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MWSA Review
Many hundreds of soldiers, airmen, and sailors behind battle lines support the few carrying the rifle forward into combat. These unrecognized and inconspicuous warriors fade into the background but are there with everything from bullets to beer. They move combatants to or from the battlefields and bandage bodies or bury the dead. Author Rona Simmons looks behind the frontlines—revealing some even more daring accounts of those who did not engage in combat officially, never marching in the parade of accolades—to capture nineteen personal stories, seventy-five years following World War II.
Daughter of a WW II fighter pilot, Rona Simmons, writing The Other Veterans of World War II, brings to life memories of “heroes” who were not in the trenches. This book honors unsung veterans with details garnered through the author’s interviews, supported with families’ records and photos. This excellently crafted book, including an appendix, notes, selected bibliography, and index, is divided into parts. Each part begins with a history-setting preamble explaining the conditions behind the personal accounts in the following short series. Simmons completes each personal story with a brief epilogue detailing their life following their war experience. The nineteen stories reveal that unsung supporting troops contributed as much to victory as the soldier aiming a gun. This book is an essential example of stories that needed to be told. Further, this book offers, by example, an ideal form, from meticulous research and captivating writing, for others to tell their stories.
Review by Tom Beard (July 2021)
Author's Synopsis
For decades, the dramatic stories of World War II soldiers have been the stuff of memoirs, interviews, novels, documentaries, and feature films. Yet the men and women who served in less visible roles, never engaging in physical combat, have received scant attention.
Convinced that their depiction as pencil pushers, grease monkeys, or cowards was far from the truth, Rona Simmons embarked on a quest to discover the real story from the noncombat veterans themselves. She sat across from 19 veterans or their children, read their letters and journals, looked at photos, and touched their mementos: pieces of shrapnel, a Japanese sword, a porcelain tea set, a pair of wooden shoes, a marquisette wedding gown.
Compiling these veterans’ stories, Simmons follows them as they report for service, complete their training, and often ship out to stations thousands of miles from home. She shares their dreams to see combat and disappointment at receiving noncombat positions, as well as their selflessness and yearning for home. Ultimately, Simmons finds the noncombat veterans had far more in common with the front line soldiers than differences.
Simmons’s extensive research gives us a more complete picture of the war effort, bringing long-overdue appreciation for the men and women whose everyday tasks, unexpected acts of sacrifice, and faith and humor contributed mightily to the ultimate outcome of World War II.
ISBN/ASIN: 978-1606353981, 1606353985, B085J29NBL
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—History
Number of Pages: 240