a non-glorified view of combat that reads very well

books:


	• Roll Me Over: An Infantryman's World War II Raymond Gantter Presidio Press, 1997 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

a non-glorified view of combat that reads very well

It took a while for this book to start cooking ... the trip from Normandy to the front lines was relatively uneventful ... even the author admitted that the life of an infantryman was nothing like Hollywood's portrayal. Ironically, after that statement was made, all Hell seemed to break loose.

Of the hundreds of books I've read about World War II from the American combat soldier's point of view, there are few that really put me on the front lines like this book did. Gannter did an excellent job of taking me with him through the myriad of small towns/villages in Germany ... he is very descriptive in his reflections of these experiences; it is very easy to envision what he's seen ... he even effectevly puts faces on the people in those towns/villages.

The combat he does experience isn't large scale; mostly brief skirmishes that are up-close and personal. His recollection of the apprehension he felt upon hearing German tanks approaching his ill-prepared squad sent chills up my spine ... then came the terror he experienced being forced to hide ... right under the nose of one of the armoured monsters. The poignant manner in which he describes killing the enemy for the first time made me understand what millions of "citizen soldiers" must have experienced in combat ... a combination of sadness, pity, shock and a sense of duty to both his job as a soldier and to the men he led.

Although Gannter's book is not a "hero's tale" ... it really does underline the sense of duty, honor and sacrifice exhibited by "ordinary" men. The book reads like a movie ... a very worthwhile experience for me.

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Wonderful History - man in nursing home

I was asked to purchase this book for a gentleman in our nursing home. He requested this book because he was the character in the book named Shorty and he was there in 1944 and knows the author.
He is thrilled to have this book.
Thank you.

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Powerful and packed with action

I rate this book 5 stars because it was so good that I read it twice. In spite of the author's cynical outlook, I found him likeable as he took me with him through his World War II journey across Europe.

Some of the most memorable experiences he shares:

The time he shoots a German from the upper floor of a farmhouse. He sees the figure collapse and lay motionless in a nearby field. The author is sickened, carefully lays his rifle on the plaster-covered floor, and for a moment holds his head in his hands.

The time he and his three-man squad spent the day in a farmhouse surrounded by Germans. After the squad escapes and rejoins the platoon, the other men admire them for their courage and cool-headedness in a difficult situation. For days afterward, the platoon treats the four men like heroes.

The time the platoon liberates a slave labor camp. The joyous inmates bounce the author repeatedly in the air until he loses his backpack and helmet and is covered with plaster from hitting the ceiling. The author weeps with the inmates.

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A truly accurate account

I know the villages of Waimes and Faymonville very well as my mother's family came from that area. Gantter obviously took notice of what he saw and experienced there. He mentions people by name who actually existed and tells the readers exactly what these people did at the time. A well written and accurate account.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

OVER THERE

When Raymond Gantter arrived in Normandy in the fall of 1944, bodies were still washing up from the invasion. Sobered by that sight, Gantter and his fellow infantrymen moved across northern France and Belgium, taking part in the historic and bloody Battle of the Bulge, before slowly penetrating into and across Germany, fighting all the way to the Czechoslovakian border.

With depth, clarity, and remarkable compassion, Gantter--an enlisted man and college graduate who spoke German--portrays the extraordinary life of the American soldier as he and his comrades lived it while helping to destroy Hitler's Third Reich. From dueling with unseen snipers in ruined villages to fierce battles in which the lightly armed American infantry skirmished against Hitler's panzers, Gantter skillfully captures one infantryman's progress across a continent where guns, fear, and death lay in wait around every bend in the road.

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