Sixty Days in Combat: An Infantryman's Memoir of World War II in Europe (Abridged)

by Dean Joy Narrated by Don Hastings

Overview

“The infantryman's war is . . . without the slightest doubt the dirtiest, roughest job of them all.”

He went in as a military history buff, a virgin, and a teetotaler. He came out with a war bride, a taste for German beer, and intimate knowledge of one of the darkest parts of history. His name is Dean Joy, and this was his war.

For two months in 1945, Joy endured and survived the everyday deprivations and dangers of being a frontline infantryman. His amazingly detailed memoir, self-illustrated with numerous scenes Joy remembers from his time in Europe, brings back the sights, sounds, and smells of the experience as few books ever have. Here is the story of a young man who dreamed of flying fighter aircraft and instead was chosen to be cannon fodder in France and Germany . . . who witnessed the brutality of Nazis killing Allied medics by using the cross on their helmets as targets . . . and who narrowly escaped being wounded or killed in several “near miss” episodes, the last of which occurred on his last day of combat.

Sixty Days in Combat re-creates all the drama of the “dogface's” fight, a time that changed one young man in a war that changed the world.

Editorial Reviews

DEC 04/JAN 05 - AudioFile

Dean Joy chronicles his experience as an infantry private invading Germany in the closing days of WWII. He outlines attack plans, billeting orders, and his reaction to his first sight of a "Kraut" soldier. His subsequent career in the defense industry no doubt accounts for his detailed knowledge of weaponry, but no GI probably ever forgot the distinctive sounds of the German guns they were taught to recognize. Don Hastings has an agreeable voice, which sounds realistically young and old; he also recreates mortars, machine guns, and other sounds of battle. His apparent enthusiasm for his subject keeps one listening through material most interesting for veterans and military history buffs. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

DEC 04/JAN 05 - AudioFile

Dean Joy chronicles his experience as an infantry private invading Germany in the closing days of WWII. He outlines attack plans, billeting orders, and his reaction to his first sight of a "Kraut" soldier. His subsequent career in the defense industry no doubt accounts for his detailed knowledge of weaponry, but no GI probably ever forgot the distinctive sounds of the German guns they were taught to recognize. Don Hastings has an agreeable voice, which sounds realistically young and old; he also recreates mortars, machine guns, and other sounds of battle. His apparent enthusiasm for his subject keeps one listening through material most interesting for veterans and military history buffs. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169233469
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	03/30/2004
Edition description:	Abridged

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