The GI's War: The Story of American Soldiers in Europe in World War II

"The GI's War" by Edwin P. Hoyt. Subtitled: "American Soldiers In Europe During World War II." Da Capo Press, 1988. Edwin P. Hoyt has written many books about wars, battles, aircraft carriers, and naval and infantry warfare. In each book, it seems to me, he has the ability to recount and interpret the battle's historical facts while, at the individual level, the author is able to bring alive the persons who actually were involved. Their experiences become vivid in his writing. In this present volume, Mr. Hoyt has taken on a big task: the GIs who fought in Europe. The author has accumulated facts and quotes from many different sources, including other books, and synthesized all into a well-written concise history of the American soldiers who fought from North Africa through Sicily and Italy, Normandy Beaches and onto the heart of the Third Reich. Unlike other books of this sort, Mr. Hoyt emphasizes North Africa, Sicily and then the climb up boot of Italy. His story reaches from depression-era Army all the way up to the "Last Days" The author has paid particular attention to Private (later Sergeant) John J. Moglia, who pops up from time to time in different battles, all the way to VE Day, May 8 1945. The author clearly prefers the lower ranking soldiers, and Mr. Hoyt has some strong words for various generals, including Generals Bradley, Eisenhower, Huebner and Patton, to name just a few in alphabetical order. Because his sources are sometimes books written by soldiers who had been in the battles, some readers, especially World War II buffs, may recognize quotations and consider them repetitious of other works. I recognized some in Chapter 36, "Counteroffensive", Hoyt's chapter on the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944. Of course, this repetition occurs when there are only so many battle participants and only so many written works on the individual battles. I just wish that the author had expanded more upon the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), which was terminated by General Marshall when the casualty rate in Europe exceed expectations and more "warm bodies" were required.

The book chronologically presents the experiences of hundreds of American combat soldiers who served in Europe during World War II. Though Hoyt does present many, varied stories, he continues to return to the stories of about a dozen officers and enlisted men. These individuals make up the backbone upon which the rest of the book has been crafted. Hoyt mixes traditional narrative history with the oral history in order to keep this well-written book moving along at a quick pace. The stories, themselves, range from the mundane (soldiers' dislike of C-Rations was a constant topic of discussion) to the surreal (an American sergeant who was reprimanded for being impolite to a German general officer that he had captured) and from the amusing (British soldiers brewing up tea before going into battle) to the horrifying (the massacre of American prisoners by the Waffen-SS at Malmedy).While recommending this book, it does have some minor problems. Firstly, the book contains only about a half-dozen or so maps. In dealing with military history, it is almost impossible to properly understand the story without being able to refer to maps. Secondly, while 14-pages of pictures are to be found in the middle of the book, most of the photos chosen are of no real importance to the story. The first few pictures are of central `characters' of the book, but the other pictures seem to have been chosen almost at random and do nothing to aid the book. Lastly, and most significantly, the author does not provide a postscript concerning his core `characters'. It is horribly frustrating to become attached to these men and then not know what became of them after the war.