ISBN 0-89839-111-3
370 pages

Introduction; maps; photos; Battle Honors; Honor Roll

   Originally published in 1948, The 115th Infantry Regiment in World War II was reprinted by Battery Press in 1988 but later went out of print. This year Battery re-released its high-quality reprint edition, making this fine unit history available again.
   There are plenty of average histories of average units. Binkoski and Plaut have written an above-average history about an above-average unit. Although illustrated with a few dozen black-and-white photographs, this is not a photo album. Instead, it's a compelling, blow-by-blow account of battalions, companies, platoons, and squads—and the men who served in those units—in an almost continuous series of battles from D-Day until VE-Day.
   After fewer than a half-dozen pages covering the formation and training of the 115th Regiment and its parent 29th Infantry Division, the authors move straight into action with the regiment at Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944. This part of the regiment's story will be familiar to anyone who has read Joe Balkoski's excellent Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Infantry Division in Normandy. The regiment began landing on the morning of D-Day across stretches of Omaha Beach still under fire, going straight into combat when they had originally been told they would just be walking to their objectives. As the 115th undergoes its baptism of fire in the first few days in France, the authors—intentionally or otherwise—reveal how green the regiment was and how unprepared for battle. Each knot of German defenders is described as "crack," "fanatical," or "cleverly concealed." Snipers seem to be everywhere, all the time. German forces constantly infiltrate through American lines.
   The authors are also very matter of fact about the reaction of the men of the 115th to the life and death struggle into which they were thrown. "...[F]ew prisoners taken by our troops reached the collecting cages."
   In addition to the authors' narrative, the book also utilizes the recollections of many veterans who lived through the actions being described. Although not as far off the mark as some other US unit histories, some of these wartime passages about the enemy, enemy units, and enemy intentions need to be taken with a grain of salt. For example, according to the records of the 115th, in the early days in Normandy the regiment was engaged against, among other formations, "...130th Panzer Lehr Division."
   On the other hand, there's no denying the immediacy and veracity of the regiment's tactical actions and the stories of individual soldiers in combat.

   The 2nd Battalion, moving cautiously across country with Company E in the lead, miraculously located a gap in the enemy lines as it approached the main highway into St. Germain. The entire battalion began moving silently down the road, the men walking in the sunken ditches slightly below the road level. The troops advanced some two thousand yards without encountering the enemy in any way, shape, or form, although the sounds of the battle that the 3rd Battalion was having on the right could be clearly heard. Suddenly from their front the men heard the steady clank of heavy armored vehicles. Through the fog loomed the hulks of three tanks—the first unbuttoned with the tank commander leaning out of the turret, and the other two closed up. The first thought was that the tanks were friendly. But what were they doing moving north, away from St. Germain and back toward Vire? The tanks had gotten well into the column of Company E when the men, taking a closer look, saw neatly stenciled on the side, the black and white cross of the Wehrmacht. Somewhere in the middle of Company E, Major Miller turned to his radio operator, Technician Fifth Grade Virgil (Ham) MacDonnald and asked, "Say, Ham, don't those sound like Kraut tanks?" Before MacDonnald could answer the lead tank lumbered into view. Off the road, into the ditch and behind the hedgerows went Major Miller, MacDonnald, and the rest of the CP group. Down where the battalion had cut onto the road a guide had been left to direct the rest of the battalion and the rear CP. Hearing the tanks approach, he motioned for them to come ahead, as he stood in the middle of the road. Then he too spied the markings and made a quick dash for the ditch.
   Over his -300 radio Major Miller called up to Captain Frank O'Connor of Company E: "Say, weren't those Kraut tanks?" O'Connor replied, "Yes sir I think they were." Miller asked, "Were they captured?" O'Connor answered, "I don't know, sir." Miller said, "Well, why didn't you shoot at them?" O'Connor answered, "They passed through us so quickly and we were so surprised that we didn't have a chance to." Thus occurred one of the strangest happenings of the entire campaign. Just why the enemy tanks didn't open fire on the American troops cannot be definitely known but it is presumed that the Germans had no idea that the Americans were this close to the town. The Germans did know that their own troops were located throughout the area and apparently the German tankers thought that the shadowy figures moving in the fog and darkness along the sunken ditches were their own men. That an enemy tank column should pass through most of an entire infantry company on the march without a single shot being fired by either side is difficult to believe, but happen it did that morning.

   After the early going in Normandy, the 115th took part in the breakthrough at St Lo and then played an important role in the reduction of the fortress of Brest at the tip of the Brittany peninsula. The authors provide huge amounts of detail about all these actions, offering some especially fresh perspectives on operations against Brest.
   Following the siege there, many of the regiment's veterans were convinced that, with the expected imminent collapse of Germany, they had seen their last combat in Europe. As it turned out, of course, the war against Hitler did not end quite so soon, and from Brest the regiment moved by train across France to the Geilenkirchen sector just across the Dutch border in Germany. At this point it becomes very noticeable how descriptions of the 115th seem much more self-assured, while the Germans are no longer described with the same awe as in Normandy.
   During the course of the campaigns, regimental and battalion commanders come and go, and company commanders seldom seem to survive for long. A few names recur from chapter to chapter, but not many of them make it to the end of the book. Many soldiers, like Captain Robert Rideout, who play memorable roles in the early pages, come to grief well before VE-Day.

   About noon Captain Robert Rideout of Company G contacted Lieutenant Warren McNulty, CO of Company F, and the two completed arrangements for the joint defense of the town. Lieutenant McNulty was returning to his company when he was seriously wounded by a shell fragment. Captain Rideout, with his platoon sergeants, headed toward the outskirts of town to set up the defense there. He had just started when he was killed instantly by a mortar shell that landed in back of him. During the afternoon the battalion CP moved into town, headed by Major Victor Gillespie who had taken over when Lieutenant Colonel Miller was wounded for the third time since D-day and evacuated. Company E, which had been in reserve, also moved into town and helped to close a gap that existed between G and F Companies. The companies, particularly G, had suffered heavy casualties from artillery and had shrunk from 4 officers and 83 men to 1 officer and 42 men. The remainder were either casualties or missing.

   While by far the majority of the book remains devoted to details of tactical combat and individual actions, the authors also paint a picture of the unit on those occasions when it is out of the line. In those cases, when they weren't training for the next big operation, sleep seemed to be the favorite GI past-time. They also enjoyed movies and occasional USO shows. Appearance of a Red Cross "doughnut wagon" and the "doughnut dollies" was always a welcome event.
   Planning for the assault crossing of the Roer River in February 1945 receives a great deal of attention, but the Germans threw a wrench in the works when they opened the Schwammenauel Dam. The resultant flooding called for an entirely new plan and new training. The regiment's part in Operation Grenade is covered in considerable detail, with many pages of combat, maneuver, and individual recollections about the course of the engagement.
   The final chapter of the book is devoted to the regiment's activities in Germany after VE-Day. At that point the composition of the 115th, already much altered by the tremendous number of casualties suffered in almost a full year of combat, changed considerably as men were transferred according to the "points" earned for rotation back to the States. The regiment sailed from Germany in January 1946.

   It was farewell to Germany and farewell to the continent of Europe after almost thirty-nine months of overseas service. There was only a sprinkling of men who had seen combat with the 115th Infantry returning with it to the States, but for those few, as well as for everyone else, it was a happy moment. The Ericsson, a large but slow vessel, took thirteen days to cross the ocean, running into storms and rough seas practically all the way across. It was a clear, cold night, Tuesday, January 15, when the lights of Long Island were first visible from the decks of the ship. The Ericsson anchored in the Narrows off Staten Island at 2100 as the men made hasty trips to the rail to see the lights. It was too cold and windy for anyone to stay up very long. Early Wednesday morning, January 16, the boat nosed slowly into Staten Island's Pier 15 and unloading began about 0830, in a sunny but below-freezing air. As quickly as the men stepped off the boat, they were transferred by ferry to the Jersey coast. The ferry-boat ride up New York Harbor in the beautiful clear morning sunlight was an impressive event, with windows in Manhattan skyscrapers gleaming golden in the sun, and the Statue of Liberty standing proudly across the bay. From the Jersey harbor side, swift trains brought the Regiment to Camp Kilmer, near New Brunswick, for processing and assignment of men to separation centers.
   The long career of the 115th Infantry as a unit in World War II was closing. On Friday, January 18, the first groups of men left Kilmer for other camps and by the end of the day the 115th had ceased to exist. Later it would be reconstituted as a National Guard regiment, but the Regiment that had landed in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, had passed into history.

   This is one of the best American unit histories, and absolutely an important source for anyone interested in operations in Normandy, at Brest, or on the Roer. As always, many thanks are owed to Dick Gardner at Battery for making so many great unit histories available to this generation of readers.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from The Battery Press.
   Thanks to Battery for providing this review copy.