The Liberator written by Alex Kershaw

I have always been interested in World War II books that tell the true story of many of our military exploits from that war. I think this book by Alex Kershaw is better narrated than any book I have read on the subject. He knows how to write about his subject using words and phrases that make the reader fully understand what he is reading and finds that the story gets better as it goes along. The European zone where our brave soldiers fought contains so much information told in a great way. Felix Sparks was born and raised in Miami, Arizona, an area that suffered as much from the ravages of the Great Depression as the rest of the nation. Felix hunted, set traps and got food however he could. When he wasn’t hunting, he was studying. His military training began at the Citizen Military Training Program, where he learned to march and train in a very hot environment. He wanted to go to college and he loved the military, anything that was military. He ventured out of the area and was asked by an army recruiter if he wanted to join the army. He thought “why not” and joined, a decision that shaped his life forever.

Felix Sparks, now married with a baby, prepared to leave on a troop transport that ended up in Europe prepared as best he could to fight a war. While on the ship, General George Patton announced that they would henceforth be part of the United States 7th Army and would land to attack Sicily, Italy, in small troop-carrying ships. None of the men knew what awaited them. Sparks was part of the National Guard Thunderbirds, all green recruits. The book describes several of the generals associated with the leadership and planning functions of the army, Patton, Marshall, Eisenhower, Mark Clark, and others, and how they made their battle plans, some with and some without arguments. Sparks at this point had no idea that he would rise through the ranks to eventually become a general as well, and that was far from his mind at the moment. He just wanted to defeat the Germans and Italians. The many battles he and his party fought were harsh and brutal, killing and wounding many men. His impulses would advance one day and lose ground the next. The Germans were tough while the Italians weren’t as they weren’t sure if they would stay in this war or not. The Thunderbirds along with the rest of their groups climbed up the boot from Italy towards Rome. The Germans fought for every inch of ground in Italy, with both sides killing and wounding thousands of men along the way. Raw new recruits kept showing up in the pipeline adjusting to war like they never imagined it would be.

The description of the battles is beyond imagination. The men would dig a small trench if none were available, jumping into any hole big enough to cover as much of them as possible. The sounds of shells coming from both the enemy and their own units as they sailed overhead or landed very close to them was such a caustic, harrowing, body-shaking experience. To have a man share a trench one minute and be killed the next is incomprehensible to those who have never been in battle. Sometimes friendly fire missed its target and hit our own men. When they tried to advance, they had to carry huge heavy backpacks on their backs containing survival gear as well as ammunition, grenades, shovels, packed military food including old Spam which was a veritable war ration. When the opportunity came to take a break, they would move to a nearby town and relax as much as possible with wine, women, and song. They danced, they had sex even though they had all been previously warned about the disease that was prevalent throughout the area due to the women being lonely with most of their men in the war and the demands that German soldiers made of them. .

Sometimes the men would find large caches of wine and really enjoy it. But the many painful losses of men from so many battles were so enormous that it was difficult to understand that and move on. The blood flowing from the wounded and/or dead men on both sides was everywhere. Some of the rivers and canals flowed red. As the men passed through the towns they were retaking from the Germans, the citizens went wild with chants of thanks and food and drink pouring out of cellars and caves. Throughout this time, Sparks led his troops as he rose through the ranks on the battlefield. His men loved him because he cared about them and would be there with them as long as possible. As they made their way through Italy and France and Germany, they reached one of the concentration camps, Dachau, where they found the most disturbing images they had seen during the entire war. The description of bodies just thrown on top of bodies, the ovens that still had something burned inside them, the piles of clothes that the inmates had to throw away, and so much more that gives the reader chills. One of the last battles of this group was the march to Hitler’s own compound, but by the time they got there, Hitler had committed suicide.

I know this review is long but writing less does not give the reader a real idea of ​​everything that this super book contains. You must read it. You will get an insight into what the infantryman went through during World War II. How those who survived made it mentally is beyond my imagination. Praise these men for their help in giving us the freedoms we take for granted. Believe me, they are not free-liberties.