A Private in the Texas Army: At War in Italy, France, and Germany with the 111th Engineers, 36th Division, in World War II
Sulphur Springs native Frank Webster Pearce was a soldier in Texas’ own 36th Infantry Division and the 111th Engineer Combat Battalion. The Division’s story has been told before, but never from start to finish by a combat engineer, whose footprints stirred the sands of three invasion beaches, wallowed through the mud, and trudged in the snow of every battle. From training in the United States to the war’s end in Austria, Pearce chronicled it all..  With the combination of diary, numerous letters home, and official division reports, this is the most complete look ever produced on the 111th Engineers and their war against Hitler’s Germany. This is a primary account written daily as the events unfolded. It was the war years. Here you find out how to properly bury a man in the water soaked Italian soil, a fool proof way to smuggle liquor from the US to the soldiers overseas, the foul stench of death reeking across the battlefield, and the beauty of exploding artillery shells in the night sky. These are his thoughts and letters as he wrote them—raw and unfiltered.

1139486365
A Private in the Texas Army: At War in Italy, France, and Germany with the 111th Engineers, 36th Division, in World War II
Sulphur Springs native Frank Webster Pearce was a soldier in Texas’ own 36th Infantry Division and the 111th Engineer Combat Battalion. The Division’s story has been told before, but never from start to finish by a combat engineer, whose footprints stirred the sands of three invasion beaches, wallowed through the mud, and trudged in the snow of every battle. From training in the United States to the war’s end in Austria, Pearce chronicled it all..  With the combination of diary, numerous letters home, and official division reports, this is the most complete look ever produced on the 111th Engineers and their war against Hitler’s Germany. This is a primary account written daily as the events unfolded. It was the war years. Here you find out how to properly bury a man in the water soaked Italian soil, a fool proof way to smuggle liquor from the US to the soldiers overseas, the foul stench of death reeking across the battlefield, and the beauty of exploding artillery shells in the night sky. These are his thoughts and letters as he wrote them—raw and unfiltered.

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A Private in the Texas Army: At War in Italy, France, and Germany with the 111th Engineers, 36th Division, in World War II

A Private in the Texas Army: At War in Italy, France, and Germany with the 111th Engineers, 36th Division, in World War II

by John A. Pearce
A Private in the Texas Army: At War in Italy, France, and Germany with the 111th Engineers, 36th Division, in World War II

A Private in the Texas Army: At War in Italy, France, and Germany with the 111th Engineers, 36th Division, in World War II

by John A. Pearce

Paperback

$39.95 
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Overview

Sulphur Springs native Frank Webster Pearce was a soldier in Texas’ own 36th Infantry Division and the 111th Engineer Combat Battalion. The Division’s story has been told before, but never from start to finish by a combat engineer, whose footprints stirred the sands of three invasion beaches, wallowed through the mud, and trudged in the snow of every battle. From training in the United States to the war’s end in Austria, Pearce chronicled it all..  With the combination of diary, numerous letters home, and official division reports, this is the most complete look ever produced on the 111th Engineers and their war against Hitler’s Germany. This is a primary account written daily as the events unfolded. It was the war years. Here you find out how to properly bury a man in the water soaked Italian soil, a fool proof way to smuggle liquor from the US to the soldiers overseas, the foul stench of death reeking across the battlefield, and the beauty of exploding artillery shells in the night sky. These are his thoughts and letters as he wrote them—raw and unfiltered.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781649670052
Publisher: State House Press at The Texas Center-Schreiner University
Publication date: 01/19/2022
Pages: 324
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

JOHN A. PEARCE has been a requested speaker for over fifty years and an author of numerous articles concerning his vocation, football. He was the head football coach at Stephen F. Austin State University for seven years, an assistant at Texas A&M University for three seasons, UCLA for four years and the assistant head coach at Rice University in 2006. “A Private in the Texas Army” is his third book. He was also a former history teacher in public schools.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Road to War 3

Chapter 2 A Dose of Reality-Africa 10

Chapter 3 Baptism Under Fire 20

Chapter 4 Napoli 42

Chapter 5 Inch by Agonizing Inch 53

Chapter 6 Necessary losses? 68

Chapter 7 A Refreshing Break 88

Chapter 8 Walker's Masterpiece 107

Chapter 9 Goodbye to an Ego and an Echo 121

Chapter 10 Le Tour de France 135

Chapter 11 Uncaring Metal 165

Chapter 12 Broken Hearts 194

Chapter 13 England 214

Chapter 14 Footprints on the Third Reich 222

Chapter 15 104 Points Equals Home 240

Chapter 16 The Ruptured Duck 250

Appendix: Casualties 259

Endnotes 267

Bibliogophry 287

Index 293

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