World War II Memoirs: The European Theater (LOA #385)

On the 80th anniversary of the war's end, 5 classic memoirs capture firsthand the shock, terror, and courage of the American fight against the Axis powers in Europe 'The emotional environment of warfare has always been compelling,' writes J. Glenn Gray in his incomparable World War II memoir and mediation, The Warriors. 'Reflection and calm reasoning are alien to it.' The struggle to make sense of the experience of war, to find some meaning in the savagry and senseless destruction, animates the five brilliant and unforgettable memoirs gathered here. * Company Commander (1947), by Charles B. MacDonald, describes with startling immediacy and candor the 'cold, dirty, rough, frightened, miserable' life of the infantryman and company commander from the aftermath of D-Day in September 1944 through the war's terrifying final days. * The Warriors (1959), by J. Glenn Gray, a counterintelligence officer who served in Italy, France, and Germany and a scholar with a PhD. in philosophy, is a