The Boys' Crusade: The American Infantry In Northwestern Europe, 1944-1945 By Paul Fussell

 

There's bound to be a very interesting story behind the publication of Paul Fussell's The Boys' Crusade.

We don't have time to get into it here, but if you come across a more in-depth review, or deeply researched story about this please let me know.

It's a bit misleading at first. It's well-known that plenty of underage American teenagers falsified papers to join up to fight in WWII. This, however, is not the in-depth investigative book on that many history readers hunger for. So, there's some degree of bait-and-switch here. It worked, getting me to buy it with no regrets.

There's an obviously young man's face on the center of the cover on a crowded landing craft, and the title served to make me think I'd finally found a copy of that elusive book about all the underage warriors in that colossal meat grinder of a war. However, what it is possibly the most honest public picture of war, in print, since the movie Saving Private Ryan first showed in theaters.

P. 95, Replacements and Infantry Morale finally addresses that nagging WWII youth movement directly. It was only touched in passages and paragraphs, previously here.

Yes, I was suckered into buying the book, and most likely would have, anyway. And I would really like to hear the behind scenes story, here. I might learn some things.