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YOU'VE JUST SHOT A GERMAN SOLDIER, and now you have to lay with him as the enemy counterattacks. What do you do when he starts speaking to you, wounded mortally, and tells you in perfect English that he is from Coney Island in Brooklyn, your old stomping grounds?
YOU ARE ON THE RUN IN ROME, AN ESCAPED PoW behind enemy lines, on a trolley without papers as the German SS board and demand identification from all, working their way back to you. In civilian clothes, what do you tell your friend next to you when you know you are about to be shot?
-- "We attacked another hill, and I shot a German soldier. And then the Germans counterattacked on the hill, and I could not escape, so I decided to just lay down on top of that soldier and make believe I'm dead. They passed me by; I got up and this German I shot starts talking to me in English, he says he's from Coney Island, in Brooklyn; he went to visit his mother in Germany and they put him in the army. And he was dying... " -- Infantry scout, North Africa
Dying for freedom isn't the worst that could happen. Being forgotten is.
-- "The trolley was halted and German SS troops and Italian fascists, climbed aboard. They said, 'Everyone show their identification cards as we approach you.' My friend had a false one; I had had my photo taken for one but did not have my card yet because the priest who made them had been caught and shot. I whispered to my fellow escapee, 'You have a card. There is no sense in both of us getting arrested. Get away from me.' He didn't move. There were steel bars on the windows of the trolley and both exits were covered. I was doomed." -- Escaped PoW, on the run in Rome behind enemy lines
Maybe our veterans did not volunteer to tell us their stories; perhaps we were too busy with our own lives to ask. But they opened up to a younger generation, when a history teacher taught his students to engage.
-- "The general said to one of the battalion commanders, 'I want you to take Riva Ridge tomorrow night. Go out and scout how you're going to do it. You guys are a bunch of hotshots, you're skiers and mountain climbers, find a way on top of that ridge!"-10th Mountain Division soldier
As we forge ahead as a nation, do we owe it to ourselves to become reacquainted with a generation that is fast leaving us, who asked for nothing but gave everything, to attune ourselves as Americans to a broader appreciation of what we stand for? This is the fourth book in the masterful WWII oral history series, but you can read them in any order.
-- "We're going to go into a night attack. You wouldn't have any contact with each other, and single file, which means if the line breaks, you don't know where you are. Okay, so much for that. But what about friendly fire? No, you're going to clear your piece. That's army talk for you're going to take all the rounds from your BARs and rifles. Not loaded, so nobody's going to be shooting. You're going to know who the enemy is because they're going to be shooting at you! We never had a training session where we attacked a mountain in the dark with no ammunition!" -- 10th Mountain Division soldier
It's time to listen to them. Read some of the reviews below and REMEMBER how a generation of young Americans truly saved the world. Or maybe it was all for nothing?
-- "A must-read in every high school in America. It is a very poignant look back at our greatest generation; maybe it will inspire the next one."
Reviewer, Vol. I
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