Other Clay: A Remembrance of the World War II Infantry [Paperback]

Charles R. Cawthon (Author), Jerry Cooper (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Other Clay is a survivor’s account of World War II infantry combat, told by a front-line officer whose 116th Infantry Regiment landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day and fought its way across Europe to the Elbe.

Charles R. Cawthon joined the Virginia National Guard in 1940—to avoid being drafted and to spend his expected one year of service in officer training. When America entered the war, his division was among the first shipped out to England, where they spent two years preparing to spearhead the largest amphibious military operation in history.

On the beaches of Normandy, on June 6, 1944, the U.S. Army suffered its heaviest casualties since Gettysburg. The losses were greatest among the infantry companies that led the assault, and Cawthon describes firsthand the furious and deathly chaos of the daylong battle to get off the beach and up the heights. Reduced by casualties to half its preinvasion strength, Cawthon’s regiment still managed to fight off German counterattacks and engage in an all-out pursuit across France before the Germans counterattacked again at the Ardennes forest.

Thoughtful, candid, and revealing, Cawthon’s memoir is a deeply felt and carefully recollected study of men confronting the face of death—their fear, their courage, their hunger and exhaustion, their loyalty to one another, and their miraculous and unreasoning ability to go one more step, one more day, one more mile.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A calm, wise, beautifully written memoir that some think is the finest account we have of World War II combat on the company level.”—American Heritage

(American Heritage )

“If a person can read only a single World War II memoir this year, this is the book to choose.”—WWII History

(WWII History )

From the Inside Flap

Other Clay is a survivor’s account of World War II infantry combat, told by a front-line officer whose 116th Infantry Regiment landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day and fought its way across Europe to the Elbe.

Charles R. Cawthon joined the Virginia National Guard in 1940—to avoid being drafted and to spend his expected one year of service in officer training. When America entered the war, his division was among the first shipped out to England, where they spent two years preparing to spearhead the largest amphibious military operation in history.

On the beaches of Normandy, on June 6, 1944, the U.S. Army suffered its heaviest casualties since Gettysburg. The losses were greatest among the infantry companies that led the assault, and Cawthon describes firsthand the furious and deathly chaos of the daylong battle to get off the beach and up the heights. Reduced by casualties to half its preinvasion strength, Cawthon’s regiment still managed to fight off German counterattacks and engage in an all-out pursuit across France before the Germans counterattacked again at the Ardennes forest.

Thoughtful, candid, and revealing, Cawthon’s memoir is a deeply felt and carefully recollected study of men confronting the face of death—their fear, their courage, their hunger and exhaustion, their loyalty to one another, and their miraculous and unreasoning ability to go one more step, one more day, one more mile.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803264429
• ISBN-13: 978-0803264427
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #873,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly a Classic WW II Memoir, May 20, 2004

By 

A. C. Harrison (Auburn, Alabama United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Other Clay: A Remembrance of the World War II Infantry (Hardcover)

Cawthon's Other Clay is one of the finest memoirs of World War II that I have read. The tone is serious without being pompous, the language precise but poetic, the organization exactly as events transpired. Anyone who wants to know how confusing events were sorted out by individual soldiers on D-Day, and how brave and inventive American soldiers were after the landing, should read Cawthon's description of his experience, finding his way back into action after everything transpired unlike it was planned.
This memoir inspired the writing of my own Unsung Valor: A GI's Story of World War II. I only wish my own book matched its elegance in every respect.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gentle Classic, March 24, 2002

By 

Grant Waara (Lusk, Wyoming, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Other Clay (Dell Nonfiction War Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

I first became aware of this book when reading American Heritage's D-Day issue. They believed this work was one of the finest World War II memoirs. I found a beat up paperback and I have to agree.

Cawthon served with the 116th Regiment ("The Stonewall Brigade") of the 29th Division and was in the second wave on Omaha Beach. That he survived that maelstrom is amazing as well as the siege of Brest and the Autumn fighting on the German border.

His book is not even 200 pages long, but it's quiet, modest tone is wonderful and a welcome antidote to all "I did this," style memoir by most officers.

His articles for American Heritage, especially the D-Day commemorative (June 1994) are worth looking for. His was a gentleman soldier and a gifted observer and a fine writer.
If you add this book to Balkoski's "Beyond the Beachhead," and Glover Johns' "The Clay Pigeons of St. Lo," and you will have a superb trilogy on the Blue Gray Division in World War II.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a memoir that mixes eras, September 10, 2010

By 

Luke Killion - See all my reviews

This review is from: Other Clay: A Remembrance of the World War II Infantry (Paperback)

Charles Cawthon's record of his experience in "Other Clay" provides a look at the ETO through nearly the entire length of combat during the fatal year of June 44-May 45. Cawthon did not participate in the winter campaign due to wounds, but is one of the few soldiers who landed at Omaha and made it through to the border of Germany. He served in the 116th regiment (2nd battalion) of the 29th Infantry Division. His regiment had the distinction of being the descendant of the famous Stonewall Brigade of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. This link forms the basis for many of Cawthon's ideas as he writes his recollections of war. There was always present in his mind the importance of what he was doing in an historical sense. Throughout the book there are constant references and comparisons to the original brigade and the Army of Northern Virginia, and how he and the 116th attempted to live up to the impressive achievements of the original unit. He begins chapters with quotations from poets and soldiers, most notably those of Henry Kyd Douglas whose memoirs from the Stonewall brigade were certainly a model for "Other Clay."

Though Cawthon's writing is somewhat somber and unemotional, there is poetry in his prose; his construction of language is very unique and harkens back to Victorian notions of honor and service. Cawthon does not dwell upon acts of bravery in the face of death and romantic notions of honor, but within his story there is a sense of patriotism predating the awful age of modern war fare that he finds himself in. This contradiction within him is one of the more fascinating aspects of the book as he comes to grips with the brutal reality of modern industrialized warfare which is both inhuman and depersonalized. I think his attempts to hold on to a fragment of history were a crutch of sorts, albeit an honorable one in that he needed to feel that sense of duty, camaraderie and honor which was all so prevalent during pre-modern wars. The "great crusade" in Europe proved that these notions were still alive, but certainly at the end of their time. After the discovery of the death camps the moral imperative of restoring freedom and justice really did ring true, but this did little to mitigate the awful horrors that the soldier must endure. Cawthon describes the mentality of the soldier as being a "self-induced schizophrenia" which separates the rational, feeling part of a human from the part which must perform his deadly duty. His recognition of war's insanity is a notion more akin to Hemingway, who noted war's destruction with cold, detached observation. So in a sense, Cawthon's work is really quite a literary achievement as well as a record of a decorated Major who commanded an infantry battalion, as he writes in a Victorian prose in with the recognition of a modern soldier.

Cawthon's tale begins as he leaves his job as print journalist in Virginia to enlist in the National guard in 1940. After completing OCS he is promoted to Captain and takes over H company of the 116th, only to be transferred to HQ company staff before the invasion of France. His recollections from Omaha provide a very unique and rare perspective as, so few soldiers hit the beaches under fire and survived. Though his account of the landing is fraught with death and chaos, it comes as across as somewhat vague and blurred, which is understandable given the conditions. His accounts of the St. Lo campaign in June and July of 44 are more of a battalion history as he was a staff officer, not a field commander. It is not until he takes over 2nd battalion upon the breakout from Normandy and the drive across France that the story becomes personally engaging. His memories during this time from Vire and Brest in France are excellent perspectives of a high-ranking field officer, as is his short but dangerous stint on the Siegfried line near Aachen, Germany. During his first week back on the lines in October, he is wounded by a mortar fragment, and did not return to his unit until the following April. By that time the war is all but over, and Cawthon witnesses the devastation throughout Germany as part of the occupying force.