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Summary: Makes you proud of your dads & grandads
Review: This is an outstanding book that will let you know what it was like. The incredible hardships, courage, and strength that was part of being a front line soldier in WWII. Good history; Great story of our older generation.
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Summary: Historical innacuracies and inconsistencies marr the book
Review: Although the author uses verbatim testimony from veterans, their comments, while sometimes powerful, are lost in the text and appear too frequently as random quotations for which the context is unclear.Historical innacuracies and/or poor use of English marr this otherwise important book. For example the author twice refers to ME 163s as single-engine jets; "By this stage, the Germans had hundreds of single-engine jets (Messerschmitt 163)..." The ME 163 was not. It was in fact a highly dangerous single-engined liquid-fueled ROCKET propelled fighter with about 3 minutes of fuel - enough to get it to bomber altitude, steer (glide) at high speed to its target(s) and then glide (also at high speed) back to a landing area. Also the author's reference to the British "Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry" armored regiment is innacurate - they were the Sherwood Forresters Yeomanry. The benchmark for great historical writing is Lyn MacDonald and unfortunatley this book falls short.
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Summary: one of the best books I have ever read
Review: Well written and excellently crafted. This has to be the best book I've read on the European Theater. Ambrose presents the stories of the front-line soldier in a manner that is easily understood, brining the images of combat off of the page and into the reader's imagination. The stories are sometimes amusing, sometimes shocking, and out and out frightening. This goes for both the German Soldiers and American. I have a new respect for our veterans of this great conflict, and for Ambrose. Anyone with an interest in military history should read this book. you will not be disappointed! Ambrose presents his material in a fresh manner. Instead of obscure facts and minute details of battle, he depicts what war was like for the typical soldier of both sides. Anyone can identify with these stories because these soldiers could have been any individual. This is a book i will read again!
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Summary: Impossible to put down
Review: Not only told in a gripping fashion, but also provides a unique, personal look into what our soldiers experienced on the battlefield.
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Summary: A different perspective on WWII
Review: This is a different sort of history book. All told, my feelings about this book are mixed. Ambrose's perspective of the front line soldier certainly is fresh, but after more than 400 pages the stories start to run together. Did I learn something new? Sure. But at times I was trudging through the book, much like the soldiers at the battle of the bulge. I appreciated that Ambrose paid a great deal of respect to the German soldiers. His perspective on "how a rich nation fights a war" was also quite interesting.
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Summary: Written from the soldier's point of view.
Review: If you're the least bit interested in WWII, this book is for you. Not many books packed with so many historical dates and names can be called real page turners, but this is one of the few that can. Ambrose shows you the war from the point of view of somebody trapped on the front line. He really hammers home the fact that most of the real warriors in the foxholes were only in their late teens. The descriptions and interviews in this book hold no punches. Ambrose truely dscribes how our young soldiers felt.
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Summary: Forgotten stories that need to be told...
Review: This book surpassed most others on WW II combat, at least on the grand scale. The daily struggles of the front-line infantrymen were brought to life via an accurate and honest approach. The vivid stories and anecdotes put you right there, in the foxhole, suffering, and waiting for that German counterattack. It made the reader proud to be an American, an will forever give respect to the memories of the men who fought.
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Summary: War is a Different Hell
Review: First of all, one gets the impression that the author used "leftovers" from his previous books. secondly, as he is wont to do, he only thinly disguises his personal preferences: He intensely dislikes the English and, strangely enough, gives good marks to the Germans. This comes to the core of the subject. No soldier ever liked to fight a war, no matter what side he is on. And every soldier, when asked, gives the expected answer that he was afraid. In reality, you loose that quite rapidly and adopt a fatalistic attitude that you are not the one getting hit. If you don'tdo that, you'll go nuts.And something else: After Stalingrad, every German soldier knew that the war was lost. How do you motivate such an army? There was SS police behind every fighting line who hung everybody not with his outfit from the nearest tree. On the other hand, if the soldier saw him first..what do you have a rifle for? The fervent prayer on the Eastern (Russian) font was simple: Get transferred to the Western front, hold up your hands, and go to Kansas to cut wheat. War, like hunger, can be described only by those who lived through it. Other should not try it.
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Summary: A "Must Read" for anyone with any interest in mil. history
Review: While standing in line for a book-signing at a local book store, I picked up "Citizen Soldiers" to quickly flip through. I was immediately pulled into the book and couldn't put it down. Ambrose's writing style made me live the dread, horror and aching cold the front-line infantry went through, particularly through the Winter of 1944-1945. My father was a medic in the 87th Division of Patton's Third Army and was actively involved in the Battle of the Bulge. He rarely spoke of his experiences during the war and now I guess I understand why. I believe he had experienced enough and didn't really care to relive a very difficult time. However, Dr. Ambrose masterfully conveys not only the trauma of battle, but also the strength of the human spirit. This book has compelled me to investigate other literature about World War II, particularly those works that tell the story from the people on the front line.
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Summary: Tells it like it was-the GI at his best and worst
Review: A great book which depicts the GI as his best and worst. COMMENTS: An excellent book especially for anyone who had "been there-done that" in todays jargon, especially from the viewpoint of the Enlisted Man or Company-Grade Officer. It is a book which can be used by those of us who lived through it to give an answer to our children and grandchildren when the question of "What did you do in the war Daddy (Granddad)" arises. It causes one to recall similar situations which took place elsewhere (103rd Inf Div-Cactus)in France and Germany. Understandably there are limits as to just how much research and narratives can be included in one book of this type. However I feel that the actions and deeds of units and individuals of the 7th Army took a back seat to others mentioned in the book. There is little if any reference to the Voges Mountain Campaign, or the heroics of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team which rescued a lost battalion of the 36th Inf Division because of blunders on the part of higher command and took a heavy casualty toll. These items deserved to have been given their place in this otherwise fine book. Since it was not to be, recommended reading in conjunction with this book would be: "When The Odds Were Even" by Keith Bonn, and "The Other Battle of the Bulge-Operation Northwind" by Charles Whiting.
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