For Comrade and Country

Ray Hill was a cook and machine gunner who survived the sinking of a PT boat by a kamikaze attack. German forces in the middle of the Siegfried defensive line captured Robert Corbin, a forward officer, after he was shot. Arthur Ensley, a strafer bomber, flew into the Brenner Pass and entered combat territory. His plane caught fire, his pilot was shot and killed, and he had to bail out. Don Barrett, a Marine, stormed Cape Gloucester, the largest beachhead ever taken by a single division. Editor and fellow World War II veteran Robert G. Thobaben gathered those reports and others from men who were young soldiers in World War II. This book presents thirty oral histories, 14 from the Pacific Theater and 16 from the European. In addition to describing their individual experiences, these Marine, Army, Navy and Air Force privates, officers, cooks, sergeants, and engineers also discuss such questions as why men fight, how soldiers cope with battle, why it is important to record the stories of World War II veterans, and what they think about the ethics of war.