An Army at Dawn, my review on Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars Tears and shock the reality of war, August 29, 2013

By 

madlyn fafard (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (Paperback)

An Army at Dawn, was difficult for me to plow through, it started okay, but when we began to land in Africa, the war came at me with such force that I became depressed with the events. I had just finished reading "Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II and I was so pumped by the enthusiasm of our great country to support our men, that I had no idea what we sent them into. Oh how my heart ached, as I realized that my Uncle was among the many men who were with Patton in this invasion of North Africa, and then would go on to Italy. How lucky he was to survive when approximately 70,000 men died. It still chokes me to think about the waste of life, the sacrifice of so many for such stupidity, the desire to conquer the world. There was a chapter in the book that brought the reader back to middle America, where so many young men came from that lost their lives...and I flew back in time to the little girl I was then, recalling so well the era of sacrifice, and prayers for our loved ones hoping that the war would end quickly.. But, it did not end, my uncle along with Patton and all the men who sacrificed to keep us safe, went on to the next continent. At times , at the beginning of the war, it seemed like a French farce, our troops so inept, our commanders just getting their feet wet, then nearing the end of the book, the emergence of greatness begins. Tears from that little girl still creep into the grown woman I am today, as I conclude the first in the trilogy. I am glad that I can know what my uncle and so many of our young men had to endure, inexperienced and ill prepared. I even recalled the story of the ears being sold, as my uncle recounted it to the little person I was when he came home from the war, so long ago.