Posted by Allan Wilford Howerton Link: "Dear Captain, et al."
on March 13, 2009, 6:00 pm, in reply to "Thank you. "
Message modified by board administrator March 13, 2009, 6:04 pm
For anyone not familiar with "The Men of Company K," it tells the story of Company K, 333rd Infantry during WW II. The authors are Harold P. Leinbaugh, the company commander, and John D. Campbell, his deputy. Published by Wm. Morrow and Co. in 1985, it is out of print but used copies and reprints may sometimes be found at various Internet booksellers. Thanks to Dempsey Keller, the company’s first sergeant who kept track of many of the men, the book includes a lot of information about the postwar lives of the company’s survivors. This book is regarded by many as one of the best on infantry combat to come out of WW II or any war.
The Leinbaugh/Campbell book helped to inspire my memoir, "Dear Captain, et al.: the Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory" (Xlibris, 2000) that tells the story of Company K, 335th Infantry and my experience there as a rifleman, messenger and company communications sergeant. The books are quite similar. Published fifteen years after "The Men of Company K," my memoir has a little less coverage of postwar lives and a bit more combat detail. By integrating daily morning reports, after-combat reports, after-combat interviews, related original-source records, and interviews with veterans, I was able to trace the day-to-day action of the company including the battle circumstances for every casualty.
Both books contain portraits of the vast variety of personalities and backgrounds of the men who fought World War II. Being an infantry grunt is a compelling challenge in any war.
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