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Home Front to Battlefront: An Ohio Teenager in World War II

Home Front to Battlefront: An Ohio Teenager in World War II

Home Front to Battlefront: An Ohio Teenager in World War II
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Home Front to Battlefront: An Ohio Teenager in World War II

Home Front to Battlefront: An Ohio Teenager in World War II

Overview

Carl Lavin was a high school senior when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The Canton, Ohio, native was eighteen when he enlisted, a decision that would take him with the US Army from training across the United States and Britain to combat with the 84th Infantry Division in the Battle of the Bulge. Home Front to Battlefront is the tale of a foot soldier who finds himself thrust into a world where he and his unit grapple with the horrors of combat, the idiocies of bureaucracy, and the oddities of life back home—all in the same day. The book is based on Carl’s personal letters, his recollections and those of the people he served beside, official military history, private papers, and more.

Home Front to Battlefront contributes the rich details of one soldier’s experience to the broader literature on World War II. Lavin’s adventures, in turn disarming and sobering, will appeal to general readers, veterans, educators, and students of the war. As a history, the book offers insight into the wartime career of a Jewish Ohioan in the military, from enlistment to training through overseas deployment. As a biography, it reflects the emotions and the role of the individual in a total war effort that is all too often thought of as a machine war in which human soldiers were merely interchangeable cogs.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780821422557
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Publication date: 01/15/2017
Series: War and Society in North America
Edition description: 1
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Frank Lavin is the son of Carl Lavin. Frank has served as a US ambassador, White House aide, banker, and trade negotiator. He currently works in business in Singapore.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

A Note on the Text xix

Part I Before Combat

Introduction 3

1 From Canton to Miami and Enlistment (December 1941-May 1943) 9

2 Texas (May-October 1943) 19

3 Queens College, New York City (November 1943-March '1944) 52

4 Mississippi (March-October 1944) 71

5 Britain (November-December 1944) 109

Part II In the War

6 The Battle of the Bulge (December 1944-Febmary 1945) 133

7 The Battle of the Roer (February-March 1945) 162

8 The Battle of the Rhine (April-May 1945) 196

Part III After the War

9 Heidelberg and Hamelin Occupation (May-June 1945) 231

10 Mannhenn, Gmund, and Lauda Occupation (June-September 1945) 252

11 Reims Occupation and Home (October-December 1945) 293

Epilogue 311

Notes 319

Bibliography 367

Index 373

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