Well done! | YOU CAN'T GET MUCH CLOSER THAN THIS: Combat With Company H, 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th...

A Front Row Seat to the War in Europe | YOU CAN'T GET MUCH CLOSER THAN THIS: Combat With Company H, 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division | A Adkins(Jr)

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	• YOU CAN'T GET MUCH CLOSER THAN THIS: Combat With Company H, 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division A Adkins(Jr) Casemate, 2005 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is a special book!

I just finished reading this book for the second time. At least one reviewer has complained of the Adkins writing style but I could not disagree more. I'm a very busy person and would not waste my time reading any book twice unless it was exceptional, and this book is just that.

The writing is clear and easy to follow, refreshingly honest and frankly the account is intensely interesting. Yes. there is a typo or two but you'll be way too involved in the amazing first hand account of A.Z. Adkins to notice. My grandfather was an infantry first lieutenant who saw similar duty and this book really helped me to understand a lot about his service.

These men withstood so much hardship one can not read this and not have a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for what these men gave to us and the world.

Thank you A.Z. Adkins. For the book and more importantly for enduring incredible hardships and giving us the gift of freedom.

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Well done!

This is interesting first person account of World War Two from the perspective of a soldier from my area of Florida! That alone made the book a pleasant surprise. But besides that, I found this book a well written account of a young man taken from college to fight with the 80th Infantry division.

The book reads like a great war story rather than a war-time biography or diary. It's a quick, informative, read that does not overwhelm the reader with details. You really don't have to be a WWII historian to really enjoy this fine book.

What I think is unusual about the book is it mentions cities not normally mentioned in the history of other units and events not commonly written about. For example, the author goes into great detail regarding the use of motors in close action with the infantry. The fact the author received an absentee ballot for an election, voted and mailed it back home (that's a first in over 300 WWII history books I've read).

It also has an excellent short history of the 80th Infantry Division, including cities and counties it "visited" along with attached units and other statistics.

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A Front Row Seat to the War in Europe

I liked several things about this book. First, it is very well written. It reads like a novel and you won't want to put it down. Second, it's written from the perspective of an officer in a heavy weapons company. I've encountered few narratives that are written from this perspective. You witness the decision making process first hand as well as the consequences of those decisions. You also learn about what it's like to set up and place fire on targets, the problems of supply, and the fog of war.

There's also a bonus to this book. Appendix 2 is a detailed description of the way the infantry of the United States Army was organized during World War II. This material should likely be read first, before the rest of the book. In fact, I found this section to be so informative, that I wish I had read it years ago when I first became interested in World War II. The role of every man is described down to squad level. It's very detailed and I'll keep this book handy for use as a reference guide.

This book is well written, offers a unique perspective on World War II, and is quite affordable.

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Good honest memoir but not a great read

"You Can't Get Much Closer Than This: Combat with Company H, 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division" by Andrew Z. Adkins Jr. and A.Z.A. III represents a non-homogenized non-sterilized look at the Second World War from foxhole level. Nearly everything in this book comes from A.Z. Adkins Jr's wartime journal, and thus presents a view of the war from one individual's perspective. If you're looking for a 'bigger picture' tied into this story (somehow this reviewer thought that because A.Z. Adkins III brought his fathers journal to life he might provide some 'filler' to tie together items - no such luck). The book can be broken into four basic parts (not the chapters of the book though) representing four chronological periods that fall naturally along lines of major events in the ETO. The first period is the Normandy/bocage fighting period, the second is the Breakout, pursuit and initial West Wall (Siegfried Line) action, the third is the Battle of the Bulge and following action leading up to the Rhine crossing, and the forth is the Rhine crossing to V-E day. Of all these sections the third is by far the best in terms of visceral impact and readability. The other three sections unfortunately suffer from a dull prose that is only infrequently livened by an engaging story or writing style. Fortunately, Adkins and Adkins do not candy coat combat and in presenting an un-sanitized version of events do give the reader some less common in the genre. Still this positive does not sufficiently outweigh the negative of style (not to mention the numerous typos and other editorial issues).

As "You Can't Get Much Closer Than This" is one mans story of the Second World War with little of the 'bigger picture' woven in it is hard to review (positively or negatively) the historical value of the book, rather it seems appropriate to review it from the standpoint of whether it is a good read or not. Regarding this latter criteria this reviewer would have to break with the praise given in nearly all other reviews and say that this is a good 3.5 star read at best. The book is short enough to get through quickly, readers will get a truer picture of war than in most 'memoirs', but the reading will not always be easy or fully engaging and enjoyable. 3.5 Stars.

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Unique Perspective From a Heavy Weapons Company

_You Can't Get Much Closer Than This: Combat With Company H, 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division_ is a vital contribution to World War II literature for several reasons. First, it is derived from a 200 page diary kept by Captain A. Z. Adkins, Jr. Diaries were forbidden in combat areas during World War II, lest they fall into enemy hands and possibly divulge sensitive information. The fact that Adkins was able to keep his journal on the sly would enable his son, decades later, to compile this enthralling narrative.

Second, this book gives insightful information of a hidden aspect of an infantry regiment during World War II: a heavy weapons company. Companies D, H, and M, were designated heavy, or simply "weapons companies" in all standard infantry regiments in the US Army. Made up of two .30 cal. water cooled machine gun platoons, and one, 81mm mortar platoon, a weapons company was parceled out to lend support to a battalion's rifle companies during an attack. They were oftentimes fragmented, and placed where they were needed. Rarely, if ever, are their vital contributions documented in standard After Action Reports. Adkins was an 81mm mortar section leader, and gives a rare and chilling chronicle of a weapons company in action. As the son of a reconnaissance sergeant who served in a similar weapons company of another regiment, I know how difficult it is to gather specific information on a weapons company in combat. Adkins arrived at the desert training area at Camp Laguna, Arizona as my father's unit was leaving. This adds another interesting personal connection for me as well.

The 80th Division landed in France on 5 August 1944. Attached to Gen. George S. Patton Jr.'s Third US Army, it was immediately thrown into the Argentan, Falaise Gap battle. Like most units who fought in northwest Europe, the harsh realities of combat was more than months of state-side training could prepare them for. Adkins descriptions of his baptism of fire will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Wounded in October, Adkins remained on the battlefield for as long as possible, refusing to be evacuated and taken away from his men. While being treated at an aid station, Adkins witnessed two soldiers who had horrible self inflicted wounds that would cripple them for life, a sad aspect of war rarely discussed in GI memoirs. Rejoining his unit in time for the Battle of the Bulge, Adkins carries his readers to the Siegfried Line, Rhine River crossings, witnessing the horrors of the Buchenwald concentration camp, to occupying the Nazi rally center of Nuremburg.

Adkin's book compliments Hobert Winebrenner's (with Michael McCoy) _Bootprints_ (see my Amazon review) nicely. Whereas Winebrenner describes somewhat unorthodox heavy weapons tactics, Adkins adheres to the mainstream with some battlefield improvisations. I found his tactical specifics interesting, offering still more insight into a mortar section's role on the battlefield.

Finally, appendices lend research value to the book. Particularly noteworthy is a paragraph version of a heavy weapons company Table of Organization and Equipment (TO&E). Casemate consistently offers a solid military history cover-to-cover. Adkins' book is a significant contribution to World War II participant memoirs. For those interested in a perspective of a heavy weapons company, this book is a must read. Five stars, Bravo!

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Andrew Z. Adkins, Jr., graduated from The Citadel in May 1943 and immediately attended the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School, where he was commissioned and sent on to the 80th Infantry Division, then undergoing its final training cycle in the California-Arizona desert. Upon reaching the division, 2d Lieutenant Adkins was assigned as an 81mm mortar section leader in Company H, 2d Battalion, 317th Infantry Regiment. When the 80th Infantry Division completed its training in December 1943, it was shipped in stages to the United Kingdom and then on to Normandy, where it landed on August 3, 1944. There, Lieutenant Adkins and his fellow soldiers took part in light hedgerow fighting that served to shake the division down and familiarize the troops and their officers with combat.

The first real test came on August 20, 1944, when the 2d Battalion, 317th Infantry, attacked high ground near Argentan during the Allied drive to seal huge German forces in the Falaise Pocket. While scouting for mortar positions in the woods, Andy Adkins ran into a group of Germans and shot one of them dead with his carbine. This baptism in blood taught him the answer to a question every novice combatant wants to hear: He was cool under fire, capable of killing when facing the enemy. He later wrote, "It was a sickening sight, but having been caught up in the heat of battle, I didn't have a reaction other than feeling I had saved my own life."

Thereafter, the 2d Battalion, 317th Infantry, took part in a succession of bloody battles across France. Ineptly led through the tentures of several battalion commanders, the unit suffered grievous losses even as it took hills and towns away from brave and well-led German veterans. In the course of fighting graphically portrayed in this soldier's memoir, Andy Adkins acted with remarkable skill and courage, placing himself at the forefront of the action whenever he could. His extremely aggressive delivery of critical supplies to a cutoff unit in an embattled French town earned him a Bronze Star Medal, the first such award in his battalion.

You Can't Get Much Closer Than This is at heart a young soldier's story of war. In vibrant, piercing terms, a junior officer's coming of age in battle is the compelling focus of page after page of action sequences that add up to a solid description of what modern warfare is really all about. Before his death in 19--, Andy Adkins was able to face his memory of war as bravely as he faced the war itself. He set it all down on paper, honest, unflinching, and straightforward. In 1944 and 1945, young Lieutenant Adkins did his duty to his men and his country, and much later he did his duty to his readers. Indeed, you really can't get much closer than this

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