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"Though nearly fifty years have passed by, I was moved and probably always shall be by the heroism and devotion to duty and country exhibited time and again, day after day, by the infantry soldier," says General John J. Hennessey, U.S. Army, retired, in the foreword to this stirring novel. "I commend the author for an outstanding portrayal of one of many gentle infantrymen." In the middle of December 1944 the Germans had struck with three Panzer armies in the Ardennes. The attack was swift and unexpected and drove a "bulge" into the American line. The bitter winter turned brutal as armies surged back and forth, leaving trails of blood in the snow. Now, in January 1945, as young Will Pope enters the war, a raw recruit drafted at 18, the Germans are striking again, this time in Alsace. They attack with Panzers, SS infantry, and crack paratroopers while the Americans fight back with valiant desperation, throwing in all their reserves. Everything they have is on the line in what is to become the Battle of the Bulge. Pfc. Pope quickly learns what it means to be an infantryman, to kill and to attack, to protect his fellows and to fight for his life, to dash, dodge, and crawl through terrain raked by bullets and blown to bits by explosives. to survive to dig yet another hole. He sees no great battle on the field of glory. Only a series of desperate and determined attacks by his diminishing platoon against an enemy as young and as frightened as he is. He discovers, as all young infantrymen before and after him, that in combat when you make a mistake, you die.
Originally published in 1985, The Gentle Infantryman was Bill Boyd's first novel. Since then he has written three other critically acclaimed historical novels: Panama (Capital 1999), Bolivar (Capital 1999) and For Love and Glory (Capital 2000). Mr. Boyd fought through World War II campaigns in the Alsace, the Siegfried Line, Wurzburg, Schweinfurt, Nuremburg, the Danube and Munich. He lives in Panama. Buy
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This
was Bill Boyds first novel, originally published by St. Martins
in 1985.