Publication Information |
Author: David Rothbart
Front Jacket Cover of A Soldier's Journal
About A SOLDIER'S JOURNAL
by Senior Editor Dwight Jon Zimmerman This is the extraordinary memoir of the 22nd Infantry Regiment, a unit that Ernest Hemingway stayed with for five months, from the drive across France to the bloody Battle of the Hurtgen Forest. It is a moving account of men who enlisted to fight in a just cause. It touches on the chaos of war and how accidental atrocities --such as the use of poison gas by American artillery on November 15, 1944--were narrowly averted. In addition, it is a journal surprisingly rich with humor--from how men learn all about "the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way" to those incongruous moments of comedy that can occur even on the battlefield. The result is a memoir so rich in character, detail, and atmosphere that the reader will feel that he is shoulder-to- shoulder with men from the "Greatest Generation." By the Author: Many memoirs have been written by World War II veterans, most of them written years later. I have never seen anything like my journal, which was written at the time and place where every- thing happened. I have been asked, what made me decide to keep a journal. In advance of being drafted I reasoned that much of a soldier's spare time is spent in dreadful boredom. Gambling never interested me, nor drinking. Writing would provide me with an interesting preoccupation. I was drafted into the U.S. Army on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1942. I immediately started keeping a journal. I wrote only when I thought I had something interesting to record. The Journal is in two parts. First, "One Year in the Army, Stateside." The second part is "Overseas in Europe with the 4th Infantry Division." The 4th Infantry Division was one of the three assault divisions that initiated five major battles in Europe. The 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division landed at Utah Beach on D-day, Normandy. We then swept through France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. We fought in the battle of Hurtgen Forest, which is widely known as one of the fiercest, bloodiest battles in all history. We entered into Germany, then fought in the Battle of the Bulge. My 22nd Infantry Regiment, one of the three regiments in the division, was the one chosen by novelist Ernest Hemingway and journalist Ernie Pyle to spend their time with during five combat months. I was the T/4 sergeant in charge of the Classification Section of the 22nd Infantry Regiment Personnel office. During combat it was my job to assign replacements to depleted rifle companies and escort them on trucks to the meat-grinder front lines. When I was inducted I understood that I was going to be in the Army until we won the war, no matter how long it took--two years, five, ten... In May, 1945, 486 dated Journal entries after I was inducted, the war in Europe ended. In July, 1945, I, together with my division, headed for the port of Le Havre. There we boarded the 10,000 ton US "Liberty" troopship James B. Parker and headed for home. |
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