Thanks for this suggestion. Have you read Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown? Another book about interment camps and the 442 Infantry Regiment and their heroism in WWII.
NFR What Are You Reading
- Thread starter Robert Engleheart
- Start date
Non-fishing related
Yes, excellent read.
Facing the mountain is excellent.
In a similar vein (true WWII story), Beneath a Scarlet Sky is a great read. The courage of some of that generation is inspiring.
Amazon product ASIN 1503902374
Finally fishished reading the Federalist Papers a couple weeks ago. Far and away the most difficult reading book I have ever read. Oh it's in English all right, but in that 18th century style, plus Alexander Hamilton was wordy to the Nth degree. Glad I plodded through it to the end, even if it leaves me with a strong distaste for many of the recent and current crop of members of Congress and administrations. Sadly, the Founders expected we would actually elect the best and the brightest, or learned men.
Now I'm on to Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It was published in 1970, and I recently realized I had only read excepts and not the whole book. Oh my! How depressing; when Indians say, "Custer died for your sins," they might as well add that Custer was really only a very partial mitigation for damages done to the tribes and their people.
Now I'm on to Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It was published in 1970, and I recently realized I had only read excepts and not the whole book. Oh my! How depressing; when Indians say, "Custer died for your sins," they might as well add that Custer was really only a very partial mitigation for damages done to the tribes and their people.
Bury m heart at wounded knee was a must read back in the early ‘70’s, good call.
My thanks to all for their suggestions. I can only hope I live long enough to read all the suggestions.
My thanks to all for their suggestions. I can only hope I live long enough to read all the suggestions.
wetline dave
Steelhead
Found I had already read the Sanford book so went to the next one. "A Measure of Darkness" by Jonathan Kellerman's son Jesse Kellerman. The family is really a group of talented writers.
Dave
Dave
As a fan of all tales of mountaineering and arctic exploration (think Krakauer's Into Thin Air or Endurance by Alfred Lansing), I had never heard of the Greely expedition in the late 1800s until I ran across Labyrinth of Ice by Buddy Levy. A Shackleton story of the north and well worth the read of this American expedition to Lady Franklin Bay in a quest to gather scientific data and possibly reach the North Pole. Well worth the read. Cannot imagine the conditions faced in that era without today's modern cold weather gear.
Loved Boys in the Boat, and loved the intersection of it with Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Who knew rowing could be so exciting?!!!
I just finished reading the book; thanks for this suggestion. What a powerful book! Interesting that I finished the book on Pearl Harbor Day. I felt like the characters became real, like the book wasn't fiction. The acknowledgements at the end are very much worth reading. This one gets 5✰'s in my reading list.
Three books that I have re-read lately… “Roll Me Over”, by Raymond Gantter, “The Men of Company K” by Leinbaugh and Campbell, and “If You Survive”, by George Wilson. Each gives an account of a rifle company entering Europe in the second half of 1944 and fighting East/Northeast of there. Gantter was in the 1rst Infantry Division, and entered on Omaha Beach in October of 1944. Company K belonged to the 333rd infantry in the 84th division and landed at Omaha Beach on Nov 2, 1944. Wilson was initially in E company of the 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. This group landed at Normandy in late June and entered combat during the second half of July. All were on the line during the Battle of The Bulge at the end of 1944. The authors present different views of events in a similar time and space that I think intermix very nicely.
The following are a few remembrances of Christmas 1944, taken from these books.
From “The Men of Company K”, near Verdenne, Belgium:
One soldier remembered: “Up by the kitchen, someone decorated a pine tree with toilet paper, our Christmas tree.” In 1948, another soldier jotted down a recollection of the tree. “We rigged up a Christmas tree, for Christmas was only a week or so away. Not having the fine tinsel and all, all the tree was dressed with was bandoliers of ammo, and hand grenades, and the silvery strips the air core drops to reflect radar.” A third spoke of this scrawny little pine and recalled that “the top-most ornament was a teddy-bear-size doll wearing a gas mask.” A final remembrance, from 1980: “Everything I could find I put on that Christmas tree I put boots on it, socks, an old frying pan, tinsel. The guys said to me, “Hey Mike, you’re crazy. “But I said, “we’ve got to have Christmas. Everybody’s got to have Christmas.”
(On Christmas day): “In those woods, you couldn’t see 6 feet in front of you, just heavy pines and underbrush.” This soldier and his partner were spotted by the Germans. “I could see the leaves and trees, flipping back-and-forth, with the bullets going past 3 feet in front of us. We hit the ground just as someone threw a potato masher (a German grenade) our way. The explosion made my nose and forehead, bleed, and I took fragments in my calf and foot… I emptied my rifle where I saw the leaves moving and then we got up and hightailed it out of there. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill, I could barely make it.”
A second platoon sergeant took a machine gun bullet in his leg. One of his men gave him a hand, but before going a dozen yards, the helper was wounded by shrapnel. The two eventually struggled down the hill together to safety.
One patrol leader said: “Control was the big problem in those woods Christmas Day. Trying to keep a squad in control, or even in sight was difficult. (Controlling) a whole platoon was a hell of a problem, almost impossible.”
Another soldier, who had just surprised a group of Germans, delivered two BAR clips at them, and hightailed it away. While crouched down in a ravine, he got hit by shrapnel from a tank round. “I was hit on the left side of my mouth, near my ear, and a piece went through the roof of my mouth and on into my head. My throat was ripped open, and my shoulder was almost severed in half.” (This soldier spent years recovering).
From the book “Roll Me Over”, location around Minerie, Belgium.
Much of this book is built from letters to his wife. This passage is from late Christmas Eve: “The artillery fire was heavy until midnight. Then it died away, became sporadic. In the strange silence, the war seemed remote, and I was several thousand miles from Belgium for a few moments. All night long, I discounted the time difference between us, and tried to see what you were doing… “Yes, they’ll see Santa Claus tonight…” Now you are getting the children into their snow suits. It must be just about time to start for mother and dad‘s, and the usual Christmas Eve festivities… Now everyone is there, and the house is bulging with noise and joy… I wonder if the fat red candle is burning in the window for me, burning all night for me? It was, I knew it was… I could see it in the Belgian sky, and in the German lines, and it was inside our dugout, making a pine scented, rosy warmth where a moment ago there had been hoarfrost and frozen mud.”
“… We got no breakfast this morning, Christmas morning. Our squad leader, forgot to send a messenger to tell us to come to chow. I opened a can of C rations, I made a little coffee, and ate two dog biscuits. Christmas breakfast! We munched in unhappy silence, and I brooded over the memory of our customary Christmas stollen (a German dessert), so richly stuffed with the raisins and nuts and citron.”
“We had a real Christmas dinner, although it was cold when we got it. Turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, corn, coffee, cake, and a fist full of hard candy. A feast.”
“Must stop writing now. My legs are going to sleep from the cold in my fingers are so cracked that I cannot hold a pen with comfort. Merry Christmas, darling! And a merrier one next year.”
In “If you survive”, near Rodenhof, Luxembourg.
Wilson speaks the least about Christmas. His company was at the tip of defense at the lower hinge of the Bulge
“During the morning of December 24, we received the delightful news that a combat team from the fifth infantry division was coming up to relieve us… Finally, on Christmas Eve, we were replaced, and my frozen, exhausted men happily marched the quarter mile back to the town of Osweiler. It was the best possible Christmas present. There, we packed the entire company – all 23 of us - onto one truck, plus my jeep, and we moved back some 2 1/2 miles to the village of Berberg that we had come through earlier.
“It didn’t seem much like Christmas Eve. There were no Christmas lights at all in the settlement, no lighted Christmas trees, not a cheerful note, or Christmas carol, in the air. We moved quietly into unheated, deserted buildings, grateful to be out of the wind of the snow. Then, marvel of marvels, our cooks had arrived ahead of us and provided a nice warm meal with plenty of hot coffee. Later that night Christmas came early, and we received an enormous present – 100 new men and three new officers. The officers had been given two weeks, basic training, then declared infantry officers. They were nice guys, and I hope they would live long enough to discover what the infantry was really about, and not take too many men down with them while they were learning. The enlisted men were even worse off. Only a little over six weeks before they have been civilians. After five weeks of condensed basic infantry training, a week on trains, ships and trucks, they have been thrown out into the cold with us at Christmas time.”
Each of these reads was great.
The following are a few remembrances of Christmas 1944, taken from these books.
From “The Men of Company K”, near Verdenne, Belgium:
One soldier remembered: “Up by the kitchen, someone decorated a pine tree with toilet paper, our Christmas tree.” In 1948, another soldier jotted down a recollection of the tree. “We rigged up a Christmas tree, for Christmas was only a week or so away. Not having the fine tinsel and all, all the tree was dressed with was bandoliers of ammo, and hand grenades, and the silvery strips the air core drops to reflect radar.” A third spoke of this scrawny little pine and recalled that “the top-most ornament was a teddy-bear-size doll wearing a gas mask.” A final remembrance, from 1980: “Everything I could find I put on that Christmas tree I put boots on it, socks, an old frying pan, tinsel. The guys said to me, “Hey Mike, you’re crazy. “But I said, “we’ve got to have Christmas. Everybody’s got to have Christmas.”
(On Christmas day): “In those woods, you couldn’t see 6 feet in front of you, just heavy pines and underbrush.” This soldier and his partner were spotted by the Germans. “I could see the leaves and trees, flipping back-and-forth, with the bullets going past 3 feet in front of us. We hit the ground just as someone threw a potato masher (a German grenade) our way. The explosion made my nose and forehead, bleed, and I took fragments in my calf and foot… I emptied my rifle where I saw the leaves moving and then we got up and hightailed it out of there. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill, I could barely make it.”
A second platoon sergeant took a machine gun bullet in his leg. One of his men gave him a hand, but before going a dozen yards, the helper was wounded by shrapnel. The two eventually struggled down the hill together to safety.
One patrol leader said: “Control was the big problem in those woods Christmas Day. Trying to keep a squad in control, or even in sight was difficult. (Controlling) a whole platoon was a hell of a problem, almost impossible.”
Another soldier, who had just surprised a group of Germans, delivered two BAR clips at them, and hightailed it away. While crouched down in a ravine, he got hit by shrapnel from a tank round. “I was hit on the left side of my mouth, near my ear, and a piece went through the roof of my mouth and on into my head. My throat was ripped open, and my shoulder was almost severed in half.” (This soldier spent years recovering).
From the book “Roll Me Over”, location around Minerie, Belgium.
Much of this book is built from letters to his wife. This passage is from late Christmas Eve: “The artillery fire was heavy until midnight. Then it died away, became sporadic. In the strange silence, the war seemed remote, and I was several thousand miles from Belgium for a few moments. All night long, I discounted the time difference between us, and tried to see what you were doing… “Yes, they’ll see Santa Claus tonight…” Now you are getting the children into their snow suits. It must be just about time to start for mother and dad‘s, and the usual Christmas Eve festivities… Now everyone is there, and the house is bulging with noise and joy… I wonder if the fat red candle is burning in the window for me, burning all night for me? It was, I knew it was… I could see it in the Belgian sky, and in the German lines, and it was inside our dugout, making a pine scented, rosy warmth where a moment ago there had been hoarfrost and frozen mud.”
“… We got no breakfast this morning, Christmas morning. Our squad leader, forgot to send a messenger to tell us to come to chow. I opened a can of C rations, I made a little coffee, and ate two dog biscuits. Christmas breakfast! We munched in unhappy silence, and I brooded over the memory of our customary Christmas stollen (a German dessert), so richly stuffed with the raisins and nuts and citron.”
“We had a real Christmas dinner, although it was cold when we got it. Turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, corn, coffee, cake, and a fist full of hard candy. A feast.”
“Must stop writing now. My legs are going to sleep from the cold in my fingers are so cracked that I cannot hold a pen with comfort. Merry Christmas, darling! And a merrier one next year.”
In “If you survive”, near Rodenhof, Luxembourg.
Wilson speaks the least about Christmas. His company was at the tip of defense at the lower hinge of the Bulge
“During the morning of December 24, we received the delightful news that a combat team from the fifth infantry division was coming up to relieve us… Finally, on Christmas Eve, we were replaced, and my frozen, exhausted men happily marched the quarter mile back to the town of Osweiler. It was the best possible Christmas present. There, we packed the entire company – all 23 of us - onto one truck, plus my jeep, and we moved back some 2 1/2 miles to the village of Berberg that we had come through earlier.
“It didn’t seem much like Christmas Eve. There were no Christmas lights at all in the settlement, no lighted Christmas trees, not a cheerful note, or Christmas carol, in the air. We moved quietly into unheated, deserted buildings, grateful to be out of the wind of the snow. Then, marvel of marvels, our cooks had arrived ahead of us and provided a nice warm meal with plenty of hot coffee. Later that night Christmas came early, and we received an enormous present – 100 new men and three new officers. The officers had been given two weeks, basic training, then declared infantry officers. They were nice guys, and I hope they would live long enough to discover what the infantry was really about, and not take too many men down with them while they were learning. The enlisted men were even worse off. Only a little over six weeks before they have been civilians. After five weeks of condensed basic infantry training, a week on trains, ships and trucks, they have been thrown out into the cold with us at Christmas time.”
Each of these reads was great.
The Tiger, John Vaillant.
Doublebluff - May I suggest Facing the Mountain.
wetline dave
Steelhead
Star Island by Carl Hiaasen, a nice mix of satire and humor.
Dave
Dave
Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth
Chris Tomlinson, Jason Stanford
Puts to rest the myth we all grew up with of the battle at the Alamo, the men involved (Bowie, Crockett, Houston, others), and what the battle was really about. Of course, none of this can be talked about in K-12 grades in TX where my sister teaches in a public high school.
Chris Tomlinson, Jason Stanford
Puts to rest the myth we all grew up with of the battle at the Alamo, the men involved (Bowie, Crockett, Houston, others), and what the battle was really about. Of course, none of this can be talked about in K-12 grades in TX where my sister teaches in a public high school.
The Alpha Female Wolf, Rick McIntyre - The fierce legacy of Yellowstone’s 06.
I found it very interesting on the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone and showing how dynamic the different packs are to each other. Very interesting if critters are of interest to you.
I found it very interesting on the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone and showing how dynamic the different packs are to each other. Very interesting if critters are of interest to you.
wetline dave
Steelhead
John Sanford's Mind Prey.
His series of Prey books are good reads, one and all.
Dave
His series of Prey books are good reads, one and all.
Dave
I am reading it currently and finding it quite moving, especially having have visited Manzanar and the small towns along 395. For another read on the same subject, try Farewell to Manzanar, written by a woman who lived at Manzanar as a child. It will break your heart, the photos alone are worth it.