Rating: 
Summary: Verisimilitude Problem
Review: As a person who researches war memoirs, I have to say that this particular book doesn't ring true. The author seems to have had far more experiences that most veterans who write memoirs. From what I have gleaned, war consists of long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of abject terror. The author goes from one incident to another, many of which don't seem quite right. The incident of shooting the two German prisoners seems to me like a story the author heard and he simply injected himself into it. The triumph he feels because he shoots both prisoners with one bullet seems overdrawn to me though I suspect that this was a rumor that made the rounds of forces in Europe. Rumors and tall tales were rife then, as other memoirs make clear. However, if you are looking for a good yarn, this is full of incident though the trained scholar will probably note some problems with verisimilitude.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best WWII stories I've read
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and frightening
Review: Foley does an excellent job of guiding the reader through the hell of being a rifleman in Patton's Ghost Corps. He describes his daily life and thoughts as he makes his way as a replacement soldier into Germany. There is no glory in war nor is there any flag waving. He simply tells the the graphic and gory truth to his daily life. His writing on his foxhole partner Dan leaves the reader feeling that no stronger bond between men could ever be formed outside of combat. Get this book. You will not be able to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and frightening
Review: Foley does an excellent job of guiding the reader through the hell of being a rifleman in Patton's Ghost Corps. He describes his daily life and thoughts as he makes his way as a replacement soldier into Germany. There is no glory in war nor is there any flag waving. He simply tells the the graphic and gory truth to his daily life. His writing on his foxhole partner Dan leaves the reader feeling that no stronger bond between men could ever be formed outside of combat. Get this book. You will not be able to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: A unique account - a rare perspective!
Review: Foley's art can stand alone to tell the gruelling story from a perspective on WWII rarely seen.Aside from a few paragraphs repeated (first edition), the story is constantly moving and the illustration by the author further establishes the human drama. Not a war diary but a recanting of terrible and sometimes funny WWII memories. This is not "old war stories". This was life and death, day to day. This is required reading!
Rating:
Summary: A unique account - a rare perspective!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Visions Indeed!
Review: In a "Note from the Author" William A. Foley, Jr. warns us that his account of the experiences of an infantryman in G-Company, 302nd Regiment, of the 94th Division in Europe during WWII, is in part fiction. He writes that he took the dates and chronology from the division history and "... where my recall was confused ... I did not hesitate to fill in the best I could to keep the flow of the narrative."
Perhaps it is that "fill in," surely extensive after more than a half century, that makes Foley's war almost unrecognizable to me whose experience in I-Company, 376th Regiment, of the 94th Division should have been quite similar to Foley's. While I found my own war, which ended in machine gun fire while I was leading a night patrol on the banks of the Rhine, a little too exciting, it was a cake-walk compared with the war Foley describes. With ten dead in my 2nd platoon, I lost about as many friends as did Foley according to his account and my 376th Regiment with 338 dead listed in the 94th Division WEB page records, didn't seem to have a much easier time than Foley's 302nd with 371 dead, but I would have to add up the experiences of everyone in my company to match that which Foley describes as his alone.
It seems also that the "fill in" was filled also with invented
characters. He says "I often forget the names of people ..." and "I have had to invent the names of men I knew well." He names four buddies -- Nowak, Blanchard, Peters, Cuzik -- who were killed close to him. None are listed in the 302nd dead list posted on the 94th's WEB page so I guess he forgot their names and invented others. And his closest friend until he was killed early in March, companion in most of his exploits, the man with whom Foley shared foxholes, is known only as "Dan" in his narrative. No "Daniel" in the 302nd dead list fits Foley's description. I will never forget the names of my dead comrades. Those men, ever young, still live in my memory.
By and large, about two-thirds of the casualties in an infantry rifle platoon, American or German, are inflicted by artillery and mortars. Only about one-third are generated by the weapons of a rifle platoon. Taking the German casualties as about equal to ours in total (they were competent soldiers!) and in kind, this means that our rifle platoons killed about one-third as many Germans as our own dead. Infantry riflemen did a lot more dying than killing. Indeed, with this calculus, the average American rifleman who managed to survive two months of hard fighting killed about one-tenth German soldier, or, better, every ten American riflemen killed about one German -- and vice versa of course.
But according to his account, Foley killed eleven Germans himself -- a number equal to the average contribution of about 100 men! Move over Sgt. York and Audie Murphy.
With so remarkable a record, it does seem unjust that Foley never
got even a Bronze Star medal or a promotion to Sgt. And though
he says that he was actually wounded three times, no Purple Heart!
So all in all, it seems that my comrades and myself in I-Company,
376th, attended a different war than Foley saw in the 302nd. Our's wasn't so exciting, but it was non-fiction.
Robert K. Adair
Rating: 
Summary: Two German Blankets...
Review: This is a book that tells the tale of a soldier who joins the 94th ID about January 1945 and fights with them till after the war.
Visions from a Foxhole is an excellent description of a combat rifleman's experience during WWII. Mr. Foley uses his personal description of events along with offical unit histories (btw, he identifies when he uses them). Mr. Foley's descriptions are outstanding(in some way's, to outstanding) and take you thru the feelings and sights of the common infantryman. A few things that I found very interesting in Mr. Foley's descriptions is that he held no punches and he always seemed to know how to describe things in just the right way. Mr. Foley demonstrated his no punches when he talked about the shooting of prisoners (yes, even the good guys did this from time to time) to taking SS men's rings from the dead (including cutting off fingers). In
addition, Mr. Foley describes the comradity soldiers develop between each other, including the devotion to trying to save other soldiers in desperate times.
To me, this book is an American version of The Forgotten Soldier (by Guy Sajer). Like Guy Sager, Mr. Foley makes us feel for the common infantryman and hope that he makes it thru to the next battle.
As a side note, Mr. Foley wrote about the injuries he sustained (the book was written in 2003). None of these injuries were life threatening directly (there causes would have been if things had been a little different) but it was hard for me not to think about others in other wars who received far more minor injuries and went home. Mr. Foley stayed on the line like many other veterans from WWII because they wanted to take care of their buddies!
I'd rate this book 4.5 stars if Amazon would let us do half stars, but instead I had to give it 4 stars (not strong enough to earn the extra half star). Btw,if you want, you can see drawing he did while he was a combat rifleman at www.visionsfromafoxhole.com
The drawings are also in the book! Btw, to understand the title, you need to read the book!
Rating:
Summary: Verisimilitude Problem
Review: This is a response to the disturbing review by S.Winn who claims to be a "war scholar". How dare you comment on the validity of a veterans war memories. What gives you the right, were you there freezing, scared to death, watching your friends die...have you shed any blood to protect the world's freedoms? Have you seen a veteran cry from reliving the pain of war?
Oh forgot your an expert, none of that happended.
I find it interesting that not one veteran has disputed William Foley's claim of having to shoot prisoners. To say the author "feels triumph" in doing this is absurd, obviously you dont know the man, and are blind, or you would easily see the pain in his art work, thats pain not triumph.
Before you go making stupid claims on a authors work why don't you try something novel and contact the the author... William is more than accessable. Mr Winn you are revolting amchair critic.. These veterans have suffered for 50 years with the painful memories of war, and instead of taking the time to shed a tear and thank them, you choose to belittle them.
Shame on you.
Thank you William Foley and your fellow veterans for your sacrifices.
Mike
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