Roll Me Over: An Infantryman's World War II (Presidio War Classic. World War II)

Story well written by soldier who experienced the war as it climaxed and ended in Germany. Beautifully told from carefully preserved notes taken from the field of action. Honest, frank, and worth study.

The blood and the mud of a front line soldier’s experience in the western theatre. A very good read indeed.

I have read around 50 + WWII memoirs and I'm not really sure what to say. The book starts out pretty dry. Pretty much 100 pages of straight complaining about being there. We get the author was there against his will and leaving family or kids, but he wasn't the only one. Many understood what needed to be done and wanted to be with the best of guys so they volunteered. The author apparently feels his situation was worse than all the other fellows enough to constantly complain for 100 pages. I thought about putting the book down but wanted to give a fair review. He talks bad about fellow who complain all the time yet he's constantly complaining. Then the complaining about Americans killing Germans specifically SS. I would give him the doubt that he didn't know any better of what they had done voluntarily but he wrote this some time after the war ended and trials of Nuremberg. He obviously didn't get too much time on the frontline in combat other than patrols, if he did he only focuses 200 of the pages on mud and being cold, which we get anyone in the battle of the bulge digging foxholes suffered. More worse than him. He tends to not understand that Japanese hardly ever took prisoners nor tried to surrender and would wait for medics and others to show up and try to go out with their Bushido code of honor killing Marines not in the heat of battle. The SS voluntarily carried out Hitlers plans, regardless of what he thought they KNEW and obliged by not being transferred to the crimes committed. As I would say if he didn't stop the torture and killing he enabled it, instead of scoffing and leaving there. Anyways the authors tone disgusts me. There's no glory in war but there is pride in what you stand for. I'll leave with this, if I hadn't have read this it wouldn't have affected me in any way.I will say the author did change a little towards the later 3/4 of the book and did capture my attention. I would give it 3/5 stars because the book was good detail, the complaining and constant woe is me. Ruined it from being a 5/5 for me anyways. He did thought at the end seem to finally come to grips with the Germans and why he was there and function as a combat soldier should.

This is quite simply one of the best World War II memoirs I have ever read. Period. From the fleeting glimpses of the mundane soldier life to the harrowing moments of combat, Roll Me Over gives the best snapshot of what it was like to be a soldier in the European Theater of Operation.Right from the beginning you are transfixed by Gantter's ability to take a snapshot of something and describe it in such detail so that you feel as though you are there with him. His writing is impeccable and drew me in immediately. I was disheartened for a little while when I found the first 140 pages didn't talk about any combat at all. What kind of WWII memoir doesn't write about the combat? Yes, the descriptions of the day to day life of a soldier - what it's like to dig a foxhole in the freezing cold, how soldier's slept, how they ate, the grizzly tokens of war - are amazing, but I want combat. Gantter went through the whole of The Battle of the Bulge and didn't write about any combat, even though he writes about how other people in his platoon were being decorated for their efforts. Strange.Shortly thereafter the tone of the memoir went from the slow day to day life to the action packed life of a combat soldier. Entering villages with snipers taking potshots at you, slipping across a river/stream to take a town only to find that this was where the Germans were amassing their troops for a massive new offensive, watching scared as enemy tanks roll through the village you were just attacking. A major point in his memoir was when he describes a massive mortar dump on the village he was attacking to fend off the Germans and how he hid, ducked and cowered amidst the massive bombardment. Or sometimes walked around looking for food while it went on outside. I particularly like his descriptions of what he and his men did whilst pinned down in a building or village, how they foraged for food and trinkets to while away the time.When all is said and done this is easily one of the best, if not the best, of the WWII memoirs I have ever read. The only other one that is on the same playing field so far is Sledge's With the Old Breed, but these are hard to compare as one is of the army in Europe and the other is of the marines in the Pacific. Too bad Gantter has never written anything else as he is such a great writer. A most certain recommend.5 stars.

米第一歩兵師団、16連隊所属だった著者の日記を基に多少の追記を加えて、戦場での日々を冷静に描く。補充の一兵卒としてノルマンジーに。大卒、キャリアを積んでいたのに30才で召集、ゆえに周りを少し斜めに観察する。本隊に追いついたあたりでバルジの戦い。それからドイツ国内を町から町へ村へと転戦。毎日が戦闘ばかりではない。日々、寝る場所と食べ物のことが一番の関心事とわかる。新米ばかりの彼らは何故独兵は抵抗するのだ（もう勝ち目はないのに）！？と嘆く！それでも著者は日々の掃討戦を経て、半年で軍曹に昇進し小隊を率いて転戦、チェコスロバキアで終戦、少尉昇進、ドイツで戦後処理任務。その間の日々の想い、目撃、耳にした悲惨で不毛な戦場の実相、ドイツの村々や人々の悲惨な様子が胸に迫る。救いは時に垣間見える著者のゆるぎないヒューマニズムだろう。インテリ下士官からの視点という意味で少し異色。タイトルは少し露骨な誘いの英語（分かりますか！このタイトル自体、斜めに構えた著者らしい）。星減は内省趣味のインテリ風戦記で士官への強い反発傾向もあり、万人向けではないので。

Initially I didn,t think I would enjoy his writing. How wrong I was! Descriptive and engrossing, an Infantryman's real thoughts

Enjoyed the book

A well written and interesting read depicting the privations and day to day life of a foot soldier.

interesting