World War II: My Experiences by Harry C. Gravelyn
March 2016
Harry C. Gravelyn was Captain of Company D, 331st Infantry, 83rd Infantry Division, U.S. Army, during World War II. He served in active combat from the landing at Normandy until a mortar took him out in Petite Langlir, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. These are his wartime memoirs, which he started when he retired in his sixties and was still adding to at age ninety six.
This is no Hollywood version of war. This is matter-of-fact war from the viewpoint of the “grunts,” the infantrymen, who in every war in every time, slog, crawl, and fight through rain, snow, mud, and dead bodies until they either die or stand on the contested ground and say, “Okay, this is ours now,” in order that famous generals can claim victory.
This is no Hollywood version of war. This is matter-of-fact war from the viewpoint of the “grunts,” the infantrymen, who in every war in every time, slog, crawl, and fight through rain, snow, mud, and dead bodies until they either die or stand on the contested ground and say, “Okay, this is ours now,” in order that famous generals can claim victory.