Books

AN HISTORICAL AND PICTORIAL RECORD OF THE 87th INFANTRY DIVISION IN WORLD WAR II, 1942-1945

Published in 1946.
Reprinted by the 87th Infantry Division Association, 1988.
Approx. 600 pages.


COLONEL ROBERT B. COBB, U.S. ARMY RETIRED, A BIOGRAPHY

By Henry W. Mooseker, Ex S/Sgt. Co. A 347th Inf Regt.

Colonel Cobb’s biography shows how his youth made him such a courageous man and why he was such a superb shot with his carbine. It summarizes his fighting in North Africa. He is the most decorated veteran of the 87th Infantry Division. The biography also contains notes from the men he commanded and why they thought he was the “best”. It also describes his service in the Army of Occupation, Korea, Vietnam and until he retired.

Order From:
H.W. Mooseker
1412 Madrona Beach Road
Olympia, WA 98502

Price: $20 plus $3.50 mailing costs


DIARY OF A SERVICEMAN: From the 87th to 493rd and Home

by Robert R. Hartman This book shares the author’s experience as a serviceman who answered the call to duty, served his country faithfully, and then returned home to continue his life with his youth sacrificed so that other youths would enjoy the benefits of freedom. It covers the period before, during and after World War II, including service with the 87th Division.

Order From:
Robert R. Hartman
134 Backus Drive
Alexandria, VA 41001-1002

Price: $24.00 (shipping included)


F COMPANY, 347th Infantry Regiment, 1942-1945

By The Men of F Company, Compiled by Barbara Anderson Strang
Published in 1997.
233 pages, 9 maps, and over 100 photographs.

Unpretentiously authentic individual accounts of combat in Europe in 1944-45. Affords incomparable insights into an infantryman’s life-and-death experiences.

Order From:
Golden Acorn Publishing
1338 E. Dartmouth St.
Mesa, AZ 85203

List Price: $24.95. Discounted Association rate of $15.00. Include $3.00 for shipping and handling. To Europe, include $7.00 for shipping and handling.


GOLDEN ACORN MEMORIES

By James McGhee

Jim chronicles life during the war as he saw it. He was with A Battery, 334th Field Artillery.

This title is currently out of print.


THE LITTLE KNOWN FRONT: The Battle of the Bulge in the Communes of Libramont, St. Hubert and Ste. Ode

By Eric Urbain
Translated By Lane Barton, G-345
3rd printing, February 2006
300 pages, 150 photographs and maps

The Little Know Front is an hour-by-hour account of the action that took place between December 21, 1944 and January 14, 1945 in the communes of Libramont, St. Hubert, and Ste. Ode – a sector long neglected by writers and historians.

Far from giving the great leaders their customary strokes, this book wherever possible, gives priority to the testimony of the soldier and civilian who lived through the action. Included are many accounts by the Golden Acorn men and also by soldiers of the 11th Armored and the 17th Airborne Divisions. Interwoven with their personal experiences are details drawn from After Action Reports, unit journals, and historic records.

The view from the other side is not neglected and reflections on the fighting are presented by former members of the Panzer Lehr Division and the Fuehrer Begleit Brigade.

Order From:
Robert Reed
38 Bagdad Road
Durham, NH 03824

Price: $28.50 (includes shipping and handling)
Make check or money order payable to “The Little Known Front”.


NAKED HEART

by Harold Pagliaro

Relates Harold’s experiences as an Army Specialized Training cadet as well as his reassignment, after the A.S.T.P. was dismantled, to the 87th and 104th Infantry Divisions.

Order From:
Thomas Jefferson University Press
Truman State University
100 E. Normal
Kirksville, MO 63501-4221

Price: $15.00 (shipping included)


NOW COUNT YOUR MEN, HITLER! Memoirs of an Infantryman

By Milton F. Miller, M.D.
Published in 1997.

Dr. Miller recalls the many events in his war-time service with C Company, 347th Infantry Regiment.

Order From:
Dr. Milton Miller
329A Zorn Ave.
Louisville, KY 40206

Price: $12.95 plus $2.35 postage.


PRIVATE

By Lester Atwell
Published in 1958; reprinted in 1997.
Lester’s nephew, Michael Atwell, is responsible for the current reprint. You can reach Michael using the address and phone number below.

Lester Atwell tells the story of his company, G Company, 345th Infantry Regiment, from notes he took during the war. Dedicated to the 87th Infantry Division, this non-fiction novel is the single-most compelling and authentic account written about World War II. In literary quality, it compares with the famous Civil War novel “The Red Badge of Courage”. The book has been widely quoted as well as anthologized.

Order From:
AA Publishing
314 Wayne Ave.
Lansdowne, PA 19050
(610) 259-9978

Price: $25.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling.


THAT WHICH WAS ONCE A WAR: A Winter Soldier’s Poems

By Sydney Kessler
Published 1995

Sydney Kessler’s poetry reflects, in particular, his combat experience during the Ardennes campaign in the winter of 1944-1945.

Order From:
Charming Forge Publishing
Box 190, RD 1
Robesonia, PA 19551-9747

Price: $8.95 plus $2.50 shipping and handling.


Those Who Hold Bastogne: The True Story of the Soldiers and Civilians Who Fought in the Biggest Battle of the Bulge

By Dr Peter Schrijvers
Senior Lecturer United States History
School of History
The University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052
Australia

Published November 2014

In this dramatic account of the 1944–45 winter of war in Bastogne, historian Peter Schrijvers offers the first full story of the German assault on the strategically located town. From the December stampede of American and Panzer divisions racing to reach Bastogne first, through the bloody eight-day siege from land and air, and through three more weeks of unrelenting fighting even after the siege was broken, events at Bastogne hastened the long-awaited end of WWII. Schrijvers draws on diaries, memoirs, and other fresh sources to illuminate the experiences not only of Bastogne’s 3,000 citizens and their American defenders, but also of German soldiers and commanders desperate for victory. The costs of war are here made real, uncovered in the stories of those who perished and those who emerged from battle to find the world forever changed.

Available at various bookstores, including Amazon.com.


TWO FOES TO FIGHT

By R. Brownlee Welsh
Published 1998

Lt. Robert Welsh was a platoon leader of K Company, 347th in the Saar, a Tiger Patrol Leader in the Battle of the Bulge, a Cavalry Task Force Leader in the Siegfried Line, and an Armored Force tanker for several weeks. This book tells his story.

Order From:
Bob Welsh
P.O. Box 6012
Charlotte, NC 28207
(888) 295-8244

Price: $9.95 plus $1.25 shipping and handling
American Express, MC, and VISA accepted.


UNLESS VICTORY COMES: Combat With a Machine Gunner in Patton’s Third Army

By Gene Garrison, with Patrick Gilbert
Published 2004
266 pages

Gene Garrison’s story is told through the eyes of the common soldier, a man who might not know the name of the town or the location of the next hill that he and his comrades must grimly wrestle from the enemy but who is willing to die in order to carry the war forward to the hated enemy. He writes of the simple pleasure derived from finding a water-filled pudde deep enough to fill his canteen from; a momentary respite in a half-destroyed barn that shields him from the bitter cold and penetrating wind of an Ardennes winter; the solace of friendship with a core of veterans whose lives hang upon his actions and whose actions might help him survive the bitter, impersonal death they all face.

The rich dialogue and a hard-hitting narrative style bring the reader to battlefield manhood alongside Garrison, to each moment of terror and triumph faced by a young soldier far from home in the company of strangers.

Available at Amazon.com.


A MIDNIGHT CLEAR and DAD

By Albert Duaime, aka William Wharton, a former member of the 87th Division.

Both books became motion pictures.  Available through bookstores.

Reference

FINDING YOUR FATHER'S WAR: A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II US Army

By Jonathan Gawne
Casemate Publishing
341 Pages

Leading military historian and researcher, Jonathan Gawne, explains and shares the techniques he uses to research archives, libraries, veteran associations and myriad other sources of information to track down the wartime career of an individual. The author describes this as “What I did, and what you can do to find out what ‘he’ did in the army.”

I found a copy at my local Barnes and Noble. It’s also available at Amazon.com.

U.S. ARMY HANDBOOK 1939 - 1945

By George Forty
Published in 1998 by Barnes and Noble Books
220 pages, list price: 24.95

This is a superb reference book detailing the organization, structure, and equipment of the US Army during WWII.

Please note that since this volume is published by Barnes and Noble, that’s probably the only place you’ll find it. You can also order it online.

FUBAR: SOLDIER SLANG OF WORLD WAR II

By Gordon L. Rottman
Osprey Publishing
Published in 2007
296 pages

This survey of WWII soldier slang is broken into three sections: US Army and Marine Corps slang, British Commonwealth army slang, and German army slang.

Available through bookstores.