No one knew it was going to be that bad. World War II killed some 60 million people—20 million of them soldiers—and inflicted wounds, bereavement, poverty and suffering on countless others. But such destruction was an impossible to imagine in advance as it was for young pilots-in-training to imagine their coming fiery deaths; or for Jews to foresee their last moments in the gas chambers; or for parents to imagine their children killed by the mortars and bullets and other munitions that factories churned out in such enormous quantities. As impossible, perhaps, as it is for us to imagine a disaster of similar scale in our future. The War presents an unforgettable mosaic of memoirs from soldiers, citizens and historians, detailing the immense tragedy that stretched from the Western Front to the Pacific Theater.
War with all its warts comes at you from different perspectives in these eight pieces by writers who were there. Barrett Whitener's delivery puts you at Omaha Beach as troops are gunned down and drowned in the piece by Cornelius Ryan. A D-day parachute drop behind German lines is recreated in the scared but determined voice of Terence Aselford. Grover Gardner gives William Manchester's memory of killing a lone Japanese soldier almost reverential treatment. Colleen Delany reads "The Escape of Mrs. Jeffries" by Janet Flanner with the patience and stoicism required for a seven-month flight from Nazi-occupied Europe. The short report of a young German prisoner, made realistic and horrific in Gardner's heavily accented English, ends this satisfying collection. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
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