I have read a great many war narratives, old and new, long and short, and this one was possibly the best, most personal war book I've ever read. Better than Black Hawk Down. Better than Band of Brothers. Better than The Coldest Winter. . .

I especially liked the way the book treated the approach to the borders of the Reich. The story of the stall of the advance, the long winter, the pointless, fruitless loss and death in the Hurtgen--the period between Normandy and the Bulge--didn't so much change the way I thought about the course of the war as it just expanded it in depth. Particularly, Citizen Soldiers was unmatched in presenting how this long autumn and winter 1944-1945 affected the individual soldiers not so much just then, but in the final push into Germany.

This book was a fast read, and engaging, but really gave the reader the sense of the slowness of time in miserable conditions.

I'll just stop, because I could continue for a while, but one final note. I've been in the airborne infantry, and I've been in the Army Reserve as a CS troop.

As such, the term, "Citizen Soldier" has been tainted by my experience of the term used today to describe the reserve soldier. They are people to be admired, but cannot compare to the discipline and training of the professional soldiery. For this reason, I avoided this book for a long time because I let my prejudices of the term in the title influence my expectations. Make no mistake, it is aptly named, but its title is its title, not the borrowed phrase.

The citizen soldiers of this title are not those of the modern army propaganda team, but rather those of whom Tyrtaeus spoke:

"For no man ever proves himself a good man in war
unless he can endure to face the blood and the slaughter,
go close against the enemy and fight with his hands.
Here is courage, mankind's finest possession, here is
the noblest prize that a young man can endeavor to win,
and it is a good thing his polis and all the people share with him
when a man plants his feet and stands in the foremost spears
relentlessly, all thought of foul flight completely forgotten,
and has trained his heart to be steadfast and to endure,
and with words encourages the man who is stationed beside him.
Here is a man who proves himself to be valiant in war.
With a sudden rush he turns to fight the rugged battalions
of the enemy, and sustains the beating waves of assault.
And he who so falls among the champions and loses his sweet life,
so blessing with honor his polis, his father, and all his people,
with wounds in his chest, where the spear that he was facing has transfixed
that massive guard of his shield, and gone through his breastplate as well,
why, such a man is lamented alike by the young and the elders,
and all his polis goes into mourning and grieves for his loss.
His tomb is pointed out with pride, and so are his children,
and his children's children, and afterward all the race that is his.
His shining glory is never forgotten, his name is remembered,
and he bcomes an immortal, though he lies under the ground,
when one who was a brave man has been killed by the furious War God
standing his ground and fighting hard for his children and land." ( )

Citizen Soldiers is a wonderful book. Ambrose is a master of combining the epic with the minuscule, offering a broad description of the US march from Normandy to Germany as well as a multitude of personal stories of heroism throughout the battles. A gripping book that's tough to put down. ( )

Normandy to Berlin. Excellent as always by Ambrose

Here is author, Stephen Ambrose, at his best, utilizing extensive interviews of the actual Allied combatants involved in the battles leading to the liberation of Continental Europe in WWII. This time (in contrast to his other major WWII history, D-Day) there is an added dimension with the inclusion of stories of German combatants taken from interviews by Ambrose's son and the son of the German Panzer commander, Hans von Luck. We follow the progress of the war through the eyes of these individuals on both sides. Ambrose brings to the book all the wealth of his historical research background in giving the needed context for the individual accounts. A highly readable history. ( )

Citizen Soldiers opens on June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends on May 7, 1945. From the high command on down to the enlisted men, Stephen E. Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews and oral histories from men on both sides who were there. He recreates the experiences of the individuals who fought the battles, the women who served, and the Germans who fought against us.

Ambrose reveals the learning process of a great army -- how to cross rivers, how to fight in snow or hedgerows, how to fight in cities, how to coordinate air and ground campaigns, how to fight in winter and on the defensive, how citizens become soldiers in the best army in the world.

A masterful biography of the U.S. Army in the European Theater of Operations, Citizen Soldiers provides a compelling account of the extraordinary stories of ordinary men in their fight for democracy.