A Foot Soldier for Patton

The Story of a "Red Diamond" Infantryman with the US Third Army

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A Foot Soldier for Patton

By: Michael C. Bilder, James Bilder

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

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About this listen

A brutally honest depiction of day-to-day combat in World War II...

A rarely frank account of the US infantry experience in northern Europe, A Foot Soldier for Patton takes the listener from the beaches of Normandy through the giddy drive across France to the brutal battles on the Westwall, in the Ardennes, and finally to the conquest of Germany itself.

Patton's army is best known for dashing armored attacks; its commander combining the firepower of tanks with their historic lineage as cavalry. But when the Germans stood firm, the greatest fighting was done by Patton's long undersung infantry - the foot sloggers who were called upon to reduce enemy strong points and who took the brunt of German counterattacks.

Michael Bilder, a member of the 5th Infantry ("Red Diamond" division), played a unique role in the Third Army's onslaught. A rifleman foremost, he was also a German-speaker, called upon for interrogations and special duties.

Incidents common to the ordinary GI, but which seldom see the light of day in histories, are routinely related in this book, enriching the listener's sense of the true reality of World War II combat.

Military

Military & War

World

World War II

Veteran

War

Imperialism

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Most relevant

… Eugene B Sledge’s ‘With the Old Breed’, inter alia in the ETO.

Moving, tragic, visceral and memorable in the extreme.

The detail is both informatively historical and a reminder of man’s inhumanity to man AND a startling account of the survival of an infantryman under continuous fire. Astonishing.

Like Sledge, it seems totally miraculous that Bilder survived.