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What are the best first person accounts of American fighting in WW2 ? (Original Post) steve2470 Jun 2014 OP
Have you seen the film = Into The White ... ? Tuesday Afternoon Jun 2014 #1
nope never seen it, i'll check it out, thanks ! nt steve2470 Jun 2014 #2
Just saw it the other night. Thought it was good. Anti-War even. Let me know what you think. Tuesday Afternoon Jun 2014 #3
I finally watched it, it was good and anti-war as you said nt steve2470 Jul 2014 #15
Good to hear. If you are still interested -- although it Tuesday Afternoon Jul 2014 #16
yea I have a ton to wade through here steve2470 Jul 2014 #17
Well, let's see... malthaussen Jun 2014 #4
thanks for your time compiling that list ! nt steve2470 Jun 2014 #5
I could go on at greater length.:) malthaussen Jun 2014 #6
My dad was 3rd Artillery with Patton steve2470 Jun 2014 #7
3rd Army, you mean? malthaussen Jun 2014 #8
yes 3rd Armored Division , 3rd Army under Patton steve2470 Jun 2014 #9
Just let me know how it turns out. malthaussen Jun 2014 #10
ok will do steve2470 Jun 2014 #11
One thing you can do... malthaussen Jun 2014 #12
good idea, thanks, will do ! nt steve2470 Jun 2014 #13
One of my favorites is Pappy Boyington's autobiography "Baa Baa Blacksheep"...... DrewFlorida Jul 2014 #14
another good film although again it is not about Americans but, instead focuses on British POWs Tuesday Afternoon Aug 2014 #18
"Wake Island command " Doc_Technical Jan 2018 #19

Tuesday Afternoon

(56,912 posts)
1. Have you seen the film = Into The White ... ?
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 11:17 AM
Jun 2014

Norway, WWII: A group of British and German soldiers find themselves stranded in the wilderness after an aircraft battle. Finding shelter in the same cabin, they realize the only way to survive the winter is to place the rules of war aside.



more at link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1876277/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Tuesday Afternoon

(56,912 posts)
16. Good to hear. If you are still interested -- although it
Sat Jul 26, 2014, 01:48 AM
Jul 2014

looks like you have a ton of info below to keep you busy

I could also ask my brother who is a HUGE war/history buff and WWII is "favorite" war to study/discuss.

I will ask him for more books/movies ... if you are still interested.

steve2470

(37,457 posts)
17. yea I have a ton to wade through here
Sat Jul 26, 2014, 06:40 AM
Jul 2014

Actually I'm a bit burned out on the genre for now. Thanks for offering !

malthaussen

(17,066 posts)
4. Well, let's see...
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 12:09 PM
Jun 2014

You could try Guadalcanal Diary, Richard Tregaskis; With the Old Breed, E.B. Sledge; On Valor's Side, Grady Gallant (what a name), and Helmet for My Pillow, Robert Leckie. These are well-regarded classics of war literature. (Gallant also wrote a second memoir, The Friendly Dead.) Tregaskis was a war correspondent, but he got rained on just like everyone else. The others are Marines, and deal with Guadalcanal and other campaigns.

You should also check out Ernie Pyle's books -- Pyle was a correspondent in Africa, Europe and the Pacific, and was killed during the Okinawa campaign.

A personal favorite of mine was the wartime memoir of the destroyer USS Grayson (DD435) written by her skipper, Frederick Jackson Bell. The destroyer's name and that of many other ships was censored in the wartime edition for security purposes, but you could tell it was Grayson because they didn't censor the hull number in her photograph. It's a charming book about life on a destroyer -- and it is available on Amazon Kindle as Condition Red: Destroyer Action in the South Pacific. I wonder if the
Kindle edition has the crew list appendix with the creepily-historic "n" after the names of the African-American crew members. (Navy ships had mostly black stewards and kitchen staffs, but not combat crew) Another good destroyer read is Brave Ship, Brave Men, which details the story of the short life of DM-34, the USS Aaron Ward. Second ship of that name to fight in WW 2. The book is mostly about her harrowing experiences on radar picket duty off Okinawa, 3 May 1945, during which she was struck by multiple kamikazes. Although not strictly-speaking first-person (it is drawn from the stories of survivors), it is one of the most gripping and intense accounts of naval action you'll ever read.

Of course you want to read Studs Terkel's The Good War, a landmark of oral history.

And of course Company Commander by Charles B. MacDonald, another all-time classic.

Some all-time great war novels are really autobiographies: Mailer's Naked and the Dead and Jone's From Here to Eternity being the standouts here. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut also falls into this category, with its emphasis on the firebombing of Dresden which he witnessed as a POW.

You specify US accounts, so I won't mention the abundant literature from the other participants. But you should check out the German author Willi Heinrich (Cross of Iron and a number of other novels) if you'd like to get a viewpoint from "The other side of the mountain."

There are abundant web resources for first-person accounts of WW 2. It's impossible to even scratch the surface.



-- Mal

malthaussen

(17,066 posts)
6. I could go on at greater length.:)
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 12:27 PM
Jun 2014

Studied that war for 40 years and more, so I've read a few in my time.

-- Mal

steve2470

(37,457 posts)
7. My dad was 3rd Artillery with Patton
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 02:23 PM
Jun 2014

He never talked about the war really, like most veterans. I don't have his social security number or any other numbers, so I don't know how I would get his records. My dad passed away 4 years ago, so this reading, in a way, keeps me connected to him. Do you know the easiest way to get military records from DoD ?

malthaussen

(17,066 posts)
8. 3rd Army, you mean?
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 03:15 PM
Jun 2014

First of all, without your father's Service Number (as in "name, rank, and serial number&quot and SSN, you can't get his records from the National Archives, which is where they are stored. Prior to 1 July 1969, Army personnel were not identified by SSN, but by the Service Number.

Second of all, a lot of records were lost in a fire in 1973. As your father was in the Army, his records were probably lost if he was discharged prior to 1 January 1960. Some reconstruction has been done, but finding those records is particularly difficult and requires more information than you probably already have, e.g. date and place of discharge. It's a Catch-22 of sorts: you need the information from his records for them to locate his records.

Thirdly, if you could find the required information, you'd have to send a signed request to the National Archives (preferably using form SF-180) for them to send you a copy of the information, which would require a fee. Ranging from $25 to $70.

For more information consult the National Archives Veterans' Service Records site. You may be able to find your father's serial number by using the AAD search function -- I was able to find my father's number using it. Linky: http://aad.archives.gov/aad/
Enter your dad's name in the name field thus: #lastname#firstname and you may be able to find him. You could add another asterisk and his middle initial after firstname, if the name is somewhat common.

Link to the National Archives Veterans' Service Records site: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/ You can learn everything you need to know about the process here. There is probably a way to find his records without having his SSN, you might want to send a letter of inquiry. Just remember that the NA receives a lot of requests every year, and the gristmill of the gods grinds exceedingly fine, but also exceedingly slow.

Having said all that, the information available through the Archives may not be what you want anyway. If you want information about the battles he was in you'd need to find a good unit history for his outfit. There are a zillion of these online, and since he was in 3rd Army there's an even greater-likelihood of finding information, as that is one of the more well-discussed armies.

At the very least, you should see if you can find your father's enlistment record with the AAD search function. I did that some years ago, and it was kind of eerie seeing info from before I was born. Second only to discovering a putative ancestor mentioned in a history book.

On a different note: US soldiers who were in Europe at the end of the war received a copy of a book called Soldier's Album, which contains many contemporary photographs of the European conflict. (Similar books were published for other theatres) I still have my father's copy, it may be possible that your father's is still around somewhere. Most of the photos have been seen a million times, but it's an interesting item.

-- Mal

malthaussen

(17,066 posts)
10. Just let me know how it turns out.
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 03:34 PM
Jun 2014

3rd armored division was prominent in the Battle of the Bulge. However, it was not part of 3rd Army. It was under 1st Army.

It has its own web site: http://www.3ad.org/world-war-ii/
Well, two of them, actually: http://www.3ad.com/
The second one has a lot of articles about WW2.
And the Wikipedia article is also useful.

Keep in mind a division is a big unit. Ideally you'd want to know your dad's company and battalion to get a good idea of what action he saw.

-- Mal

steve2470

(37,457 posts)
11. ok will do
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 04:15 PM
Jun 2014

I'm going to wear Google out and see what I can find. No luck so far searching the NARA. I guess his record burned up/got lost or I'm just not doing the search perfectly so far. Thanks again for your help.

malthaussen

(17,066 posts)
12. One thing you can do...
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 04:30 PM
Jun 2014

... is join the 3rd AD association and ask if any of the other members remember your father. Ain't but a few WW2 vets left, but you might get lucky.

-- Mal

DrewFlorida

(1,096 posts)
14. One of my favorites is Pappy Boyington's autobiography "Baa Baa Blacksheep"......
Mon Jul 21, 2014, 02:33 PM
Jul 2014

By Gregory (Pappy) Boyington, ace pilot of the famous Flying Tigers.
He gives a cut and dried account of his service, without trying to paint himself a hero.
Excellent read!

Tuesday Afternoon

(56,912 posts)
18. another good film although again it is not about Americans but, instead focuses on British POWs
Fri Aug 8, 2014, 12:01 AM
Aug 2014

in Japan ... is The Railway Man with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. Some scenes very hard to watch for me.

The Railway Man (2013)
116 min - Biography | Drama - 23 May 2014 (USA)

A former British Army officer, who was tormented as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War II, discovers that the man responsible for much of his treatment is still alive and sets out to confront him.

Storyline
Eric Lomax was one of thousands of Allied prisoners of war forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway during WW2. His experiences, after the secret radio he built to bring news and hope to his colleagues was discovered, left him traumatised and shut off from the world. Years later, he met Patti, a beautiful woman, on a train and fell in love. Patti was determined to rid Eric of his demons. Discovering that the young Japanese officer who haunted her husband was still alive, she faced a terrible decision. Should Eric be given a chance to confront his tormentor? Would she stand by him, whatever he did?


more at link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2058107/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Doc_Technical

(3,504 posts)
19. "Wake Island command "
Sat Jan 20, 2018, 08:03 PM
Jan 2018

by W. Scott Cunningham

Commander Cunningham was in command of Wake Island at the beginning of
the war.

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