eBook My War ePub

This is a very well-written account of the war, as seen through the truth-seeking eyes of a reporter. There is little of the romantic, first-person accounts you read elsewhere. It is, as much as possible, a factual account as seen by one person.

Praise for people is given fully where deserved, but at the same time, he lets you know who the phonies and scoundrels really were. His description of Patton is an excellent example of a pompous, self-serving, relentless self-promoter. (My own father was with him through Africa and Italy, so it's nice to see someone else has seen through the facade.)

This is a great book with a great ring of truth, and brilliant writing; with the author speaking to you, and not talking down at you.

Highly recommended.

I enjoyed the first edition of "My War" and this, the second edition, seems to contain a bit more fact and opinion, all seen from the point of view of "Andrew Rooney", a war correspondent in the U. S. Army who spent most of his time with the Eight Air Force in England and the rest of the time with ground forces fighting their way through France and Germany. Oh, he's an old curmudgeon. Many of the things you and I would take for granted or disregard, he's annoyed by. It's not "the holocaust." It's "genocide." People are proud of being color blind, like Walter Cronkite. The only reason Tom Brokaw's "greatest generation" was "the greatest generation" was that they had a war to fight. He likes reporters generally but some of them have quirks he finds annoying. But he doesn't heap on anybody or anything the ire he expends on, say, those damned green peppers that come bundled three to a package in the supermarket when he only needs two.

He doesn't really explore his own emotions but he does admit, in an abstract way, as if talking about someone else, to being horrified by some incidents he witnessed. When a Sherman tank is grinding along a narrow path in the hedgerow country and, if it stops, becomes a target, it keeps moving ahead, even if there are dead bodies on the road before it.

The amusing incidents are just as impressive and which he describes with the same detachment as the unpleasant ones. I'll give two examples.

In England, he worked under a reporter and novelist named Oram Clark Hutton, known to everyone as "Bud" Hutton. Hutton wrote a story for "Stars and Stripes" about the newly arrived P-47. High up the food chain someone read into it a revelation that the P-47 was now flying out of England, which would have been interesting to the Germans if Hutton had actually written such a datum. I will quote in extenso.

"On the second day a half-inch-thick manila evelope marked THE EDITOR was hand-delivered by Fighter Command Headquarters to the offices of "The Stars and Stripes." It was routinely handled and Joe McBride put it in Hutton's IN basket on the news desk. Hutton routinely tore open his mail, including the manila envelope. Inside was a sheaf of papers constituting a formally drawn-up request for a court-martial of M/Sgt. Oram Clark Hutton. Hutton looked through the legal document, put it down on his desk, and thought a minute. At that point he picked up a pen, and scribbled on top of the document DISAPPROVED! Under the word he wrote his initials, "BH". Bud put the official-looking document into his out basket with RETURN TO SENDER noted on the outside of the fat brown envelope. No further word was ever heard about General Hunter's demand that Sergeant Hutton be tried for treason."

Equally funny is the story of Rooney's being issued a jeep in Normandy in 1944 and then, on being transferred to China, casually handing it over to another reporter. A year or so later, Rooney received an official document from the U. S. Army demanding to know the whereabouts of the jeep, serial number such and such. (He ignored it.)

The book is full of casual but thought-provoking observations. "I was always impressed with the idea that each .50-caliber bullet cost about $1 then and when all ten guns were firing over a target with German fighter planes diving in on the formation, the air gunners could fire away about $10,000 worth of ammunition in a few minutes. The tail gunner's machine gun had to be fed by a track of ammunition from a storage magazine amidships. The ammunition on his track alone would have probably sent him to college. The ball turret rotated and revolved on a complicated set of geared wheels inside a piece of equipment worth five times as much as any car the gunner ever owned." Eisenhower was given to making similar comparisons independently.

It's an easy book to read, relaxing despite its sometimes horrible contents, and informative as well. We're unlikely to get many more such first-person accounts like it.

I was introduced to this at my public library. I checked out the audio version (read by Rooney) several times and finally bought the book in paperback. I just got it for my Kindle and am enjoying reading it again.

I have read other WWII memoirs from journalists, but this is my favorite. In life, Rooney could be a real ass at times (he recounts some early examples in MY WAR), but what a writer he was! His style is simple, yet beautiful--just read the beginning of the chapter, Land War. His description of landing at Utah Beach is some of the loveliest prose I've ever read. I also enjoy his anecdote about meeting Hemmingway.

There many memorable anecdotes within the pages of MY WAR. All-in-all it is quite a human account of an important part of world history. I recommend it for those interested in WWII.

Andy Rooney was truly an accidental correspondent during WW2 ! His narrative is exhausting yet informative ! He covers a lot of ground and met a lot of people, places and battles ! He articulates his travels in a casual manner, yet giving the reader a birdssye view of the battle grounds he covered ! Generally, this book will give you his view of the people and places he traveled and the conduct of the war in Europe ! This rendition will do well as a traveloge!

Andy Rooney's life as a young man, a soldier with a dislike of military life, who was lucky enough to get an assignment as a cub reporter for the Stars and Stripes. He made the most of his good fortune by accepting danger and serving his country as he came into his own as a journalist and later a public figure. A great story told in the same style as his 3-minute TV appearances at the end of 60 Minutes.