This book was written by my father whilst recovering from tuberculosis, acquired in the jungles of Burma during World War Two. At the tender age of 16 he was awe-struck by the sight of soldiers in their uniforms and the general kudos of fighting for one's king and country. Frank becomes an NCO and is sent to the Orkneys when war breaks out. He seems to have to make the best of it, his sense of humour and lack of regard for authority, along with the luck of not being caught out, make for interesting reading. He witnesses the Battle of Britain and the Coventry blitz first hand. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and the war takes a different turn, he is sent to India on a troopship, with a stopover in Durban, South Africa. He acquires some colourful friends but finally his luck runs out and he is demoted. He confesses that at this point his love for the Army and its traditions suffers. Gandhi used the war to attempt to rid India of British rule, suggesting to the general population that they should welcome the Japanese when they arrived. Frank is sent out to control the rioting. Burma is overrun by the Japanese and the British suffer a defeat but they reform in 1944 as the 14th Army. Frank seems to recover some of his pride in being a soldier at this point. Frank crosses into Burma where he witnesses some of the most fearful fighting of the Second World War. The Japanese refuse to obey the Geneva Convention and think nothing of bayoneting the sick and dying in the hospital tents. Fighting alongside soldiers of all the Commonwealth countries, Frank realizes that they are all brothers in arms and his admiration of the Gurkha soldiers is evident. Frank lives with death every day. His descriptions of trying to avoid it are very poignant - like trying to climb inside his tin helmet in the open jungle. Frank is hit by shrapnel from an exploding bomb and whilst contemplating that he is about to leave the theater of war, a body of Japanese infantry, bayonets at the ready, led by an officer brandishing a samurai sword, appear before him but are cut down by a gunner just in front of his foxhole. Frank recovers in India and is finally sent home at the end of the war. Burma has become known as 'The Forgotten War' as the atrocities were too difficult for some to recall. The lack of food, the long marches, the extreme heat, the diseases. They certainly were a long way from home!

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" by Siegfried Sassoon. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Günter Koschorrek wrote his illicit diary on any scraps of paper he could lay his hands on, storing them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing, and it was not until he was reunited with his daughter in America some forty years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow. The author’s excitement at the first encounter with the enemy in the Russian Steppe is obvious. Later, the horror and confusion of fighting in the streets of Stalingrad are brought to life by his descriptions of the others in his unit – their differing manners and techniques for dealing with the squalor and death. He is also posted to Romania and Italy, assignments he remembers fondly compared to his time on the Eastern Front. This book stands as a memorial to the huge numbers on both sides who did not survive and is, some six decades later, the fulfilment of a responsibility the author feels to honour the memory of those who perished.

David Kenyon Webster’s memoir is a clear-eyed, emotionally charged chronicle of youth, camaraderie, and the chaos of war. Relying on his own letters home and recollections he penned just after his discharge, Webster gives a first hand account of life in E Company, 101st Airborne Division, crafting a memoir that resonates with the immediacy of a gripping novel. From the beaches of Normandy to the blood-dimmed battlefields of Holland, here are acts of courage and cowardice, moments of irritating boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror, and pitched urban warfare. Offering a remarkable snapshot of what it was like to enter Germany in the last days of World War II, Webster presents a vivid, varied cast of young paratroopers from all walks of life, and unforgettable glimpses of enemy soldiers and hapless civilians caught up in the melee. Parachute Infantry is at once harsh and moving, boisterous and tragic, and stands today as an unsurpassed chronicle of war—how men fight it, survive it, and remember it. NOTE: This edition does not include photos.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A great American success story . . . an endearing and well-written book.”—The New York Times Book Review Colin Powell is the embodiment of the American dream. He was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He knew the rough life of the streets. He overcame a barely average start at school. Then he joined the Army. The rest is history—Vietnam, the Pentagon, Panama, Desert Storm—but a history that until now has been known only on the surface. Here, for the first time, Colin Powell himself tells us how it happened, in a memoir distinguished by a heartfelt love of country and family, warm good humor, and a soldier’s directness. My American Journey is the powerful story of a life well lived and well told. It is also a view from the mountaintop of the political landscape of America. At a time when Americans feel disenchanted with their leaders, General Powell’s passionate views on family, personal responsibility, and, in his own words, “the greatness of America and the opportunities it offers” inspire hope and present a blueprint for the future. An utterly absorbing account, it is history with a vision.

From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House, he thought he’d long left Washington politics behind: After working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happily serving as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.