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Laddar... Other Clay: A Remembrance of the World War II Infantryav Charles R. Cawthon
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Gå med i LibraryThing för att få reda på om du skulle tycka om den här boken. Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. Account of the 29th Division in World War II through the eyes of a young lieutenant, and as he advances up the ranks from 1941 through the end of the war and demobilization in 1945. Excellent example of the war from the point of view of a a junior officer, from training through the first experiences of combat, to war weariness and fatigue. One officer's personal story of his experiences within a battalion of the 29th Infantry Division from training to D-day on Omaha, St-Lo, across France, Brest and beyond. Literate and reflective, we see a very young man trained to lead who does his job with courage and eventually rises from the rank of 2nd Lt. to battalion commander. inga recensioner | lägg till en recension
Other Clay is a survivor's account of World War II infantry combat, told by a front-line officer whose 116th Infantry Regiment landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day and fought its way across Europe to the Elbe. Charles R. Cawthon joined the Virginia National Guard in 1940--to avoid being drafted and to spend his expected one year of service in officer training. When America entered the war, his division was among the first shipped out to England, where they spent two years preparing to spearhead the largest amphibious military operation in history. On the beaches of Normandy, on June 6, 1944, the U.S. Army suffered its heaviest casualties since Gettysburg. The losses were greatest among the infantry companies that led the assault, and Cawthon describes firsthand the furious and deathly chaos of the daylong battle to get off the beach and up the heights. Reduced by casualties to half its preinvasion strength, Cawthon's regiment still managed to fight off German counterattacks and engage in an all-out pursuit across France before the Germans counterattacked again at the Ardennes forest. Thoughtful, candid, and revealing, Cawthon's memoir is a deeply felt and carefully recollected study of men confronting the face of death--their fear, their courage, their hunger and exhaustion, their loyalty to one another, and their miraculous and unreasoning ability to go one more step, one more day, one more mile. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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Google Books — Laddar... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)940.54History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War IIKlassifikation enligt LCBetygMedelbetyg:
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I really, really liked Cawthon's modesty. Also, the changing character of the division over it's months in battle was interesting. The importance of personal relationships was brought out well, both at the peer level, and at the superior level (e.g., his good first impression with Gerhardt, which made things a little easier with this notoriously difficult man for Cawthon later). The emphasis he put on psychological casualties and the 'voluntary' nature of being a rifleman in the US Army in WWII was enlightening, and isn't something I've seen much - or any - discussion of elsewhere (although ... Bowlby and Milligan do so for the British Army, as does Mowat for the Canadian Army).
OTOH, there was strangely little information about the mechanics of running an infantry unit in battle (unlike, say, Wilson or Johns). I also tired of Cawthon's repeatedly going off on little tangents then pulling up short with "but that belongs in a later part of this story" - he did that a lot with Howie, in particular.
On a minor note; the maps were ok, but I think are the worse for having been borrowed from another context rather than having been drawn specifically for this one. OTOH, those official history maps really are nice, and it is profoundly unlikely anything similar would have been produced just for this book.
Would I recommend this book? Well, yes, but not to all and sundry. The 29th Inf Div has been blessed with a number of very good biographers (Johns "The Clay Pigeons of St. Lô", Balkoski "Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Division in Normandy" and "Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944", and Cawthon), and I would recommend it to anyone who's read either or both of those others, but perhaps not as a first read.
I'm glad I read it, but I think it'll be a long while before I read it again, or even refer to it. ( )