It was January 1943 when twenty-year-old Louis Graziano received a letter from Uncle Sam ordering him to report to Fort Niagara, New York, for a physical. Although he knew the United States was at war, he had no idea what was ahead of him. After making a promise to dutifully defend his country, Louis never realized how much his military experience would change the course of his life. In a memoir that reveals the good, bad, and ugly of war and beyond, Louis leads others through his life experiences via personal stories and historical photographs that provide a candid glimpse into what it was like to be a young soldier before, during, and after World War II. While revealing his experiences and thoughts, Louis demonstrates how he exhibited courage amid heartbreaking loss, trusted God to protect him, and found love with a beautiful fellow soldier. Among his documented experiences were landing with the third wave on D-Day on Omaha Beach, fighting the Battle of the Bulge, and witnessing the signing of the Instrument of Surrender at the Little Red Schoolhouse. Included are personal letters and commendations as well as interesting historical facts. A Patriot’s Memoirs of World War II shares a veteran’s personal story and photographs that document his experiences during the biggest and deadliest war in history.

" Winner of the Best Aeronautical Book Award from the Reserve Officers Association of the United States "The sky was full of dying airplanes" as American Liberator bombers struggled to return to North Africa after their daring low-level raid on the oil refineries of Ploesti. They lost 446 airmen and 53 planes, but Philip Ardery's plane came home. This pilot was to take part in many more raids on Hitler's Europe, including air cover for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This vivid firsthand account, available now for the first time in paper, records one man's experience of World War II air warfare. Throughout, Ardery testifies to the horror of world war as he describes his fear, his longing for home, and his grief for fallen comrades. Bomber Pilot is a moving contribution to American history.

Abridged by Denis Kelly.

This fast-moving memoir of T. Moffatt Burriss shows his extraordinary role as a platoon leader and company commander with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment in Europe and North Africa during World War II. He saw a great deal of combat on Sicily, at Salerno, on Anzio Beach, in Holland during Operation Market Garden, and during the drive into Germany. This book portrays World War II as seen vividly through the eyes of the young American citizen-soldier.

On the 80th anniversary of the war's end, 5 classic memoirs capture firsthand the shock, terror, and courage of the American fight against the Axis powers in Europe "The emotional environment of warfare has always been compelling," writes J. Glenn Gray in his incomparable World War II memoir and mediation, The Warriors. "Reflection and calm reasoning are alien to it." The struggle to make sense of the experience of war, to find some meaning in the savagry and senseless destruction, animates the five brilliant and unforgettable memoirs gathered here. Company Commander (1947), by Charles B. MacDonald, describes with startling immediacy and candor the “cold, dirty, rough, frightened, miserable” life of the infantryman and company commander from the aftermath of D-Day in September 1944 through the war's terrifying final days. The Warriors (1959), by J. Glenn Gray, a counterintelligence officer who served in Italy, France, and Germany and a scholar with a PhD. in philosophy, is a sensitive and revelatory meditation on the nature of war and its effects on both soldiers and civilians, interspliced with his letters, journals, and wartime memories. All the Brave Promises (1966) is novelist Mary Lee Settle’s memoir of her year as an airfield radio operator in the Royal Air Force. Settle brilliantly evokes both the working-class culture of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force’s “other ranks” and the petty and demeaning regimentation inherent in military life. The Fall of Fortresses (1980), by former B-17 navigator Elmer Bendiner, vividly recalls the fear and excitement he experienced flying bomber missions deep into Germany in 1943 without fighter escort. The Buffalo Saga (2009) is James Harden Daugherty’s heartfelt account of his frontline service as a Black soldier in the 92nd Infantry Division, as he fights the Germans, endures the harsh Italian winter, and confronts the racism of his own army. This deluxe Library of America volume includes full-color endpaper maps of the European Theater, an eight-page photo insert, an introduction by West Point professor Elizabeth D. Samet, and detailed notes.