A superb book on the daily life of Navy, Army and Air Force men in the various battle zones in Europe during WW II. The author is a typical product of his time when the US mainstream wouldn't tolerate expletives even by front-line soldiers nor critical descriptions on the way it fought its way up towards Berlin.
Mr Pyle who was embedded in the fighting units and shared the hardships of sleeping with the troops in rain-soaked bivouacs and front-line hospitals avoids the cruel extremes of how it must have felt when lying for hours under artillery bombardment as we read in books on the fronts of WWII.
And yet reading Brave Men makes one feel the grime, filthy clothes and not using a razor for weeks with only the occasional helmet of water to wash in. And how it must felt to remove boots and socks from rotting flesh after standing in soaked foxholes or crossing streams without the chance of drying one's feet.
Europe
