Men of Company K: The Autobiography of a World War II Rifle Company - Harold P. Leinbaugh

For those who cannot share their stories

My father was a member of Co K. Unfortunately, the writers could find him at the time the book was published because he passed away in 1970.

For anyone who no longer has their loved one with them (from Co K), this is a great book to discover what they experienced as a Rifleman in the Army. I had only my father's discharge papers to tell me what he did and his job was listed as simply "Rifleman". Since the records from this time period are lost (in a fire, I believe) there are only personal accounts of what happened. Thank you to the authors for bringing my father's experiences to life.

Dedicated to Ernest W. Bowers.

Stunning history brought to life

It is almost tragic that this excellent, personal, detailed and brutally honest, heroic and even quietly poetic memoir has fallen out of print. This, perhaps one of the finest histories ever written about WWII, tells the story of the front line soldier from the first person.

Long before Saving Private Ryan inspired Tom Brokaw and the rest to capitalize on the rightfully named "Greatest Generation", Cambell and Leinbaugh's book captured the harrowing narrative of combat that so many men of that era are sadly taking to the grave with them. This book personlizes the story in a voice that appears to have been culled from a combat veteran reunion. The Men of Company K willingly recountsthe horror of battle as a permanent record. A warning really as to what freedom ultimately costs. May we be damned should we ever forget.

As a historical document, it boils in as much action and tension as any Clancy novel.

Ambrose frequently has used The Men of Company K as a carefully cited reference in his longer works. This alone may be a testament to its greatest. Please search this fine work out.

Family History

I can not begin to express to you how much this book means to me. My grandfather was Clarence Jarvis. He was one of the men in Company K. We really never knew anything about his death. He died when my father was only an infant. To the writers of this book I say Thank You !! The personnal touches brought my grandfather into our lives some 50 years later. I only wish more history books were written this way.

A superb account of European ground warfare

This is a moving account of the combat experience of one rifle company as told by the commanders. What makes this book so special is all the personal recollections that are compiled. The men of company K get their first battle after D Day in Holland. They continue east through the battle of the bulge, the crossing of the Rhine, and occupation duty in the conquered Germany. The little personal touches are on every page. One man defines REMFS as "any sob behind my foxhole." A future mathematics professor uses geometry and a map to plot a German rocket launching site. The description of their Christmas Eve 1944 battle in the bulge, and how a Belgium village renamed their main street to honor this battle brings goosebumps to my arms as I recall it. One man blinded in this battle by tank gun fire was happy to know that his dreadful wound was his Christmas gift of survival and evacuation to the rear. Others recall the blinded soldier crawling over them to the rear without a guide and wishing them all "Merry Christmas" as he groped his way to the medics miles behind the battle. It was a battle in which company K fixed and held a numerically superior armored force with only rifles and grenades. In one captured German city with still working phones, a German speaking GI got a call through to German Army HQ in Berlin to tell them to "expect company K in about two weeks." This book is full of personal accounts of horror and humor, terror and triumph. This book evokes visualization by the reader like no other account of infantry combat in Europe. I only wish that the publisher would put it back in print! It should be required reading for high school U.S. History classes. Not because it is a historical text, but rather for the personal context it gives to such a critical point in history.

WW2 In-Depth account of Day to Day operations in war

This book is excellent, sometimes rambling from one person in the story to another, this makes the book seem alive. The story is about a WW2 Infantry Company that is put into combat (green) and looses many men from wounds, cold and combat fatigue. Overall a very realistic and moving book of the realities of war and the interaction of Officer and Men as they fight the European theatre.