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It is probably safe to say that no other war in history has been written about more than World War II. The conflict has been chronicled in multivolume book and periodical sets, has been dramatized in countless films and television shows, and even has several magazines exclusively devoted to rehashing it. With the history aisles of major bookstores often featuring dedicated sections for the subject, why would one more book about the war be welcome? Perhaps because the author's book doesn't just talk about the conflict but also gives an insider's view of what day-to-day life was like for a "citizen soldier."
Miller's memoir starts off shortly before America enters the war when he is in college. Like so many young men after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he decides to enlist rather than just wait to be called up. However, various obstacles keep him out of serving in his first choice, the Navy. Drafted eventually for the Army, Miller recounts in detail the often less-than-ideal conditions in the various camps and training locations he experiences before finding himself in a tank in Europe shortly after D-Day. As part of the liberating forces he describes the jubilation of the French with their arrival, as well as the final acts of the enemy military units they encounter as they slowly push their way into Germany.
However, what makes Miller's book stand out from so many other war autobiographies is his focus more on the people and atmosphere of the places he encounters along the way rather than the overall war effort. The result is almost an "Innocents Abroad" travelogue that skillfully describes the beauty and ugliness of the locales he passes through as well as the mindsets and behaviors of many of the people who inhabited them during the war years.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review