Rangers in World War II

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Summary: The history is all here!
Review: An excellent comprehensive account of all six Ranger Battalions. A highlight for Ranger relatives in Black's book is the composite listing of all Ranger's names under their designated Battalion.

Rating:
Summary: berkeley strong's daughter
Review: Bob- I am bored at work so thought I would mess with this computer & see if I could find you. I have lost your home add & e-mail address- pls holler at me soon- havent spoken to you in a long time.Hope all is well out your way- I am doing fine- been 3yrs since Daddy passed-seems like yesterday- my e-mail is :[e-mail] Hope to hear from you soon! Always a Ranger daughter! Deby P.S.- Have you heard from Nick Tisak?

Rating:
Summary: berkeley strong's daughter
Review: Bob- I am bored at work so thought I would mess with this computer & see if I could find you. I have lost your home add & e-mail address- pls holler at me soon- havent spoken to you in a long time.Hope all is well out your way- I am doing fine- been 3yrs since Daddy passed-seems like yesterday- my e-mail is :[e-mail] Hope to hear from you soon! Always a Ranger daughter! Deby P.S.- Have you heard from Nick Tisak?

Rating:
Summary: The single best exposition on the topic......
Review: Writing of a purely American unit, whose combat experiences have been forged in three and a half centuries of fighting, Robert Black traces the history of the United States Army Rangers in World War II from their conception in Northern Ireland, to their last battle in the South Pacific. Unlike the modern day soldiers who bear the same name, the Rangers of World War II were not airborne commandos; rather, these men were highly motivated, all-volunteer soldiers comprised of mostly mechanized soldiers of varying duty assignments from Patton's First Armored Division. Despite their military lineage, these soldiers served as specialized infantry soldiers with the utmost gallantry, earning their baptism under fire at Dieppe and continuing to spearhead most of the American led assaults throughout the remainder of the war.

Black's style is frank and straightforward and one can quickly appreciate the candor with which he relates the story. As Black puts it, the book is "an account of men immersed in the outrage of war . . . there is comradeship, jealousy, compassion, and ruthlessness." (p. x) Black's own experiences as a Ranger in Korea with the 8th Airborne Ranger Company contributed to his successful revelation of this spirit and, at times, the book reads like a personal account rather than the well researched composition that it is.

The book begins with the activation of the 1st Ranger Battalion on 19 June 1942. Black explains the unit's composition in detail, listing the "charter" members by name, position, and weapon system. (p. 19) Black then details the training that the unit undertook in the Scottish highlands. The forced marches and physical tests that the volunteers had to endure were laborious and grueling. (Even worse were the English rations that the Rangers were forced to consume while in Scotland.) At the first sign of fatigue or weakness, a volunteer was released from the battalion and returned to his original unit. Though exact numbers were not offered, the battalion's attrition rate was deplorable, but those who did make it were fit to call "Rangers." The 1st Ranger Battalion received the dubious honor of participating in America's first assault on European soil. During the Dieppe Raid, a detachment of fifty Rangers fought alongside British Commandos. It was during this assault that the first American ground soldier killed a Nazi. Corporal Franklin Koons took out a German machine gunner and was decorated by both the U.S. and the British military for this distinction. (p. 39) On the bloody beaches of Dieppe, ironically amidst a military debacle, the U.S. Army Ranger legend began and the valiance with which he fought was echoed in both the U.S. papers and across the services of every nation.

Due to their superior training, ability to overcome improbable odds, and fighting spirit, the Rangers would go on to spearhead nearly every American led assault throughout the rest of the war-both in the European and Pacific theaters. Black meticulously relates each major battle that involved U.S. Rangers, making every effort to list, by name, the key individuals involved in each action. Rangers were involved in the raid at Arzew, the defense at Kasserine Pass, the beach landings on Sicily and Italy, the attack at Anzio, and the D-Day invasion. They continued to fight across Europe at Brest and, in the Pacific, at both Cabanatuan and on the island hopping campaigns of the Philippines. Black doesn't miss a bullet and, in doing so, comprises a book that becomes a "down and dirty" on American military involvement in the Second World War.

Unfortunately, as the pendulum of war began to swing towards the Allies and the pace of battle picked up, the infantryman was unable to keep up with the sweeping mechanized forces. It soon became obvious that an Allied victory was nearing and the need for these hard fighting foot soldiers became less and less. The Rangers followed along as fast as they could-some soldiers rode on the back of Allied vehicles-but soon the Ranger units became more of a liability than an asset. Before the fall of Berlin, nearly half of the Rangers had been released from the battlefield. The 1st Ranger Battalion, the first to form in June of 1942, was first to be disband, in August of 1944. Of the six battalions that fought in the war, only the 6th Ranger Battalion would see the end of the war-its soldiers busy fighting the Japanese in South East Asia.

While a detailed account of all Ranger exploits in the Second World War would take up volumes, Black has successfully compressed this material, highlighting each of the battalion's "handiwork," and assembled a manageable book that possibly represents the single best exposition on the topic. Included in this book is an outstanding appendices that, among other things, lists the name of every known Ranger that served in World War II. Additionally, the book makes effective use of various maps, photographs, military documentation, and includes an informative definitional section that explains the various weapon systems used by the Rangers.

The Achilles Heel of Black's Rangers in World War II is its endnote section. The book stands alone as an authoritative piece, yet the historian will find tribulations in attempting to trace Black's path down memory lane. The many first person interviews conducted with ex-Rangers are scantily documented and this absence unnecessarily detracts from the thorough research that Black obviously undertook.

Nonetheless, Black has outdone all others and in true Ranger spirit has "Led the Way" with an outstanding monograph that should be a part of every World War II enthusiast's collection.