Foot Soldier: A Combat Infantryman's War in Europe

by Roscoe C. Blunt Jr.

Book Overview

Through the prism of ultimate victory, the greatest generation that fought World War II has been seen as triumphant. But the brutal reality of the war as endured by combat infantrymen has remained little documented. In Foot Soldier, Roscoe C. Blunt provides an all-too-rare glimpse into the experience of fighting at the Allied front. Nineteen-year-old "Rockie" arrived on the continent in November 1944, when burnt-out U.S. vehicles still littered...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306810905
• ISBN13: 9780306810909
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

One of the Best ever, hard to put down.....

This by far is one of the best first hand accounts written by a combat Infantryman of WW2......Mr. Blunt's detailed and straightforward writing put you right there in the action...his descriptions of the dead and killing are as he saw them - not glossed over or prettied up for the reader , it's simply what he experienced...I only wish more pictures of the author's extensive war booty could have been included in the book- it looks like he could open his own museum with all the german souvenirs he has...this is a great book written by another one of the hero citizen soldiers of WWII.....

Unvarnished first person reporting

As only a few WW2 survivors have succeeded in doing (notably Don Burgett and E.B.Sledge), Mr Blunt has proven once again that vivid, detailed accounts of combat by men who were there, are simply the best. The fact that this work has been ignored by mainstream book reviewers, as well as that 'Guru of WW2 history', Stephen Ambrose, does not surprise me. This book, first published in 1994, is curiously missing from the bibliography of 'Citizen Soldiers', but it is the best ETO Combat Infantryman's account I have ever read. This book is "too honest", and gives the blemishes right along with the glory. The author had to march from Omaha Beach to Paris in the fall of 1944, and he literally passed out twice under his 100 lb equipment load, while enroute. Among other things, he was pelted with rocks and apples along with his fellow GIs as they marched past Caen-this by French farmers, who were incensed over the thousands of French lives lost to Allied bombing raids. That, plus the cold blooded murder of some German prisoners which Blunt describes, are not the stuff to be found in Ambrose's rose-colored view of the war in Europe. Blunt also describes SS atrocities, hand to hand combat, being knocked unconscious by explosions, and the incredibly horrible weather conditions endured by footsoldiers in the Bulge. He also describes the lust for frontline souvenir collecting in a way I've never seen written by any survivor of the war against Nazi Germany. If there was a way to give this book more than five stars, I would do it. You might have to order it from an online book dealer, but don't miss it-it may be the best combat book ever written by an ETO survivor.

Day-to-day experiences fighting on the Allied front

Foot Soldier: A Combat Infantryman's War In Europe is the candid, compelling, and personal story of Roscoe Blunt's day-to-day experiences fighting on the Allied front in Europe. At the age of 19, Blunt found himself arriving on the continent in November 1944, while burnt out U.S. vehicles and landing craft sill littered the French beaches. French farmers jeered at the GIs as they marched inland through a landscape devastated by the war. He fought with the 84th Infantry Division across Holland and into Germany, learning to survive under fire and engaging the enemy with what he called a "thrilling sport" of life and death combat. When the Germans broke through the American front in the Battle of the Bulge, Blunt was lying immobile in foxholes, his helmet a latrine, his feet frozen into ice-encrusted blocks. He was briefly taken prisoner by an SS panzer unit as his regiment retreated, then held firm, and finally counterattacked to smash the last great German offensive of the war. With the troops that surged across the Rhine, Blunt describes a collapsed Germany army and tragic civilian carnage. After the fighting he witnessed an occupied Germany that had far more women than men. This is a candid, revealing memoir of a young man's emotional transformation arising from his struggles with a hostile and lethal enemy, and his own conscience. Drawn from contemporary letters and diaries, Foot Soldier is a welcome and "you are there" style of writing that does full justice to its subject and a splendid addition to any World War II studies reading list and history collection.

The way a memoir should be written!

I've read numerous World War II memoirs (I collect them), and this is one of the best. Many veterans unfortunately (American and German) describe their combat experiences in general terms ("we had some vicious fighting there")or ("the suffering was horrible"), and don't realize that it is in the gritty details where their experiences come alive. So often after reading a memoir (and spending money on it) I am disappointed that the author passed over his experiences in such a way. Not this guy! He goes into the horrible day to day details of life in combat, including atrocities by both sides, with chilling particulars, and gives you some idea (as much as can be gotten from a comfortable chair) of how bad it really was. I really wish I could talk to this man. Buy this book. You will not regret it.

A great, but different, view of WW2

This is a great book, although it is slightly different than the average WW2 memoir. The author was in the anti-mine squad of an anti-tank tank platoon in the 84th Infantry Division. As such, he had some freedom to wander his area not afforded to a GI in an infantry squad. Coupled with the fact that the author, because of his personality, is exactly the kind to go and volunteer for things makes his story different from most. Now I must admit that I know the author, and this is absolutely the way he is. As a point of fact he spent the years after the war as a police reporter poking his nose into places it might not normally belong for his local paper. While doing so he won 35 awards for reporting. This speaks for his ability as an author and researcher. The book is very, very well written. During his war years he is blown up, gets frozen feet, suffers from combat exhaustion, and all manner of events. He volunteers for patrols, goes sniper hunting, and "loots" whenever he gets a chance. I've seen some of his souvenirs that he mentions in the book. They are quite real. Some might be critical of his story as he does act differently from the average GI who would shudder at volunteering. Often veterans like to embellish their wartime experience with slight exaggerations. After many talks with the author, and countless interviews with other veterans about their war years, I do not think this is embellished. As a longtime historian of WW2 ( hey, go buy my books!), I've gone through his book very closely, and cannot find any problems with it. So do I recommend the book? Heck yes! You just need to keep in mind that he is not the average GI. He's a cocky 19 year old that figures if he has to go to war he might as well take part in it. He did, and left us a well written record of what he went through. It is one of my favorite WW2 memoirs.