Yesterday's "Sunday Times" carried a review of "The Boy's Crusade", Fussell's book about the GIs in Europe. Anyone read it? I was thinking of review copies, or maybe the earlier (?) American release of this book. I will also post a scan of the review, which includes details of how to obtain a copy from the "Sunday Times". Look at how young one of the soldiers in the photo looks!
Thanks for the copy of the review. My newsagent will not deliver the Sunday Times, says it is too heavy!
I have a copy, I took it with me to read over my Normandy 60th trip but didn't get round to it. Its quite small so manageable indeed but its back in the pile of others! Ryan
I read this book, and I have to say it was one of the best books I've read on the GIs in europe in 1944-45. I love the way paul really puts into detail the accounts by the soldiers. Thanks Currahee
Looks interesting, but obviously a rather selective account of GIs' and their experiences that would make for a good read. I believe according to the US DofD the average age of the US Infantryman was 25.6 years, which, when one considers that few save for majors and above would have been much older than 35 yrs (and far fewer in number), would appear to contest his view that they were largely 17-19yrs - although this is obviously the impression given by the reviewer, not directly by the author). In the British Army it was about the same, and in the German Army it was 34 yrs, significant given the large number of very young men/boys called up from 1944-. (Interestingly, the mean age of 25-26 yrs for US infantrymen remained/remains the same throughout the post-war period, save for the Vietnam War conscription period.) As to the quality of their training, many were fresh troops who had not seen action or campaigning beforehand - unlike their British counterparts, many of whom resented having to enter into their third or fourth campaign of the War. Equally, their were battle-hardened US Divisions and raw UK (and Canadian) units I have also heard of the excessive numbers of men from all the Allied combat arms presenting themselves as unfit for further combat or else surrendering en masse, but this appears to have been a sympton of a lack of enthusiasm for the campaign as it became bogged down in late 1944 - it appears many were unwilling to risk their lives when the outcome of the War was seen as beyond doubt - and the horrendous casualty rates endured by these men. And yes, apparently the average US soldier was vastly more racially discriminatory than his British counterpart and tried to enforce colour bars whilst in the UK, although this attitude was no doubt hardened by their political socio-economic backgrounds which dependended upon the maintenance of the status quo. (Apparently some of the South African soldiers captured in N Africa protested when their white dead were to be buried with their Black comrades, so it would seem to be a reaction to a perceived 'threat' posed from within their homelands by a significant, disenfranchised ethnic group.) Richard
