Customer Reviews

Work Commando 311/I

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Six or seven years ago I had finished reading Cornelius Ryan's "A Bridge Too Far" which greatly impressed and was, I felt, the best of his three WWII books. A few days after completing the book, I had a chance to meet a man named Dan Jones. In the course of our conversation, the subject of his military service came up and I found out that he was in the 101 Airborne in WWII. This immediately got me asking about the Market Garden operation where he was captured. While I was recommending "A Bridge Too Far", he was telling me about a book that his niece was publishing about his exploits as a POW. I bought it when it came out thinking it was written by some college student with an expanded essay on her uncles misadventures in the war. When I finally got around to reading it several years later, I found out just how wrong I was. This is a GOOD book. The events described cover the imprisonment of a number of US POW's, their struggles and their return to the US lines after the collapse and surrender of Nazi Germany. There are so many different elements in this book including sex and murder and it is all expertly woven together in a way that leaves you wanting more. The reader expects the stories of the poor treatment of the prisoners by the Germans but the most compelling part of the book comes later. That is the story of the prisoners as they managed to work their way through the Soviet Army and back to their own lines. The images of that journey are well conveyed and have stayed with me. This book was a real sleeper for me. I recommend it heartily.

My Father is one of the people portrayed in the book, so I can testify to the accuracy of the writing. I have also met, and listened to, several of the people the book is about.

This narative covers the actual events of a group of brave men, some as young as 19, who fought in WWII, were captured by the Germans, and forced to work on the German railroads for 9 months. What they endured, and the way's that they coped with it, are stories that ALL people can learn from, especially younger adults who have never been exposed to the real story of WWII.

I don't usually read books about war but loved this one; couldn't put it down. It tells about an American in a group captured by Germans near the end of the war. Forty years after their release, his granddaughter gets the story from him and his buddies at the camp, who've kept silent all that time. There is warmth and humor mixed with the grim stuff;there are good and bad Americans, good and bad Germans. I plan to share it with my grandchildren--boys and girls--as a window on this "ancient history."