Rating: 
Summary: New Respect
Review: Until I read this book I had considered the war my father's generation was involved in as being a "modern" undertaking. Somehow I thought the movies of WWII were factual in points of the soldier's everyday life. This book made me realize that WWII was undertaken under worse conditions than the America Civil War. The civil war was a bloodbath but the soldiers had long lulls between battles, WWII as described in this book was months of a constant living hell. Hats off to our older vets! I recommend this book as being a eyeopener.
Rating: 
Summary: Some Words about WWII GI's Fighting Qualities
Review: Some readers of CITIZEN SOLDIERS have raised questions about author Ambrose's objectivity in waxing about the fighting qualities of the American soldier verses the German soldier in WWII, and they denigrate generally those qualities and leadership abilities of the American soldier and his officers in that war. They point out that if Hitler hadn't been so stupid, and had met the Normandy invasion head-on with all armoured and other forces at his disposal, that the Americans and British would have been thrown back into the sea and suffered one of the greatest defeats in military history. They also point out that if the Wehrmacht hadn't been bled so severely on the Russian front, the Allied armies, who were consistently out general'd and out fought when airpower was missing due to weather, etc., couldn't have held their own on any of the battlefields of Europe without the overwelming advantage they enjoyed in material' and numbers. While some of these points raise intriquing questions (they're probably right about Hitler blowing the invasion), I want to refer these readers to certain WWII campaigns which they seem to have conveniently neglected to mention and which do not support their conclusions: 1) The Battle of the Bulge between under-armed, under equipped and outnumbered American paratroops and rested, tough, seasoned and well-armed Nazi troops, which resulted in a major German defeat; 2) the brutal and desparate fighting in the Pacific between U.S. Marines and soldiers against a totally merciless, fanatical, well-armed and battle-hardened enemy, in which the Japanese were consistently defeated; and 3) the victorious allied campaign in Italy between roughly equal armies (though as the critics point out, the German's had superior armour and anti-tank capabilities and superior generalship).1) At Bastogne, American paratroops held against and out-fought the Nazi SS and paratroops they faced. In frigid, tough, bloody hand-to-hand fighting, the American troopers were indomitable and won. 2) The same victorious result in the Pacific war, especially by the Marines. 3) In Italy, the Allies enjoyed no great material' advantage over the German Army-both armies won some battles and lost some, but the Allies carried the day, with the more difficult task of attacking over mountainous terrain. I will concede better generalship overall to the Germans. I will concede that the German army was bled in Russia. But I will not concede that the German soldier (or the Japanese) was superior to the American. Germans surrendered, cried for mercy, and ran for their lives just as often as Americans and Brits. The Japanese jumped off cliffs or committed seppuku when beaten. (Smart? Brave? Or Brain-washed.) The fact that battle-hardened German and Japanese soldiers who, over several years of fighting, had acquired battle-ruthlessness, smarts and cunning, were defeated in man-to-man combat by Americans who had been in battle only weeks or months requires a different conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: Amrose the greatest WWII author
Review: Even if you don't care about WWII this book gives you the insight to what it was like to be there. See what is was like to fight for your country in its hour of need. Read this book, its great.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific, Entertaining Look At Allied Drive Into Germany
Review: No one has been more prolific or entertaining in his efforts to bring the gritty, unit-level personal experiences of the Allied drive from Normandy into Germany to the public's attention than Stephen Ambrose. In his series of books including "D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War Two", "Band Of Brothers", "The Victors", and "Citizen Soldiers", he has masterfully employed a little-known treasure trove of personal interviews with thousands of Allied soldiers to marshal an absolutely absorbing, captivating, and insightful treatise on the nature of combat as experienced by the men and women in the forefront of action as it transpired all along the front. In this volume he concentrates on the drive from Normandy all the way into the heart of Germany, and covering as much ground as the Allies conquered in that fateful year is a considerable accomplishment. This makes for fascinating and entertaining reading. A great deal of ground is covered, from the consolidation of the beachheads in Normandy to the relatively quick liberation of Paris, from the ill-fated Operation Market-Garden assault into Holland in September to the disastrous bloodbath in Omar Bradley's catastrophic excursion into the Hurtigen Forest, from the desperate clashes around Bastogne in the wintry Battle of the Bulge to the long, costly drive that unusually cold and snowy winter into Germany itself. As a result, we don't find the level of detail or strict chronology he employed in "D-Day", for example, or the kind of comprehensive coverage of specific events like the Battle of the Bulge that one finds in books like John Toland's "Battle". This does not mean one doesn't learn a great deal about all these events transpiring during that fateful year; on the contrary, there is much in the way of provocative information and startling perspective offered here on each of these events. Yet it is unfair to expect a book addressing itself to the totality of the Allied campaign to do so comprehensively in less than 500 pages. Certainly anyone reading the corpus of all the Ambrose works on the year 1944-45 as is represented by the books mentioned above gets a very comprehensive feel for the progress of the war effort in Europe. Still, to gain the kind of comprehensive and strictly chronological information a complete history requires, one must look elsewhere, to tomes such as "A World At Arms", or "A War To Be Won", or even the comfortable, veritable, and well-worn "The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich", my own personal favorite. Mr. Ambrose has become a virtual cottage industry in the World War Two section of your local bookstore, while he has also published works such as his recent best seller on explorers Lewis and Clark. Meanwhile, he has become phenomenally successful because many of his books have captured the public's imagination by being so readable, entertaining, and informative. While popular success doesn't always equate to critical worthiness, in his case it consistently seems to. This is a wonderfully worthwhile, eminently researched, exhaustively documented, and superbly narrated book on the most critical last year of the war in Europe. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Citizen Soldier
Review: In regards to Citizen Soldier, Mr. Ambrose did not mention the fact that the 83rd Infantry Division took and held the only Bridgehead East of the Elbe River approx. 35 miles south, southwest of Berlin. My opinion is my own. When Mr. Ambrose reviews the books Amazon.com has in regards to the true final weeks of WW II, he can revise his book to include the bridgehead. I will then classify his book as I did " The Last Battle"," Conquer : Story of the Ninth Army" and U.S. Army in WW II, ETO, The Last Offensive", rated as greater than 5 Stars. I am looking forward to the correction. The 2nd Armored also crossed the Elbe River at Magdeburg and due to the Germans great defensive forces, they had to withdraw and use the 83rd`s Bridgehead.The 2nd Armored and the 83rd had casualties East of the Elbe, let us not forget them. I will now read Mr. Ambrose`s book to see if the 83rd is mentioned at all. ( I have 2 copies ) Respectfuly, Louis Gomori, Veteran, 83rd Inf. Division
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: As a newcomer to in depth WWII history I am amazed by this book. I now have a greater respect for the WWII veterens that I have known in my life. I know a man who was in the battle of the Bluge in the heaviest of fighting and I never appriciated what he and many others did for us until now.
Rating:
Summary: A soldiers story
Review: Abosutely terrific. I enjoeyed this book very much. It is filled with wonderful stories and fascinating, but true, tales. It will send shivers down your spine and tears out of your eyes. The pain and trauma of war are contained in this book. The author has done a great job and should be commended for his thorough research.
Rating:
Summary: The Soldiers's Stories
Review: Stephen Ambrose may very well be the best writer of military history working today. "With Citizen Soldiers," he is certainly on top of his game. His compelling narrative about the American Army in Europe is a reminder of just how much the Western world owes to "The Greatest Generation." Ambrose relates the soldiers's accounts of battle with painstaking precision and the gift of a master storyteller. If all history books were this good, history would be a very popular subject indeed.
Rating:
Summary: America's Finest
Review: This book gives a person amazing respect for the veterans of WWII. Ambrose creates the world these soldiers had to endure and the hardships they had to overcome in such a way that I had to stop and re-read passages just to attempt to begin to see what these people did for us. It's simply fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating history from the foot soldier's perspective
Review: This book is a fascinating picture of the final American push in World War II, focusing on the experiences and perspective of the average soldiers. I found the descriptions of close-quarter fighting gut wrenching. Anyone who has not read much about World War II would do well to start here because it will help you maintain perspective on how much sacrifice the average soldier truly made. Many books are written focusing on the deciscions made by the commanders such as Eisenhower or Patton, but this book gives you both a sense of the overall strategy and a real picture of what the GIs in the thick of it felt and did. There are also excellent chapters focusing on the experiences of medics, nurses, airmen, and others. The only criticisms I would make are that there are a few typographical errors and some of the photos seem to have been captioned wrong.
|
