Forgotten Heroes of World War II: Personal Accounts of Ordinary Soldiers

By Thomas E. Simmons

Book Overview

Forgotten Heroes of World War II offers a personal understanding of what was demanded of these young heroes through the stories of rank-and-file individuals who served in the navy, marines, army, air corps, and merchant marine in all theatres of the war. Their tales are told without pretense or apology. At the time, each thought himself no different from those around him, for they were all young, scared, and miserable. They were the ordinary, the extraordinary, the forgotten. Multiply their stories by hundreds of thousands, and you begin to understand the words of war correspondent Martha Gellhorn: There are those who received brief, poor, or no recognition, all those history leaves unmentioned, not because they are lesser but because they are too many. Recorded more than fifty years after the war, the stories in Forgotten Heroes of World War II were shared quietly, shyly, honestly, and often painfully by these extraordinary ordinary people. All of them begin with similar statements - There's really not much to tell. I was just there like everyone else. All I wanted to do was get home...Each was uncomfortable for being singled out to speak of experiences he felt were common to so many others.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581823215
• ISBN13: 9781581823219
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
• Length: 255 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Fourteen intensely personal perspectives

Compiled and edited by Thomas E. Simmons, Forgotten Heroes Of World War II: Personal Accounts Of Ordinary Soldiers offers contemporary readers with fourteen intensely personal perspectives of individual rank-and-file soldiers, aviators, and seamen who were quite ordinary people thrown into the extraordinary and often horrific demands of World War II combat. Of special interest is "The Diary Of Tarao Kawaguchi" which relates the perspective of a Japanese soldier stationed in Saipan during 1944. Also of interest is concluding chapter "The Home Front". Their strength and valor are commemorated in this moving, compelling, informative, and highly recommended contribution to the growing library of World War II military histories.