Being there . . . for a minor classic so satisfying as a brilliant interpretation of the ordinaryinfantryman you’ll literally demand more combat insight from Colonel French L. MacLean. His“DYING HARD – – Company B, 39 th Infantry Regiment, 9 th US Infantry Division in WWII” is sobeautifully written it is one of the finest pieces of combat exposition for both buff and laymanwhich has appeared in print in recent years.Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi as a superb Christmas gift, whether forthe military-minded or not . . .“DYING HARD – – Company B, 39 th Infantry Regiment, 9 th US Infantry Division in WWII”, byColonel French L. MacLean, U.S. Army, Ret. Schiffer MILITARY History, Atglen, 19310; 2024, 342pages, 6 ¼” x 9 ¼”, fully illustrated, maps, 55 pages of appendices, excellent endnotes &bibliography, $39.99. Visit, www.schifferbooks.com.Colonel MacLean’s story deals with the 9 th Division’s 39 th Infantry Regiment, Company Bwhich was a true American melting pot of soldiers from diverse ethnic, religious, and racialbackgrounds. Thus, his main premise was to introduce the reader to personal, dramatichistories. Numerous “vignettes” appear throughout the text, which provide contextualinformation about equipment, terminology, locations, etc. In total, 40 helpful maps and 10diagrams are included, most of which are previously unpublished. Of the 177 men who formedCompany B in 1941, less than 7% were still with the unit on May 5, 1945, the end of World WarII. Many of the absent 93% died hard, brutal deaths in combat.Colonel MacLean reminds us, lest we forget, the American infantryman has never needed tolook noble, because he COULDN’T HAVE LOOKED MORE NOBLE IF HE TRIED. He writes therewas and remains a certain nobility and dignity in our combat men and medical men with dirt intheir ears. They were and remain rough, and their language was always, and still is, coursebecause they have lived, and still do for the most part, a life stripped of convention andniceties. “Their nobility and dignity came, and still comes, from the way they have lived andremember WWII, unselfishly always subordinating their lives when needed to help each other.”Bill Mauldin, in his historic literary masterwork, “Up Front”, said it best after the war. Today,French MacLean echoes: “Those infantrymen, first to receive fire, wished, and still do, theywere someplace else, that they would soon get relief. They wished to hell the mud was dry andthey wish to hell their coffee was hot. They wanted to go home. But they stayed in their in theirwet holes and fought, then climbed out and crawled through minefields to fight some more.”The respected nonpareil author writes, “A 2017 congressional research report lists WWIIdeaths in battle as 234,874 Army, including 52,173 Army Air Corps, as well as 36,950 Navy and19,733 Marines. And the infantry? Other historians concluded that infantrymen accounted for142,962 of the 191,701 deaths among American army ground battle casualties in the war –75%. CONCERNING Army ground battle casualties of all types, infantrymen accounted for
661,059 of 820,877 – a staggering 80%.”
All in all, the Colonel’s research and writing on our “Willies” and “Joes”, our WWII heroinfantrymen, including the brave foot soldiers of “Up Front”, is the best historical treatment ofthe ordinary American soldier yet researched and written about. Thanks to Schiffer MilitaryBooks, we are offered this one of the three best WWII books on the company’s publication listduring these past decade.“Officers come and go, but ‘Dying Hard’ shows that noncommissioned officers are thebackbone of the Army, and the juniors enlisted were and still are its soul”, says Specialist Dave
Weeks, 1 st Squadron/4 th cavalry, “Quarter Horse”, Michelin Rubber Plantation, South Vietnam.
