Customer Reviews

Visions from a Foxhole: A Rifleman in Patton's Ghost Corps

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My name is Russell Bryant. I was a rifleman B company, 376th regiment, 94th division at the same time as Mr Foley. My war didn't last as long as Foley's as I was seriously wounded in a boat trying to cross the Saar river on 23 February, l945. I saw action around Sinz, took part in the marching fire attack that took Banholz Woods and the attack on the far end of Munzingen Ridge. Mr Foley's drawings more accurately portray the faces and eyes of front line riflemen than any that I have seen. His narrative descriptions of war seem to me to be very accurate. I was deeply moved as I read and re-read the book. I
find ilt strange that some who claim to have their own very unusual experiences find it necessary to criticize some of Foley's experiences. It was my experience that the "unusual" in combat is really the usual. I have given copies of the book to many people who are very interested in "our war" every single one of them expressed their praises. Thankfully, Mr. Foley did not attempt to write a broad "history" of WW11. We have many of those with their broad views and sweeping generalities. Thank you Bill Foley for showing the true story of individuals who literally "ground" out the war.

This is an American Classic and a must read for anyone who wants live in the shoes of an American rifleman in an infantry platoon. The author is also an excellent artist and his wartime pictures are so compelling that you are living with him.

I am the Historian of the 35th Infantry Div. and served in Normandy till the end of the war and frankly I didn't expect that the book would be so compelling. After all Foley was a replacement who didn't arrive in the battle area until mid January of 1945 when the battle of the Bulge was starting to wind down. I was wrong.

Foley landed in the middle of some of the most vicious small units battles of the war and he tells his story in great detail as his memory draws a picture that brings the reader into the foxhole with him. It is not a pretty picture and he does not hide his faults and the savage instincts that come into play when you are fighting for your life.His pictures are dramatic in impact.
Ater reading this book even a layman can understand why buddies who fought together have such close personal relationsships more like brothers than friends.
Medals for valor go to men like this but not often enough, you have to survive and someone has also survived has to submit the story etc. It just does not get done. Your reward for surviving one viscious fight is to go to the next one until you are a KIA, Mia or the war ends.

I've read hundreds of World War II memoirs and none have given as vivid a picture of combat from the grunt point of view as this book. He does what few memoir writers accomplish: he gives us a brutal vision of the inner feelings and changes that take place when a young man is thrust into combat. If you're going to buy any WW II memoir, make it this one.

Extra Special Personal Memoir.
"Visions From A Foxhole" by William A. Foley, Jr. Subtitled "A rifleman In Patton's Ghost Corps". Ballantine Books, NY 2003.
This is the story of a young man, seeking to find himself, while at the same time he is defending his country. His father had served in world War I, and William A. Foley, Jr., is not only learning about himself during his time in the European Theatre of Operations but also about his father's experience in the First World War. Foley, Jr., as a lower ranking soldier, is part of the 94th Infantry Division which went through some heavy fighting, for example, in the Ruhr, crossing the Saar River and then crossing the Rhine River. His written personal recollections are made all the more vivid by his drawings.
Almost for relief, Foley had begun to draw, in pencil on paper, the scenes of war, as he experienced them He realized that he had more talent than most people, so he began to accumulate and protect his drawings from action to action, town to town, river to river. Despite dunkings in rivers, shellings, winter weather and so much more, the author saved most of his drawings and presented a selection in this book. These contemporary drawings confirm the harshness of the battle. The drawings combined with his written words makes this an extra special personal memoir. The author also has a web site, tied in with the title of the book.

Just as an aside, my Professor in Historiography once stated that "Spell checker" has ruined many an editor. On page 139, the book states that the author "...sneaked a peak {sic}"... while in other pages of the book, he was sneaking a "peek", the proper spelling for looking discretely. On page 209, the Greek letter "Pi" appears before the date "16 March". Spell Checker ignores Greek Letters. Don`t let this distract from your enjoyment of this excellent book. ...

This is aterrific account of WWII as told by a lowly GI. He re-creates all of the terror, heartaches, and trauma of being involved in front line fighting.

Like other great books (like The Men of Company K) Mr. Foley's accounts are in great details and very personal. Add to it his terrific sketches and you really are taken right there.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants a first hand account of life for a GI during WWII.

A great experience told so well that you could imagine you were there! A great detail of a soldier describing his day to day battle not only with the enemy but the elements of nature as the extreme cold conditions. I couldn't put the book down. I remember how the book relates to the same stories my Father told me of his WWII experiences. This book is a must buy for WWII readers.

Much, if not all, of what
William Foley says about his
WWII ETO experience has the
complete ring of truth.

As you talk to various 80 year olds about their WWII combat experiences you soon learn the fluid nature of these rapidly changing combat events. Many times it is hard to see or hear anything beyond a hundred yards.

From what I hear from my father, who was severely wounded in ETO WWII infantry combat, is that war isn't glorious, but ugly, brutal, hateful assembly line murder. War is something that makes people do horrible things.

My father was wounded about 10 to 20 miles south of where William Foley fought in January 1945. The frantic nature of the Germans fighting during January 1945 accurately describes the accounts from both men. Germany had lost the war, yet the German seem to fight harder and became more brutal.

Some American units were hit harder than others, but the odds were anyone in the infantry would be wounded, captured, or killed within 30 days of action.

The villages next to the upper Rhine, in France, where my father fought were constantly being taken, lost, and retaken again. The SS in these battles had no aversion to gunning down American prisoners of war, regardless of witnesses.

During this time word by mouth communication of the Malmedy massacre reached the American fox holes in the Ardennes-Alsace region. It was amazing that any prisoners of war were taken during this time, but some were, as civilization hadn't totally broken down.

The unit that came to the rescue of my father's unit, was wiped out hours after he was sent to a hospital behind the lines, as a mortar round took off most of his face.

Fighting in the last five months in the ETO nearly descended into total barbarism that equals the barbarism expected from the Far East.

William Foley has done a great service for all of us, for his war sketches and his written descriptions of what happened towards the end of ETO in WWII.

I am so glad I stumbled upon this gem ... I view this book as one of the better first-person perspectives of an American soldier on the Western Front I've ever read ... reads much like the Guy Sajer classic ("The Forgotten Soldier").

Foley paints a quite vivid picture of the everyday misery experienced by the American "Dogface" sludging through the dreadful winter of 1945, following the Battle of the Bulge. From the moment he arrived at the front lines, you knew he felt he was nothing but fodder ... another expendable American body with a short expiration date. Finally, there is a book that addresses the period of time between the Battle of the Bulge and the fall of Germany ... an oft-forgotten period where most men knew victory was at hand, but also face the reality that thousands more of them would die before it was over. You slog with Foley through the snows of winter to the thawing Spring of 1945 ... and you share the entire journey with him ... the skirmishes, the boredom, the hunger and the men he shared those time with, regardless of how long they survived the journey.

Foley does a superb job of presenting his frontline experience with razor-sharp clarity ... his careful, but thorough attention to detail gives the reader both the exhilaration and the agony of being "in the thick of things". Quite simply, the book reads like a movie. The attention to detail is what separates "Visions from a Foxhole" from most other books (like "Band of Brothers") ... you sense the earnest attempt of the author to let the reader walk in his shoes (boots) in those dark days ... you feel the misery of being bitter cold and wet all the time, the paranoia of being alone in an outpost at night, knowing the enemy is watching you and waiting, the emotion of seeing your buddies die ... you feel the heat of burning buildings, the concussion of artillery shells and the sound of bullets whizzing by, pinging of rocks and lodging in trees. Most of all though, you sense the crispness of a dark, bitter-cold winter night, the uncomfortable confines of a muddy foxhole, the smell of snow-capped pines, the crunch of snow under the soles of boots and finally the relief of spring's onset.

To enhance the reading experience, "Visions from a Foxhole" includes several beautiful pencil drawings Foley created while sitting in those muddy foxholes ... the drawings, like his prose, enhance the senses even more by providing additional detail. I found myself constantly thumbing through those drawings in effort to satisfy my craving to visualize what I was reading ... the drawings provide the detail and emotion of Foley's experience that I am sure no photograph could replicate.

I found this book creating an experience that i wanted to savor, so I paced my reading to make it last ... it was both emotional and thought-provoking, like hearing my grandfather telling me stories when i was young. Foley is obviously a talented artist ... he has also written one hell of a book.

Bill Foley is as good a writer as he is artist. His perception and talent obviously flows on to paper in words as paint to canvas. His book truly is the best of dozens of war chronicles that I've read and strongly urge interested readers to read it. The stories are great and some very different in the usual combat situations that have been documented. I frankly could not put the book down.

This book gives the reader a factual, unvarnished, and personal accounting of the author's experiences in the ETO. I was particularly impressed by his ability to present vivid portraits; not only of his buddies, but also of what they did and (as much as can be explained in a book) why they did it. The author's illustrations are magnificent (The title Visions From a Foxhole is certainly appropriate); two particularly evocative sketches were "Frozen Feet," and "Dan." One caveat to the reader; make sure you have a map of the areas described in the book at hand before you start reading - it will help clarify some of the author's descriptions.