Description:
When Ensign Tracy Sugarman packed his seabag and prepared to ship overseas in early 1944, his wife handed him a package containing sketch pads, pens, and a set of watercolors. Fifty years later, she reminded him of the upcoming 50th anniversary of D-Day, which in turn reminded him of the letters, drawings, and watercolors he had sent home. To his astonishment, June Sugarman took him down to the cellar and showed him several brown paper parcels which, when opened, revealed some 400 letters and 77 drawings and watercolors from his corner of World War II. My War consists of excerpts from those letters, accompanied by dozens of examples of Sugarman's work. In what Stephen Ambrose calls "one of the most compelling accounts of the war I've ever read," Sugarman gracefully describes his experiences in the Navy, from training sessions on the Chesapeake River to his stay in England preparing for the invasion, from the boredom aboard a Liberty ship in the English Channel to the horrors of Utah Beach on D-Day, and from the loneliness of a man away from his new wife to pride in the American forces: July 25--Off the coast of Normandy: This morning I saw the greatest manifestation of our airpower in all my months overseas, and in particular here in Normandy. For 2 hours we watched wave after wave of bombers move across the sky and head for the lines and Germany. It is one thing to read of thousands of planes attacking, and quite another to see it. It was incredible. No sooner would one wave pass over our heads than another would appear as tiny specks in the distance and with a grace of movement impossible to describe, they would arc across the whole roof of the heavens. Sugarman's obvious love for his wife suffuses all the entries with a warm, rosy glow. His account differs from many in that he never fired on the enemy and was fired upon only once. But, as he points out in his preface, this is his war, and "every sailor and soldier in World War II fought his own war." Perfect for fans of The Greatest Generation, My War is an excellent addition to any World War II library. --Sunny Delaney
| 
