Forgotten Heroes of World War II: Personal Accounts of Ordinary Soldiers-Land, Sea, and Air

by Thomas E. Simmons

Overview

World War II was the defining event of the twentieth century. For everyone it was a time of confusion, fear, destruction, and death on a scale never before seen. Much has been written of the generals, campaigns, and battles of the war, but it was young, ordinary American kids who held our freedom in their hands as they fought for liberty across the globe. Forgotten Heroes of World War II offers a personal understanding of what was demanded of these young heroes through the stories of rank-and-file individuals who served in the navy, marines, army, air corps, and merchant marine in all theaters of the war. Their tales are told without pretense or apology. At the time, each thought himself no different from those around him, for they were all young, scared, and miserable. They were the ordinary, the extraordinary-the forgotten.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589799639
Publisher:	Taylor Trade Publishing
Publication date:	11/06/2014
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	326
Sales rank:	719,773
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Thomas E. Simmons is the author of The Brown Condor, Escape from Archangel, and The Man Called Brown Condor. He has served as commercial captain of a seventy-foot sailing vessel, been a pilot since the age of sixteen, flown professionally, and participated in air shows flying aerobatics in open-cockpit bi-planes. In 1960 he served as an artillery officer in Korea. He lives in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Author's Note xiii

1 No Breakfast for the Chief Bruce Creekmur 1

2 A Bizarre Tale of April Fools Edward Hawkins Anderson 11

3 Other Than That, Lieutenant, How Was the Flight? Milton Tally Evans 33

4 No Honors, No Parades Oswald M. "Jac" Smith 49

5 No Foxholes in the Sky Fred Randolf Koval 65

6 An Artilleryman's Short, Happy Flight Ferd Moyse 91

7 The Amphib Sailor Oscar L. Russell 107

8 Just Another Milk Run? Mike Kelly 147

9 Present and Accounted For! Harry Bell 163

10 The Last Blitzkrieg Knox White 177

11 Calhoun 88, Where Are You? Amos S. Pollard 191

12 Grows the Sea into Sliding Mountains Owen T. Palmer Jr. 203

13 Islands E. D. "Dee" Hamilton Joseph H. Irby 215

14 The Diary of Tarao Kawaguchi 259

15 A Long Way to Okinawa Jeremiah J. O'Keefe 269

16 The Home Front 299

Epilogue 309

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION Forgotten Heroes of World War II. .. offers contemporary readers fourteen intensely personal perspectives of individual rank-and-file soldiers, aviators, and seamen who were quite ordinary people thrown into the extraordinary and often horrific demands of World War II combat. Their strength and valor are commemorated in this moving, compelling, informative, and highly recommended contribution to the growing library of World War II military histories.

Midwest Book Review