Basing this memoir on his original World War II diary, Pfc. Richard D. Courtney tells what it was like to be a combat infantryman in America's biggest war. In a day-to-day account of what he experienced in combat, Courtney gives the history of his antitank platoon - part of the 104th Infantry Regiment of the 16th Infantry Division - as it fought from Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war in Czechoslovakia. He tells what happened to his comrades, and like war correspondent Ernie Pyle, he gives the names and hometowns of his buddies. For Courtney, the personal war began at the point of embarkation in New York as the Yankee Division set sail for France. After landing in Normandy, Courtney's division saw combat in Alsace-Lorraine, with the fighting continuing to the Siegfried Line in Germany. The Battle of the Bulge cut short a planned rest at Metz as the division rushed north to stop the German advance. Courtney takes the reader along, sharing his own thoughts and those of his fellow soldiers as the horror of war descends on the snows of the Ardennes, where the antitank platoon dug in at a crossroads in Luxembourg. Pinned down for 16 days in the dark forest, the GIs endured freezing cold and constant artillery barrages. After the Battle of the Bulge, Courtney and his fellows moved on to the dank, wet cellars of Saarlautern, Germany. The war grew intensely personal there, as Courtney and a German soldier measured each other in the dark. Like many true war stories, Courtney's can be both tragic and comical. Crossing Germany, the men of the 26th Infantry Division observed the German people in defeat. They liberated refugees and prisoners as they opened concentration camps. American soldiers shared their food rations with hungry civilians. In May of 1945, Pfc. Courtney and two other soldiers accepted the surrender of the 11th Panzer Division on a dusty road at Ebenau, Czechoslovakia. Courtney does not discuss war tactics; as an infantryman, he was not privy to the big decisions and grand strategies. He does, however, know and understand intimately the plight of the infantryman who must kill and who watches his buddies die knowing he might be next.
Pfc. Richard D. Courtney served in the U.S. Army from 1943 until 1946. Now retired, he lives in Muncie, Indiana.
"[Courtney] remembers the sound of gunshots cracking the cold air, the sound of 57 mm shells exploding, and machine guns shattering the sleepless night. He remembers his buddies' voices, and he remembers the sound of their screams . . . . His story isn't the sweeping saga of war, the battle plans, the strategies, the politics, the flashy generals. His story is the diary of the GI, the privates who he believes won the war."-The [Lafayette] Journal and Courier "Using his diary, letters, newspaper accounts, and photographs, Courtney shares his thoughts and those of his fellow soldiers. . . . Courtney does not focus on war tactics. As an infantryman, he was not privy to the big decisions and grand strategy. He does, however, understand and communicate intimately the reality of a line combat soldier facing a retreating but deadly enemy in day-to-day struggle."-The [Scranton] Sunday Times "What makes Richard Courtney's story so incredible is that, at that time and in those places, it was so ordinary. Along with countless other young Americans in Europe and the Pacific, Courtney was simply doing what he was trained to do, what he felt morally obligated to do. And, at the same time, he was simply trying to survive. As history shows and this book testifies, many didn't."-Catholic Heritage
