Up Close - Davis, John

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Résumé :
The late John Davis, with Anne Riffenburgh, tells John's story of being a scout and BAR man with the 106th Infantry Division from the Battle of the Bulge through the push into Germany. In 1941, John Davis is a brash young man reveling in the sights and sounds of Los Angeles - not a bad fate for a country boy from Colorado who grew up during the Great Depression. An ocean away, life is far less rosy for those living in the shadow of war. John has heard about Hitler, who seems to have mesmerized the German people and is threatening an entire continent. John is pretty certain that none of it is going to touch him. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launch their attack on Pearl Harbor, and all bets are off. Swept up in a surge of anger and patriotism, John joins the Army, undergoes three years of training, and in the fall of 1944, becomes part of the 106th Division - the last division to be made and the youngest division ever to go overseas. His plan for survival is simple: he will watch out for his own rear end and nobody else's. On the morning of December 16, 1944, John Davy Davis and 100 fellow soldiers head toward an area in Belgium called the Schnee Eifel, to face off with the Germans and take part in searing action that will eventually be known as the Battle of the Bulge. If John could know what is coming, he might be filled with dread. Instead he feels a burning need to get down to business. 2 photos. A Merriam Press World War 2 Autobiography....

Biographie:
This book was very well-written in a secular and individual way. It gives a very realistic account of the day to day experience and some of the transitions that the soldiers endured between arrival, the Bulge Offensive, the thawing out and the Siegfried Line experience in 1945. It was a slog and everyday chipped at one's armor. The steadily encroaching realization that something bad or unlucky could happen accelerated as the offensive ebbed and snow thawed but the dangers (and mines/artillery) were still omnipresent. Some of the thoughts about critical enduring friendships (with his friend Archie) and those small but key facets that may have kept a man sane and capable of enduring one are well-described....

Sommaire:
The late John Davis, with Anne Riffenburgh, tells John's story of being a scout and BAR man with the 106th Infantry Division from the Battle of the Bulge through the push into Germany. In 1941, John Davis is a brash young man reveling in the sights and sounds of Los Angeles - not a bad fate for a country boy from Colorado who grew up during the Great Depression. An ocean away, life is far less rosy for those living in the shadow of war. John has heard about Hitler, who seems to have mesmerized the German people and is threatening an entire continent. John is pretty certain that none of it is going to touch him. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launch their attack on Pearl Harbor, and all bets are off. Swept up in a surge of anger and patriotism, John joins the Army, undergoes three years of training, and in the fall of 1944, becomes part of the 106th Division - the last division to be made and the youngest division ever to go overseas. His plan for survival is simple: he will watch out for his own rear end and nobody else's. On the morning of December 16, 1944, John Davy Davis and 100 fellow soldiers head toward an area in Belgium called the Schnee Eifel, to face off with the Germans and take part in searing action that will eventually be known as the Battle of the Bulge. If John could know what is coming, he might be filled with dread. Instead he feels a burning need to get down to business. 2 photos. A Merriam Press World War 2 Autobiography....