An original and often affecting perspective on one of the major wars of the 20th century.
A historical account of pairs of brothers who fought and died in World War II and were buried together overseas.
For much of early American history, the interment of soldiers was a private, family affair, but given the extraordinary number of casualties produced by the Civil War, national cemeteries became necessary, observes debut author and historian Callahan. The solemn tradition of leaving no soldier behind, alive or dead, includes a commitment to burying each and every fallen soldier, wherever found. In many instances, this entailed doing so on foreign land, very far from the places of the soldiers’ birth. The author provides a meticulously researched overview into this historical phenomenon, focusing specifically on the side-by-side burials of sibling soldiers of the Second World War. In total, he provides more than 70 brief accounts of these pairs along with descriptions and beautifully shot photos of cemeteries in Normandy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and North Africa, among other locations. Callahan’s research brought him into contact with members of a number of different families, and the book is festooned with images of these interview subjects. The author was clearly motivated by more than mere scholarly curiosity, and he’s obviously moved by the sacrifices of the soldiers and the families that lost them. Indeed, the book’s inspiration came roughly 10 years ago, after he saw the gravesite of two American siblings in Italy and wondered: “Who were these brothers? Where did they come from? How did they die? Who did they leave behind?”
The author discovered many stories with considerable dramatic power, and he ably conveys them in these pages. At one point, for instance, he tells the tale of the Niland brothers from New York, whose plight inspired the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan; one could easily argue that the real-life story is more fascinating than its cinematic homage. At the core of Callahan’s study is the theme of sacrifice: The soldiers gave up their lives, often when they were only teenagers, and whole families were devastated by the profound losses. Nevertheless, the young men’s sacrifices are often proudly embraced in a way that is incredibly moving, as when a chaplain, in a letter to a grieving mother, tells of an exchange he once overheard: A woman told an ex-soldier, “It’s a shame you lost your leg,” and he replied, “Ma’am...I didn’t lose it, I gave it.” However, some of the vignettes in this book are so brief that one may wonder why they were included at all. Also, as the author candidly concedes, the scope of the study is exceedingly narrow and doesn’t describe the sacrifices of female or African American soldiers or of any servicemen buried in the United States. Despite this, Callahan manages to capture a little-studied sliver of the Second World War—not an easy task to accomplish given the massive body of historical scholarship already available—and lucidly offers readers a look at the human costs of the conflict.
An original and often affecting perspective on one of the major wars of the 20th century.Pub Date: July 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-578-46885-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Brothers in Arms Press LLC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An extraordinary, moving account of survival and endurance.
A novelistic biography focuses on the remarkable story of a tail gunner whose plane was shot down during World War II.
Gene Moran grew up in Soldiers Grove, a small farm town in Wisconsin with a population of 624. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was eager to join the war, and just after he turned 18 years old, he managed to convince his begrudging parents to grant him permission. He enlisted in the Air Corps and became trained to become a tail gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress, joining the crew of the Rikki Tikki Tavi. On a dangerous bombing mission conducted above Bremen, Germany, Moran’s plane came under heavy fire—the tail split from the rest of the plane, and he plummeted to the Earth four miles without a parachute. Miraculously, Moran survived, though badly injured—both of his arms were shattered by bullets; some of his ribs were broken; and his skull was fractured. This marked only the beginning of what Moran was to endure, a harrowing experience deftly described by Armbruster. After multiple surgeries, Moran spent 17 months in a German prisoner-of-war camp and suffered “starvation, deprivation, sickness, despair.” The author aims for what he calls “narrative nonfiction”—a true, novelistic account free of embellishment and as accurate as Moran’s memory and willingness to share allowed. At one point, Moran declared: “There are some things that are NEVER going to go into any book!” Armbruster includes an account of Moran’s liberation from captivity and his return home, a touching story of personal triumph that defies belief. In addition, the author depicts his chance meeting with Moran and the context of the period, including the poignantly related tale of Armbruster’s wife’s struggle with brain cancer, one to which she ultimately succumbed. Moran’s survival is a cinematically grand story, bigger than life but not fantastical, dramatically gripping as well as emotionally stirring.
An extraordinary, moving account of survival and endurance.Pub Date: April 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64538-315-4
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Ten16 Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A Trump idolator’s dream book. Everyone else should stay far away.
Donald Trump’s former chief of staff serves up servile homage to a man he’s sure will make a comeback bid in 2024.
No president could ask for a more fawning yes man than Meadows. Trump is a genius, a savior, the author avers in this cliché-stuffed, formulaic celebration. He’s a bulwark against what Trump calls “the Radical Left Democrat Communist Party.” That speech he gave at Mount Rushmore, if anyone remembers it? “One of the finest in American history.” Of course, Trump, God’s personal pick, didn’t really lose the 2020 election. When things go wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault. For example, Trump appointed Kavanaugh and Gorsuch to the Supreme Court only for them to rule “in ways that were deeply disappointing to the MAGA movement that had made their appointments possible.” Thanks to Pelosi and the Dems, the economy, formerly strong “due to the work of President Trump and his advisors,” tanked during the pandemic. Speaking of which, “had it not been for the China Virus, we could have spent the past months reaching more voters and running up our historic vote totals even higher”—not to mention battling Fauci, Milley, and countless other enemies. If there’s a conspiracy to be found or an enemy to be named, Meadows does so. Sometimes he falls off message, as when he writes of a typical campaign rally, “the energy of these patriots, all united for a common cause, celebrating their prosperity and patriotism in a shared space, is something you can’t describe until you’re in the middle of the crowd with them.” Prosperity or forgotten/downtrodden Americans: You can’t have it both ways. As for the Jan. 6 mob? All Meadows can muster is a pale “what occurred that day was shameful”—with the immediate deflection that a few bad apples spoiled a noble showing of support for their heroic leader.
A Trump idolator’s dream book. Everyone else should stay far away.Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73747-852-2
Page Count: 308
Publisher: All Seasons Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
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