Customer Reviews

Love, War, and the 96th Engineers (Colored): The World War II New Guinea Diaries of Captain Hyman Samuelson

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3 star:		(1)
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What I never learned in school about World War II, I learned from this book. I recommend it highly to anyone, from the person who enjoys reading romance stories to history buffs....there is something here for everyone. Captain Samuelson's writings are honest and sometimes painful, as he probably never intended his diaries to be published, and I commend Ms. Midlo for presenting (and thereby preserving) a bit of U.S. history, as well as a story of an extraordinary man.

Contemperaneously made diaries and correspondence of Captain Hymie Samuelson, a young Jewish man from New Orleans, introduces the reader to the life of this soldier in the jungles of the South Pacific. The author matures before your eyes during the two and one-half years he leads a segregated engineering unit in New Guinea The tragedy of his personal life reminds us that war is fought by mere mortals.

I very much enjoyed reading the diary and letters of Captain Samuelson and his wife Dora but the compiling editor provides no context for entries other than in brief endnotes and there are no third party observations. In the end she just lets the story of the 96th Battalion fade into oblivion. The title is a definite misnomer.

In addition there are inexcusable errors in the introduction which lead me to believe that Stephen Ambrose (quoted in a blurb) may have seen the archive material but never read the actual manuscript. The editor confuses General Benjamin O. Davis Sr. with his son. Davis earned his commission while an enlisted man and did not attend West Point. He was the only black line officer (not the only black officer) from 1929 to 1936 (when his son graduated West Point) not the only black officer from 1920 - 1940.

If you want to read this for it's glimpse into the life of a white officers view of the Army, get it at your library if you can, it's not worth spending money on if you are interested in the story of a black unit in WWII.

I loved this book -- it's a simple, honest account of one man's experiences in WWII.