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Normandy 1944: A Young Rifleman's War

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As I think about this book that I've just read I am struck by several rather random, disconnected thoughts.

First there's the writing style. Mr. stodghill is an accomplished writer, and it comes through wonderfully. Sample from the first couple of pages: 'On long summer days we sometimes played at war. Americans versus Germans, a replay fo the war fought by our fathers two decades earlier.' And a paragraph later, 'Curly-haired Lewis Gorkowski died on a battlefield in Italy, lanky Harry McKitrick on another in Germany....'

Second, my stint in the Army was twenty years later clearly said that most things never changed. They woke up one day and were told, 'Today you get your overseas shots.' Stand in line, one in the left, one in the right, seventeen shots. The next day they are told, 'Today you get your overseas shots.' 'But we got them yesterday.' 'They lost the records.' Seventeen more shots. My experience was different, but only in minor details.

Third, Mr. Stodghill went into Normandy shortly after D-Day. The life of a replacement joining an established unit had to be miserable. The vets didn't want to make friends with the newbies. It was then too hard to watch them die and they were too weary to care. The new replacements were alone, alone he was led up to his unit as they were engaged in a fire fight.

Finally, this book is published by one of the new self publishing companies, not one of the big major publishers. This is probably the only way that this book could get published. Mr. Stodghill is not famous. His story is not going to get a big bidget promotional campaign. It is unlikely that this will be made into a movie.

It's good that such publishers have become available, as this is a captivating hard-to-put-down story, well told and well worth your time reading.

This is not a Hollywood version of a WWII story, or a glorified historical version of events. It is the way it really happened.
This is a down to earth in the trenches account of what it was like for an infantryman in the thick of battle in Normandy in 1944. Although our troops were there to fight for our country, their main goal was to stay alive during a horrendous time.
The author is an experienced writer. He puts you in the middle of the action. I felt like I was right there. You can feel the fear; hear the exploding shells and gunfire and, see the death and destruction all around. It makes you wonder about the insanity of war. It also makes you realize that although the enemy must be destroyed they were men with families and dreams too.
Many young people today do not realize the sacrifices of their forefathers. When they complain that they can't find a parking place close to the door of Wal-Mart and have to walk the extra distance they should read how far the troops had to walk. When they complain that the fast food restaurant forgot to put tomatoes on their burger, they should realize what those fighting men had to eat day after day. If a person today complains they are tired and have to work overtime, they should learn how the men in the thick of battle received no sleep or break even when beyond exhaustion. I totally enjoyed this reading experience and recommend the book to all.

I am very nervous to write about such a great author....

Dick Stodghill's "Normandy 1944" is the most undeniable story of a rifleman in combat. Dick gives the glimpses of August 1944. As a student of International student's perspective this is surely a rare book. What Dick writes as an author and his chronicle....This is his book "Normandy 1944: A Young Rifleman's War" . Dick's eyes saw all those ,who were downward on the soil warfare . I felt this book not only a book on history. It is wrapped with the poignant and devout look within the compassion and intelligence of an 18-year-old warrior...

I can say that Dick's book is unexpected, appealing and based on observable facts. While reading you will be trapped on many places where this author was in Normandy and all set to face the German army. He has seen every jeopardy of his life where he has taken it entirely. He has witnessed the injured soldiers, friends blood and mass destruction every where.

Dick has no doubt the best memory and in his book is seen clearly. His people and their allied reminiscences are as unmarked in his mind.

I really wonder that when this author was facing this harsh life of war and destruction....Did he ever think to write it...?

Why the myth prevails in this world that soldiers are hard hearted. While reading Dick's book I always had Dick's picture in my mind. When I was new to this board I first went to see who is Dick.?Don't know why. I was learning those days how to make posts...and truly speaking through his short visits and rare posts and blunt comments. I thought that God!!!!!This author is really rude. I am sorry Dick...but your book has changed my mind and many views. You are the most insightful and touching person on this board..

As I write this review, I am nearly three-quarters through Dick Stodghill's book, Normandy: A young rifleman's war. I have only had the book a few days, carrying it back and forth from my job each day. My break time at work provides me the best opportunity for reading. However, I've found it nearly impossible to tear myself away from Dick's book when it's time to go back to work.
I have always loved reading anything to do with history and of course Dick's book centers around that. I've watched countless documentaries concerning WW2, in particular the Normandy invasion: Dick's book has filled in the many `gaps' left out by those. I've come away with a much better understanding of what our troops went through in liberating France. Dick was there and gives a first hand, undiluted, account of what took place: He did not embellish nor detract from those events, simply told it as it was. Dick did not write to impress anyone nor to try and make it appear he or others were not anything other than what they were or what they did. In essence Dick's book is an honest, sometimes brutal, account of the war and its combatants.
I would greatly recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn from someone who's been there, what it was like: Keeping in mind no one can truly know what it was like and should be very glad and hope they never will know.
Dick and others like him who served in WW2 are getting fewer and fewer as age does what the war was unable to do. I am so glad that Dick has written this book so that these memories are not erased, for we the beneficiaries should have something to remind us why war is so terrible, not glorious.
Richard Neal Huffman - Author of Dreams In Blue: The Real Police.

I have photographs taken in Normandy in 1984 of my young children standing in front of ruins of military vehicles still at the site. As I look into the faces of my children in the photos, I realize they were only a couple of years younger than Dick Stodghill was when he was there to fight a war. I remember looking down at the pristine Normandy beaches and thinking if I had not known what had happened there from history books, and had not seen the memorials or walked through the cemetery, I would still have known something monumental had occurred there. As others have said also, when standing there looking down at the sea, tears come from unknown places in one's being.

As I read Normandy 1944, by Dick Stodghill, I realized the writer's memory is phenomenal and his skill as a writer outstanding. He remembered the words of comrades as well as the looks on their faces. This book is filled with unusual incidents, incidents that are not in the history books. Dick writes with a matter-of-fact style that influenced this reader to believe he is speaking the absolute truth. Dick speaks of heroes and villains, which include both generals and privates, on both sides of the war. He gives the glory to his comrades who gave their lives and at times saved his.

In June 1994, we were again visiting Normandy with friends. The father of one of these friends had also fought there in 1944. We drove through towns with more American flags than I had ever seen in one day. We stayed at a hotel in Calais filled with veterans who had come over on a ferry from the same place in England they had left 50 years before. In 1994, they had come thanks to the London taxicab drivers, who also brought their taxicabs and would take the veterans to the events the next day commemorating D-Day. We spent the evening in the bar listening to stories from these men, men with stories similar to Dick's. The next morning we got up early and shook their hands as we saw them off to spend a day far different than they had fifty years before. Dick Stodghill was also on those roads in 1994. Perhaps we ate at the same restaurant or stopped at the same commemorative site.

We need to listen to all these stories because as Dick says, "An infantryman may survive the battles, but will forever be burdened with the memories." I am reminded of a Walt Whitman poem written in 1865, where he speaks of those suffering after a battle being the "musing comrade and the remaining armies."

What you will find in this book is summed up in a quote Dick includes from Field-Marshall Lord Wavell to Basil Liddell Hart, "If I had anything like your abilities to study war, I think I would concentrate almost entirely on the `actualities' of war--the effects of tiredness, hunger, fear, lack of sleep, weather...." Dick has done this in a remarkable way with words that will not soon be forgotten. This is one of the best books on World War II I have ever read. It brings history alive most effectively for this and future generations.

MR. Stodgill gives the reader a rare emotional personal experience of the life of an 18 year old Infantry soldier's obervations and impressions of daily close combat during the Normandy Campaign. Outspoken and honest. Spares no punches in describing good and bad leadership from Generals on down the leadership chain in the bloody hedge row fighting following the Normandy Invasion.

There cannot be enough books written about any war by any soldier who has lived through its horrors. It helps those of us at home appreciate what they have experienced and adds to the hope that one day, perhaps, we won't have to go through it all again.

Dick Stodghill has done a superb job of telling us about one of those wars. I was born in August 1944 so knew nothing of his and others tormented days and terrible nights during World War II as it happened; the destruction of city and town, countryside and hamlet, and nations; the tremendous human loss and ruined lives. I heard about them as I grew up, and as I grew I learned to appreciate our service men and women because of parents and community members who cared.

There are many positives comments about Dick's writing in the reviews of Normandy 1944: A Young Rifleman's War and about his humanity with which I agree. His descriptions of the Normandy Invasion, his arrival there, and the following days and weeks are at once compelling and heart-wrenching. His devotion to his fellow soldiers endearing and long-lasting and so common among comrades-at-arms. There can never be too many of these heartfelt stories, stories and men/women we must never forget.

There are many good books about WWII. Here are some of my favorites: Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose; Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys by James Bradley; and When We Were One by W.C. Heinz.

January 19, 2007: We see and hear much about the invasion at the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, but the days following were horrific as well. Lost photos have been found that show the killing fields of northern France in those desperate days as the Allies attempted to drive the German forces from France. The History Channel program `Lost Evidence: Breakout from Normandy" aired this evening at 8:00 p.m. and tells the story of the battles that followed the landing on the beaches.

Former WWII soldier and author of this book, Dick Stodghill, appears on the program along with other war heroes who describe the bloody battles that took place after the beach landings. Allied forces (U.S., Canada and Britain) eventually win the territory, but at a huge cost in lives on both sides of the battle. Early on, many Allied soldiers were killed as the Germans fought from the hedgerows that lined French roads. These hedgerows allowed excellent cover for man and Panzer and the Germans used the cover well; and, as happens in all wars, some of our soldiers were lost to friendly fire from Allied bombs dropped on the area.

If you are a student of history, especially of WWII, Lost Evidence is well worth watching (and Stodghill's book is worth reading). The lost, now found, photos, taken from airplanes flying above, show the battles as they took place below. The program will repeat on January 26, 2007 at 8:00p.m. on the History Channel.

Carolyn Rowe Hill

Dick Stodghill has written a very penetrating book about the days following the June 6, 1944 landing of the allied invasion forces at Normandy on the beaches of France. Dick's description of war comes from the eyes of a young soldier who saw war from the perspective of men who experienced war from foxholes, artillery craters, and behind or under anything that might provide protection, even if that protection was only temporary. His eyes saw war through the eyes of other soldiers too; eyes that portrayed the misery, horror, sudden death, and the sharp edges of war that permanently wound the soul. He also saw war through the eyes of soldiers whose eyes would never open again.

Dick Stodghill experienced and witnessed first-hand the unfolding of war as it seemed to progress in some bizarre organized confusion; that unreal vantage point from which men who do the fighting and dying, and those who somehow miraculously manage to survive and come home, yet never able to forget the images of war that were painted so indelibly upon their memories. Often feeling helpless yet duty bound to follow orders from somewhere above; it is the riflemen, the grunts, the gravel crunchers, the mud dogs, those heroes of battle who must carry on, day by miserable day, to final victory or defeat. This book is a fitting tribute to all the soldiers who brought us victory in one of the world's greatest conflicts.

`Normandy 1944 - A Young Rifleman's War' is one of those books that should be mandatory reading for military officers attending senior officer schools such as the Army's Command and General Staff College and War College. The best officers come from those officers who have walked in the boots of their men.

I've read many military books and find that Dick Stodghill's "Normandy 1944" is the most compelling account of a rifleman in combat that I've ever read. As historian of the National 4th Infantry Division Association, I am very aware of the actions that Dick describes in June, July, and August 1944. I would highly recommend it to any military reader and will insure that all our 4ID vets know about this outstanding addition to our WWII history.

Normandy 1944: A Young Rifleman's War
Charlie
Dick Stodghill has made one thing clear in his book and that is war meant comrades in arms. That is what motivated him and the men that fought around him to continue on when things might have at times seemed otherwise senseless to them. I read this book and was enamered with Dick Stodghill's quality storytelling while at the same time telling us in graphic detail what actually happened during those trying summer months in 1944. Please put this book on your must read list. Historian or not, WWII buff or not, you will not be disappointed. I guarantee it.