Author: Ernest Albert Andrews Publisher: Casemate ISBN: 1636241050 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 377
Book Description
A machine gunner chronicles his time on the frontlines of WW2 from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge and the Wehrmacht’s last stand. American machine gunner Ernest “Andy” Andrews arrived in the UK just before deploying to fight in D-Day. Struck by a bullet in Normandy, he was evacuated to England before returning to participate in the race across France. Andy’s squad defended a bunker in the Siegfried Line and fought its way through the Hurtgen Forest to take Hill 232. When the Germans attempted to retake the hill, Andy faced his toughest battle and suffered a shoulder wound. Andy rejoined his company in time to fight in the Battle of the Bulge and the Rhine campaign, and in Germany's Harz Mountains, where the Wehrmacht was trying to organize a last stand. Andy's outfit ends the war fighting in Czechoslovakia, where Andy witnesses the German surrender. Following occupation duty, Andy returned to the States in October 1945. The war shaped Andy's postwar life in countless ways, and in 1994, Andy made the first of three return visits to the European battlefields where he had fought. This vivid firsthand account takes the reader along from Normandy to victory with Andy and his machine-gun crew.
Author: Ward Schrantz Publisher: University of North Texas Press ISBN: 1574417614 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 536
Book Description
Despite their extensive service in World War I, few members of the Kansas-Missouri 35th Division left lengthy memoirs of their experiences in the American Expeditionary Forces. But Ward Loren Schrantz filled dozens of pages with his recollections of life as a National Guard officer and machine gun company commander in the “Santa Fe” Division. In A Machine-Gunner in France, Schrantz extensively documents his experiences and those of his men, from training at Camp Doniphan to their voyage across the Atlantic, and to their time in the trenches in France’s Vosges Mountains and ultimately to their return home. He devotes much of his memoir to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, in which the 35th Division suffered heavy casualties and made only moderate gains before being replaced by fresh troops. Schrantz provides a valuable “common soldier’s” view of why the division failed to live up to the expectations of the A.E.F. high command. Schrantz also describes the daily life of a soldier, including living conditions, relations between officers and enlisted men, and the horrific experience of combat. He paints literary portraits of the warriors who populated the A.E.F. and the civilians he encountered in France. Schrantz’s small-town newspaper experience allowed him to craft a well-written and entertaining narrative. Because he did not intend his memoir for publication, the Missourian wrote in an honest and unassuming style, with extensive detail, vivid descriptions, and occasional humor. Editor Jeffrey Patrick combines his narrative with excerpts from a detailed history of the unit that Schrantz wrote for his local newspaper, and also provides an editor’s introduction and annotations to document and explain items and sources in the memoir. This is not a romantic account of the war, but a realistic record of how American citizen-soldiers actually fought on the Western Front.
Author: Johnnie Clark Publisher: Presidio Press ISBN: 0345450264 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 382
Book Description
THIS GUT-WRENCHING FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE WAR IS A CLASSIC IN THE ANNALS OF VIETNAM LITERATURE. "Guns up!" was the battle cry that sent machine gunners racing forward with their M60s to mow down the enemy, hoping that this wasn't the day they would meet their deaths. Marine Johnnie Clark heard that the life expectancy of a machine gunner in Vietnam was seven to ten seconds after a firefight began. Johnnie was only eighteen when he got there, at the height of the bloody Tet Offensive at Hue, and he quickly realized the grim statistic held a chilling truth. The Marines who fought and bled and died were ordinary men, many still teenagers, but the selfless bravery they showed day after day in a nightmarish jungle war made them true heroes. This new edition of Guns Up!, filled with photographs and updated information about those harrowing battles, also contains the real names of these extraordinary warriors and details of their lives after the war. The book's continuing success is a tribute to the raw courage and sacrifice of the United States Marines.
Author: Johnnie Clark Publisher: Presidio Press ISBN: 0307415376 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 338
Book Description
They were warriors, trained to fight, dedicated to their country, and determined to win. At Guadalcanal, the Marine Corps’ machine gunners took everything the Japanese could throw at them in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II; their position was so hopeless that at one point they were given the go-ahead to surrender. Near the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, as the mercury dropped to twenty below, the 1st Marine Division found itself surrounded and cut off by the enemy. The outlook seemed so bleak that many in Washington had privately written off the men. But surrender is not part of a Marine’s vocabulary. Gunner’s Glory contains true stories of these and other tough battles in the Pacific, in Korea, and in Vietnam, recounted by the machine gunners who fought them. Bloody, wounded, sometimes barely alive, they stayed with their guns, delivering a stream of firepower that often turned defeat into victory–and always made them the enemy’s first target.
Author: C. E. Crutchley Publisher: Pen & Sword Books ISBN: 9781783461783 Category : World War, 1914-1918 Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
In 1914 there were only two machine guns supporting a British infantry battalion of 800 men, and in the light of the effectiveness of German and French machine guns the Machine Gun Corps was formed in October 1915. This remarkable book, compiled and edited by C E Crutchley, is a collection of the personal accounts of officers and men who served in the front lines with their machine guns in one of the most ghastly wars, spread over three continents. The strength of the book lies in the fact that these are the actual words of the soldiers themselves, complete with characteristic modes of expression and oddities of emphasis and spelling. All theatres of war are covered from the defence of the Suez Canal, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia in the east to France and Flanders, the German offensive of March 1918 and the final act on the Western Front that brought the war to an end. SELLING POINTS: * A harrowing story of the types of combat used in World War I * Pulls together the experiences of different people who served, helping yo to understand what these men went through 8 pages of b/w plates
Author: C. E. Crutchley Publisher: Pen and Sword ISBN: 1473816092 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 326
Book Description
In 1914 there were only two machine guns supporting a British infantry battalion of 800 men, and in the light of the effectiveness of German and French machine guns the Machine Gun Corps was formed in October 1915. This remarkable book, compiled and edited by C E Crutchley, is a collection of the personal accounts of officers and men who served in the front lines with their machine guns in one of the most ghastly wars, spread over three continents. The strength of the book lies in the fact that these are the actual words of the soldiers themselves, complete with characteristic modes of expression and oddities of emphasis and spelling. All theatres of war are covered from the defence of the Suez Canal, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia in the east to France and Flanders, the German offensive of March 1918 and the final act on the Western Front that brought the war to an end. October 2006 is the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Machine Gun Corps.
Author: Anthony Smith Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 9780312934774 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 332
Book Description
The machine gun is a uniquely American invention that revolutionized the way in which war was waged. This first look in more than 30 years at its social and historical impact also profiles the inventors responsible for the creation of the weapon. Martin's Press.
Author: Herbert W. McBride Publisher: DigiCat ISBN: Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 123
Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Emma Gees" by Herbert W. McBride. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.