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The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey From The Beaches Of Sicily To The Gates Of Dachau (2012)

by Alex Kershaw(Favorite Author)

4.09 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0307887995 (ISBN13: 9780307887993)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Crown

review 1: This is a very well researched and documented historical book following the two and a half years of Felix Sparks in the National Guard as he joined, trained, then began the slow trek from the bottom of Italy to the Netherlands and finally ending the war outside the pub where Hitler first began his climb to infamy. Sparks unit spent the most time in active combat, fighting ever upward with incredible determination, losing comrades and friends,haunted long after the war ended. The detail and exactness of each move is both laborious yet often necessary. Those with military experience will get more out of the book yet I can still appreciate Sparks and his absolute compass that never deviated in his own morality. This fact is necessary to understand as Sparks character is broug... moreht under scrutiny due to the actions of some of his men. The book is not about that one day but about Felix Sparks and the men he grew to love and admire, along with notable characters that were loathed. I'm not going to lie to you. Hitler still looks bad in this book. On the the other hand, the author details a particularly horrific battle in France where Sparks, the commanding officer, felt such a strong pull of responsibility, that he manned a tank into the fray while his men were getting shot in front of him. Sparks exits the tank and drags, lifts the injured men to safety. This done in the scope of several German gunners. Somehow the author tracked one of the gunners down to ask why they did open fire. Voss, the German who halted the firing, replied that he could not shoot such heroic man during the rescue. Voss seemed to be the epitome of what he claimed he stood for. Voss took issue with calling the entire organization of the Nazi SS as evil as he was sold on the ideology of Germany yet a good man. Near the end of the war, the unit is orders to something called a "concentration camp" in Dachau. Having no reference for what he would find, Sparks and his men were greeted with the worst scenes of the their wartime careers. Trained and expecting gunfire and war, they were I'll prepared for Dachau. They were the first to liberate Dachau. For many of these men the war became necessary. For the first time they saw what they were fighting against. Very well written.
review 2: This book was very intense. Alex Kershaw did a great job of telling one man's old war story. Felix Sparks does not sound like an important person, but after reading this book he seems vital to the Allies success in World War II. This book showed that even though we won the war it was not without a hard fight. Alex Kershaw did such a good job of describing the battles I sometimes felt like I was a part of it. This was a very good book and I am glad I read it. less

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