Rating:  Summary: Ive read it cover to cover 4 times! Review: Ramond Gantter's "Roll Me Over, An Infantryman's World War II", is truley a wonderfull book. I have read it from cover to cover 4 times, and im working on my 5th. It includes reflection upon one mans thoughts and soul, as well as cant-put-the-book-down-action. It is a very powerfull book. So much so, when i get a snack, i feel lucky to be able to munch on what ever, instead of a D-bar, or C rations.
Rating:  Summary: A Great book on WWII Review: This book was one that I hated to put down. The stories brought you right to the front line of an average "joe". The author's keen eye for detail and true, down to earth language made this a wonderful book. It honestly felt as if he was sitting in front of me reliving his life during the war and the hardships he endured. I highly suggest anyone and everyone interested in WWII needs to read this book. It was easy to read, and not filled with over dramatic horror stories. It was as if you were going out with Raymond himself. Very enjoyable and well worth the reading!
Rating:  Summary: A Great book on WWII Review: This book was one that I hated to put down. The stories brought you right to the front line of an average "joe". The author's keen eye for detail and true, down to earth language made this a wonderful book. It honestly felt as if he was sitting in front of me reliving his life during the war and the hardships he endured. I highly suggest anyone and everyone interested in WWII needs to read this book. It was easy to read, and not filled with over dramatic horror stories. It was as if you were going out with Raymond himself. Very enjoyable and well worth the reading!
Rating:  Summary: A Great book on WWII Review: This book was one that I hated to put down. The stories brought you right to the front line of an average "joe". The author's keen eye for detail and true, down to earth language made this a wonderful book. It honestly felt as if he was sitting in front of me reliving his life during the war and the hardships he endured. I highly suggest anyone and everyone interested in WWII needs to read this book. It was easy to read, and not filled with over dramatic horror stories. It was as if you were going out with Raymond himself. Very enjoyable and well worth the reading!
Rating:  Summary: An exercise in self-pity Review: This books suffers a bit too much from the author's chaotic musings about anything that just happens to pop into his mind. Based on notes he made in the field during World War II, the author spends too much time revisiting his every thought instead of describing what was going on. The book does provide a fairly good perspective of a well-educated infantryman in the war if you are willing to skim over page after page of annoying "holier-than-thou" philosophizing. But what is worse about this book is the pervasive atmosphere of self-pity that the author exudes. I sometimes get the impression the author feels that destroying Nazi Germany wasn't worth the effort because it was too much of an inconvenience on his personal life.
Rating:  Summary: Amazing Review: This has got to be one of the better books on World War II in Europe that I've read. The author's perspective in the writing of his book gives a very human sense to the entire war. This is not a historical strategy guide as so many other books about the war lean towards. It's simply about one man in his platoon trying to make sense out of what he has to do. He's very honest in his presentation and isn't ashamed to talk about mistakes that he or the other members of his squad make from time to time. This is a VERY good book and well worth the price. I'd buy it again any day.
Rating:  Summary: from the eyes (and notes) of a soldier Review: This is a True WWII story from the memoirs written by a US infantryman (later an officer) and his experiences from September 1944 through the Battle of the Bulge to summer 1945. It is poignant but gritty, so don't expect the poetic imagery found in "All Quiet on the Western Front." Interesting, funny, horifying, and shocking all in one breath, it gives a taste of "real war" as Gantter crawls through the snow to cut barbed wire, intrudes apologetically on perplexed civilians, and uses his cheap historical novels in "practical ways."
Rating:  Summary: from the eyes (and notes) of a soldier Review: This is a True WWII story from the memoirs written by a US infantryman (later an officer) and his experiences from September 1944 through the Battle of the Bulge to summer 1945. It is poignant but gritty, so don't expect the poetic imagery found in "All Quiet on the Western Front." Interesting, funny, horifying, and shocking all in one breath, it gives a taste of "real war" as Gantter crawls through the snow to cut barbed wire, intrudes apologetically on perplexed civilians, and uses his cheap historical novels in "practical ways."
Rating:  Summary: If only words could paint a picture Review: This is an excellent book, full of vivid details. In fact I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in history, or just an enjoyement to read great writing. I was very touched by the story and impressed witht the emotions and images that the author painted for us all, for he shared with us the life of an "infantry man".
Rating:  Summary: An unusually reflective view of war on the front lines Review: What makes Raymond Gantter's book so valuable is that it is based on notes taken during combat from November 1944 through the end of the war, his letters home, and pulling all of his memories together in the immediate postwar years. Gantter was no ordinary GI: thirty years old, a college graduate, German speaking, and with a considerable talent for writing with feeling and meaning. Because he spoke German, Gantter gives us a better appreciation of German civilian reactions than most other stories of the ground war. His accounts of the front-line infantryman, the danger, the confusion, the seemingly randomness and senselessness of what often had to be done comes through with a clarity few other first-hand accounts of the war in Europe have achieved. There is no grand strategy explained here, no maps to follow, but only the ground-eye view of orders to take Point 69, to advance to the ridgeline a mile ahead. And during this, Gantter reflects on what it means, or doesn't mean. He also does not hesitate to describe actions of soldiers that seldom occur in the histories. Side-by-side with heroism and gallantry, there was also fear, cowardness, stupidity, and animalistic behavior. By all means read Gantter's account of the ground war as it really was as a necessary supplement to the standard accounts written decades later by historians who never dug a foxhole or ate C-rations.
|