May 1, 2000
The author, a journalist in later life, was a 23-year-old rifleman in the U.S. Army's 99th Division during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. The 99th had reached the European front the month before and distinguished itself in anchoring the vital northern flank during that last German counteroffensive. Casualty rates in the front-line infantry companies were extraordinarily high; the battlefield cemetery is a recurrent image. Neill's aim in this work is to preserve a sense of how it was for the front-line soldier--placing reminiscences of his own and of colleagues on record in context with previous histories. His detailed, eyewitness perspective includes earthy explanations of hardships and remarks on leaders who were variously inspired, inept or uninformed, and usually invisible. Vignettes of heroic virtues, youthful innocence, formative experiences, fateful chance happenings and indiscriminate slaughter are credible and compelling. Neill cites statistics from the Department of Veterans Affairs showing that 36% of the 16.5 million American veterans of World War II are still alive, but that the youngest is 72 years old, and that as a group they are dying at an accelerating rate, above 1,000 per day. "Don't forget," Neill pleads, "vow you'll never forget." Illus. not seen by PW.