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Roll Me Over: An Infantryman's World War II

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Ganttner's book is an oddly overlooked minor masterpiece. The military action is similar to that of George Wilson's *Company Commander*--with the bulk of the narrative recounting the rapid pursuit of the defeated and retreating Wehrmacht. Like Wilson, Gantter has a gift for describing combat action and the rhythm of daily military life, but he also has a powerful meditative and lyric talent unlike that of any other such memoir. This is easily the most perceptive, morally sensitive, and emotionally intelligent account of this part of the war from the front-line soldier's perspective. Ganttner has all the standard combat soldier's feeling of comraderie and of pride in victory, but he also has enough moral sensitivity to register in exquisite detail the anguish of the terrified German civilians. I suppose the book has been overlooked in part because readers who are interested in front-line action are often simple-minded and morally obtuse, and readers who are receptive to humane reflection and lyric sensitivity do not look for those qualities in memoirs of war. If you are fascinated with the experience of war and also appreciate writing of a high literary order, this book will offer a kind of satisfaction seldom found.

"Roll Me Over" by Raymond Gantter; sub-titled: "An Infantryman's World War II."
Ivy Books, New York, 1997.

This is a very personal reminiscence of an infantryman's progress across Europe, from Normandy to Prague, during the last year of battle in World War II. Private Gantter was college educated when most of his compatriots were not. He preferred classical music to the more popular "jazz" of his buddies. R. Gantter was married while most of his fellow GIs were not. He was sensitive and, like his companions, afflicted by homesickness ...which also included being with his wife and children. His daily observations of war and its effects were recorded sporadically (on scraps of paper) and later served as the basis for this book. All of this results in a sensitive, personal and compassionate analysis of the advance of the American Army across Europe.

Gantter's ability, however limited, to speak German put him in demand, and gave him additional insight into the impact of the war on civilian population, even though they were the enemy. Some incidents in his career as translator reinforced his negative opinion of the officers of the US Army. For example, he was rushed down to act as translator to find that the American officer was dealing with petty concerns: the warmth in the commandeered house, the placement of furniture and so on. Throughout the book, Gantter has very little good to say about the officers of the American Army, thereby echoing other books describing personal disappointments of the officer cast of the same era. There were few "Chesty Pullers".

Gantter does present poignant imagery, as in his description of the shooting and killing of a German soldier, whose overcoat flaps were flouncing up and down as he ran way in the snow. As a side issue, his personal recollection of the house holds shrines he found in Germany (even though he called some "Bleeding Heart" when he meant "Sacred Heart") is an independent confirmation of the inability of the Nazi Party to stamp out the faith and devotion of German Catholics. (For comparison, see: "Under The Bombs" by Earl R. Beck, "The German Home Front 1942-1945" University Press of Kentucky, 1986.)

What makes Raymond Gantter's book so valuable is that it is based on notes taken during combat from November 1944 through the end of the war, his letters home, and pulling all of his memories together in the immediate postwar years. Gantter was no ordinary GI: thirty years old, a college graduate, German speaking, and with a considerable talent for writing with feeling and meaning. Because he spoke German, Gantter gives us a better appreciation of German civilian reactions than most other stories of the ground war. His accounts of the front-line infantryman, the danger, the confusion, the seemingly randomness and senselessness of what often had to be done comes through with a clarity few other first-hand accounts of the war in Europe have achieved. There is no grand strategy explained here, no maps to follow, but only the ground-eye view of orders to take Point 69, to advance to the ridgeline a mile ahead. And during this, Gantter reflects on what it means, or doesn't mean. He also does not hesitate to describe actions of soldiers that seldom occur in the histories. Side-by-side with heroism and gallantry, there was also fear, cowardness, stupidity, and animalistic behavior. By all means read Gantter's account of the ground war as it really was as a necessary supplement to the standard accounts written decades later by historians who never dug a foxhole or ate C-rations.

I compare this book with those of Don Burgett (CURRAHEE! & SEVEN ROADS TO HELL) and Ross S. Carter (THOSE DEVILS IN BAGGY PANTS), paratroopers in WWII. Gantter was not one of the gung-ho elite paratroops of the 101st or the 82nd, and he didn't participate in the desperate kinds of actions the paratroopers saw, but he experienced his share of fighting and misery from northern France to the Bulge and on into Das Reich. While I prefer the books of Burgett and Carter (you can't match them for vivid and wrenching personal accounts of hand-to-hand death struggles with the toughest of nazi troops), many readers will relate to Gantter's story--perhaps more than they might to that of the tougher, better trained paratroops, with their elite warrior attitudes. He conveys the emotion of the ordinary GI (although one with a college degree-rare in WWII front-line GI's) who finds himself killing other men, and who reflects a lot on the maelstrom he's caught up in (though he doesn't question the cause). This book should be read in conjunction with Stephen Ambrose's "CITIZEN SOLDIER", though Ambrose somehow missed this book, for he doesn't include Raymond Gantter's work as a source for his extensively researched WWII books. This is an omission that Raymond Gantter doesn't deserve, for he was definitely one of America's WWII "citizen soldiers".

Ganttner pieces this book together from notes and personal memory after the war. It is as disjointed and at times confusing as it must have really have been. The reality of war, the sensation of killing another human being, the shock of being caught in an explosion, the confusion, the loneliness. Gantter captures these details very well and his writting style is simple and descriptive. One of the best first person accounts I've read. Gives a better sense of continuity of an individual soldier than an Ambrose book, including the boredom of being a soldier at times. Gantter doesn't tout himself a hero, which makes the times and events he writes about even more heroic!

I am a veteran of the 78th Infantry Div., and have written about this same period of time. I find this book very well written and quite authenic. Mr. Gantter was a very intelligent man, and I would have liked to meet him.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Having read many military histories, it is refreshing to read a common soldier's (with uncommon perception) view of the war. What I most enjoyed was the descriptions of small unit tactics and logistics that are often overlooked by professional military historians. I have often heard it said that war is a hours of boredom punctuated with moments of sheer terror. I think Mr. Ganttner conveys this sense admirably. Well worth the time to read.

I've read other first-hand accounts and none other stacks up the way this one does. Others tell only of their experiences, Gantter's "holier-than-thou" approach (as another reviewer put it) in some of his philophizing is valid because it's humans who are at war, not robots. Humans question and wonder and review and it's completely natural. This book put a different, almost more human twist on the experiences of war. He's telling me not only how he feels through his experiences, but why. Not everyone will enjoy this format but to get a full picture I believe this book will fill many gaps.

Ramond Gantter's "Roll Me Over, An Infantryman's World War II", is truley a wonderfull book. I have read it from cover to cover 4 times, and im working on my 5th. It includes reflection upon one mans thoughts and soul, as well as cant-put-the-book-down-action. It is a very powerfull book. So much so, when i get a snack, i feel lucky to be able to munch on what ever, instead of a D-bar, or C rations.

Being a huge fan of Stephen Ambrose, who seems to relate what life is really like in the trenches, Gantter omits the patriotic bent and gives a vivid description of the hardships endured. This is the finest book I have read yet on the bitter conditions faced by the soldiers at the front. While his musings on poetry and past childhood experiences can be downright annoying at times, the basic message comes across like a kick in the gut. Definitely recommended for those who wish to know what life was REALLY like, from casually watching a tank destroyer with a buddy when a sniper strikes, to having his soldiers politely refuse to clean the frozen, gummy blood off the needed weapon of a recently killed member of the platoon, this is gritty, very interesting reading.