Taught to Kill: An American Boy's War from the Ardennes to Berlin Contributor(s): Babcock, John B. (Author), Atkinson, Rick (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 1574887998 ISBN-13: 9781574887990 Publisher: Potomac Books OUR PRICE: $35.96 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2005 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Military - World War Ii - Biography & Autobiography | Military |
Dewey: 940.542 |
LCCN: 2004022589 |
Physical Information: 1.1" H x 6.3" W x 9" (1.25 lbs) 282 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 1940's |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description:
By mid-1944, the U.S. Army was facing a critical shortage of the most important commodity in any war, the common foot soldier. Higher-than-expected casualties during the liberation of France had forced the Army to comb its ranks for replacement infantrymen. Plucked in 1944 from the safety and privilege of the Army Specialized Training Program (the World War II version of the college deferment of the Vietnam years), twenty-two-year-old John Babcock suddenly found himself an infantry private headed to Europe. Raised in an upper-middle-class family, this sensitive and literate youth was thrust into a group of coarse, uneducated, and sometimes brutal draftees who were headed to the 78th Infantry Division as replacements. Babcock demonstrates that the "greatest generation" was not always that. Instead, it was like any other cohort--full of liars, cowards, and ordinary men who simply wanted to stay alive and go home.
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Contributor Bio(s): Babcock, John B.: - John B. Babcock is a decorated World War II veteran and spent a career in broadcasting and communications. He is retired and lives in Ithaca, New York. |