Metric 16 and 50 similar items

Birkitts Books presents ... Metric 16 ISBN: 0877160384 Author: Butterton, Meredith L. Publisher: Moore Release Date: 1972 Seller Category: Military History Qty Available: 1 Condition: Used: Very Good Sku: 250920002 Notes: Inscribed by author on front endpage. Jacket has light tattering to the edges, binding sound, internally clean. In England in the spring of 1944 fate played a noble hand and assigned the 126th. Ordnance Company to the famed Ninth Infantry Division. Before moving to England for regrouping, the Ninth Infantry Division had gained high respect several months previous in the desert struggles in North Africa, then on to Sicily. After landing in Normandy this Division in no less disciplined fashion lived up to its' reputation. Drawing heavily on years of research, coupled with his wartime (World War II) notes, and following personal interviews with numerous participants of this great endeavor . . . including many distinguished military leaders; Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, Collins, Ridgway, Gavin, Taylor and others; each registering his own per-sonal and now historical candid expression, Mr. Butterton recreates a vivid almost day by day account of conditions, successes and reversals of a small mobile Ordnance unit, as it along with this famed Division, became caught up in the powerful sweep of the United States First Army in a dramatic slash across the European continent from the Normandy beaches to juncture with the Red Army at the Elbe River deep in Germany. The Role of the Ordnance soldier in World War II may come as a surprise to many readers who have a lesser knowledge of army procedure in the field. The reader, particularly among the many thousands who participated in some phase of the European Theater, will enjoy the romance of traveling with this spirited Ordnance company from its' beginnings in an army camp in North Carolina all the way to Europe and back again to the United States, all the while noting with interest the mixed anxieties and expressions of the many different personalities involved. That Ordnance was "the the gun," and the problems facing this highly skilled branch is characterized lividly from the great Tennessee summer maneuvers in 1943 throughout the five dynamic campaigns in Europe. Never enough time, ofttimes suffering insufficiency of equipment, delays in delivery and constant use of hazardous roads and routes kept those in quest of such items constantly on the run. Spurred on by the lightning-like thrust across the breadth of northern France in the summer of 1944, the United States First Army was, upon reaching Germany's frontier in early September, dismayed to find its' well-paced drive sustained and grinding to a halt. Here, fortified with natural and long-established defenses the Germans, literally with "their backs to the wall" found new determination to stand and fight. The Ordnance too, shared an enemy; incessant rains, mud and the gloom of thick forbidding forests. With maps and photographs, the author describes in detail, the memorable voyage aboard the Queen Mary across the stormy Atlantic to an unforgettable encampment in England where methodical preparations for the invasion of France was initiated. The slow grind in Normandy, the pell-mell chase across France, through Belgium and onto the German frontier will come to life. Von Rundstedt's shocking surprise in the Ardennes and the Allied push across the Rhine and into central Germany have been well-researched. As the 126th. Ordnance, who supported the siege of Cherbourg, witnessed the final blows that crushed St. Lo, and watched the burning and fall of Aachen makes its' way into and out of the war zones, and as the conflict in northern Europe swirls about it, Metric 16 to the reader becomes far more than a unit history. Don't forget to check out other great deals in our Store!!