K-Rations, Kilroy, Kp, & Kaputt: One Gi's War [Paperback]

Henry K. Davis (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 402 pages
• Publisher: Merrick & Litchfield Pub Co (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964679507
• ISBN-13: 978-0964679504
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,033,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What did you do in the war, Daddy?, August 2, 2010

By 

Wulfstan "wulfstan" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: K-Rations, Kilroy, Kp, & Kaputt: One Gi's War (Paperback)

Well, the GI who wrote this fairly humorous and true-to-life tale certainly won't give his kids nightmares about harrowing combat tales.

What is interesting about this book is that it isn't a combat story book at all. There is no actual combat.

Hanging around with my Dad's WWII buddies down at the VFW allowed me to hear plenty of stories about the war- but mostly about sadistic DIs, bad and good officers, bad chow, funny stories about Basic Training, and sneaking out to get a beer or two. Not much about actual combat, and almost never any mention of their personal bravery- and these were guys with chests full of "fruit salad". Reading this book was exactly like listening to those veterans.

The author had the misfortune (or is it good fortune?) to stay most of WWII in a "Repple-Depple" unit, seeing almost no combat whatsoever (well, his Anti-aircraft unit did fire a few shots at what might have been a Nazi Bomber coming over the Channel). That doesn't mean he didn't have his share of adventures... and misadventures.

The book covers from Basic training until after VE Day, during which time the author was part of the Occupation forces in Germany.

Quite funny in several places.

4.0 out of 5 stars Who knew war could be so, um, ordinary?, December 17, 2010

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: K-Rations, Kilroy, Kp, & Kaputt: One Gi's War (Paperback)

K-RATIONS, KILROY, KP, & KAPUTT (KKK & K) is author Henry Davis's reminiscences of his U.S. Army service during World War II beginning with his report for duty in May 1943 to his demob in early 1946.

Henry is assigned to and trained in Anti-Aircraft Artillery. Yet, except for a few rounds fired at what were reported to be enemy aircraft buzzing Allied pre-D-Day training maneuvers on the England's south coast beaches, he sees no combat action. Rather, after leaving the States, he spends most of his time sick in the hospital, marooned in replacement depots in England, and, finally, serving with a Civil Censorship Detachment initially in liberated France and then in occupied Germany after the Nazi surrender. Plus a month in Belfast at the end of 1945, ostensibly on a military-sponsored civilian work assignment that turns into a jolly.

Henry's account is both personable and engagingly self-deprecatory. For anyone desiring insight into the day-to-day existence of the rear-area enlisted GI Joe, this is the book to read. On the other hand, the material is also its primary handicap; it's no Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memories of Major Dick Winters (Thorndike Paperback Bestsellers). At no time are the author's experiences so riveting that one can't put it down to do other things. Say, clean out the cat litter box or do thirty minutes on the treadmill. For that reason, its length - 400 pages - becomes problematic. Some judicious trimming-off of a hundred or so would've stirred me to think more highly of the whole.

Unfortunately, KKK & K even falls short as a quasi-guidebook to the sights that Davis had the opportunity to see while in the United Kingdom, France and Germany because he apparently didn't think to record in his journals the historical and contemporary details that would've added interest. For instance, he mentions in passing having visited Salisbury Cathedral, one of the most magnificent such edifices in Europe, but not one descriptive word about the place appears in the text. And the reference to his exploration of the beautiful old city of York is almost criminally sparse. (I know because I've wandered both locales multiple times.) However, one must forgive Davis this as he never intended KKK & K to be a travel handbook.

Henry strikes me as being the sort of congenial fellow with whom one could sit around and swap embellished stories over a few beers. In KKK & K, he successfully accomplishes what intended to do, which was to describe a soldier's life (far) behind the front trenches and share some amusing anecdotes about the bureaucratic military mind. So, in spite of the volume's shortcomings, I'm awarding four stars.