of the 84th, Blunt's account appears to be more fiction that fact. For those cynical readers who expect our servicemen to be lazy, barbaric, self-seeking and weak minded, this book will no doubt confirm their expectations-- but it is far from the truth. Most servicemen in the ETO did their duty with honor and fortitude. Most of the NCO's in ETO were competent and did what they could to keep their men alive, as were most of the officers whose death rate exceeded all others. Blunt has derision for everyone except Blunt. He is one of those "Jerks" and "Sad Sacks" Ambrose writes about in "Citizen Soldier." Skip this one. Try "If You Survive" by George Wilson, "Roll me Over" by Raymond Gantter or "Parachute Infantry" by David Webster for more realistic personal accounts of Army life in the ETO.

Foot Soldier by Roscoe C. Blunt, Jr.

Foot Soldier is Roscoe C. Blunt's story of his experience in WWII. My review for this book will be different than many others. Why, well, Mr. Blunt totally failed with this book. This is a one star book. Mr. Blunt, to put it bluntly, was a blow hard and a sad sack. I'll admit that I failed to finish reading the book, mainly because I got tired of his blow hard ways. When ever Mr. Blunt is doing something, either he's a total slacker or the most heroic person there is. Examples; in crossing the Atlantic Mr. Blunt was so sick that he couldn't move from his bunk space and barely survived; after landing in England (his units was the 84th ID) he tells about men from his unit mixing it up in a pub with men from the 82nd Airborne. This is physically impossible due to the 84th landing in England on 1 October, the 82nd Airborne Division was involved in Operation Market Garden and the post Market Garden operations with the British. In addition, Mr. Blunt talks about walking from Normandy to the front and developing blisters. This is very doubtful since the 84th landed in Normandy between 1-4 November and was deployed in the Netherlands between 5-12 November. After reading Mr. Blunts tripe (in the first 50 pages) I just had to give it up. If you want to read historical fiction that's not that good, read this; if you want to read a good memoir from a man who fought in WWII, read Bootprints!

I've read numerous World War II memoirs (I collect them), and this is one of the best. Many veterans unfortunately (American and German) describe their combat experiences in general terms ("we had some vicious fighting there")or ("the suffering was horrible"), and don't realize that it is in the gritty details where their experiences come alive. So often after reading a memoir (and spending money on it) I am disappointed that the author passed over his experiences in such a way. Not this guy! He goes into the horrible day to day details of life in combat, including atrocities by both sides, with chilling particulars, and gives you some idea (as much as can be gotten from a comfortable chair) of how bad it really was. I really wish I could talk to this man. Buy this book. You will not regret it.