American Iliad: The 18th Infantry Regiment in World War II Paperback – May 1, 2004

Elsewhere this book is too expensive, this bookshop respects its clients by pricing normal and not getting rich as soon as possible!

It's impossible to overstate the importance and worth of this book. I paid $100 for it and cringed when I did it but after getting it ... I would have paid five times that much if necessary just to have it in my collection. It's pretty much a "day by day" account of the 18th Infantry's activities in WWII and it uses the original sources, morning reports, survivor accounts, unit histories, etc as the basis of the narrative. Because of this, I was able to actually deduce the town in Germany that my uncle was killed in. Even his death record, which I obtained from the Army, didn't have that information. I was also able to confirm the circumstances of his death, which had been handed down to me by my grandmother. I was surprised, but this book proved her correct.

My grandfather fought in the 18th as a replacement from Nov.1944 - May 1945. After reading this book I have a new understanding of what he went through. The book provides great details of the missions, battles, recons, and the conditions in which our soldiers in this fine division lived in during that time.I recommend to any history buff.

Being as I was a member of this unit in WW2 I wanted inf on it before I jpoined and after.

American Iliad: The 18th Infantry Regiment in World War II by Robert Baumer and Lieutenant Colonel Mark Reardon (not to be confused with a similarly titled book dealing with the US Civil War) is a tour de force as a regimental history. Baumer and Reardon have compiled a comprehensive story of the regiment from its inception to the occupation of post-war Germany. The 350-odd pages are almost devoid of reference to other units except in cases where discussion of non-18th units is necessary for context or in cases where 18th units were integrated into non-18th parent groups. Thus this truly is a story of a single regiment that fought as part of the Big Red One (US Army 1st Infantry Division) from North Africa to D-Day to the Huertgen and the Ardennes to the Ruhr and the fall of Nazi Germany. The book is broken up into eleven chapters, starting with prewar organization/training, the long boat ride to war and the regiment's first battles in North Africa (chapters 1 and 2). These first two chapters provide ample and substantive background on which to place the battle successes (many) and losses (relatively few tactically but often large in terms of human life). The next four chapters describe actions in North Africa and Sicily. Chapter 3, The Battle for Longstop Hill is a particularly fascinating one. While Longstop was in many ways unpleasant for the 18th it was a major turning point for the regiment (and in many ways the US Army as a whole) in North Africa. Respect from their British comrades was earned the hard way at Longstop. Chapters 7-9 are centered on D-Day and the fight across France and the low-countries to the Westwall (Siegfried Line), while the subsequent chapter (10) deals with the Battles of the Huertgen Forest and Ardennes (the Bulge). This latter chapter (and the section dealing with combat around Mortain, France in chapter 8) reveals a lot about the fighting spirit of the men in the 18th Infantry Regiment. Certainly the Battle of the Huertgen was one of attrition that the Americans ultimately won, with many regiments taking part but few coming out the other end - the 18th was one of the latter. While not a major player in the Battle of the Bulge, the 18th did its part to stem the tide of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. The last chapter deals with the final battles in Western Europe for the 18th and is fresh in many ways since less is generally dedicated to these battles on the western front to those final days on the eastern front and the Battle of Berlin.Strangely, Bauman and Reardon crafted a full and detailed story of the 18th Infantry Regiment in WWII worthy of 5 stars from a historical-standpoint with little literary flare. American Iliad is often difficult reading from a standpoint of pure reading pleasure. This reader was reminded of A Time for Trumpets by Charles Macdonald, another classic from the standpoint of content but one far from a classic read for pleasure. Much of American Iliad runs from one thought to another with little break or reason, despite its factual prowess. The authors have used just eleven chapters to tell a 359-page story and each chapter runs start to finish with no breaks. Thus, while a given chapter can deal with multiple battles or events the authors have chosen not to make use of sub-chapter breaks in the text to help the flow. Unfortunately the lack of such breaks also contributes to the difficulty of the read since there are few logical places to rest except for between chapters. For those who have ample time to dedicate to their reading and can move through what is thick and dense (historically) prose this may not be a real problem. However, even for the more serious historical reader may find American Iliad hard reading, not for lack of content certainly, but for flair and style that can make dense reading more enjoyable. Yet, this is a historical work and the first goal of the authors should have been to provide accurate and factual text - this they have done exceedingly well. That the prose is not like that of C. Ryan or S. Ambrose can thus be forgiven, even if it makes the reading a bit more tedious.In the end Bauman and Reardon have crafted a solid 4 star book (giving each star more weight for historical significance of the work than the authors' story-telling abilities per se) that should be read by any serious student of WWII history, especially those with an interest in single unit histories. Veterans and soldiers currently assigned to the remaining battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment have been given a rare gift of unit history that they are certain to cherish.

American Iliad is a detailed examination of the combat service of the U.S. Army's 18th Infantry Regiment during World War II. The 18th Infantry is a Regular Army regiment that was organized at the beginning of the American Civil War and has seem combat in every major conflict since then with the exception of the Korean War. The book's authors, Robert W. Baumer and Lieutenant Colonel Mark J. Reardon, brought distinct perspectives to their task. Baumer's uncle, Private First Class Robert A. Baummer, who was killed in action at Normandy on 9 June 1944 while serving with the 18th Infantry, inspired his interest in the Regiment's actions during World War II. Reardon, an Armor officer, currently serves as a Senior Military Historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C., and recently authored Victory At Mortain: Stopping Hitler's Panzer Counteroffensive (University Press of Kansas in 2002).As a component unit of the 1st Infantry Division since World War I, the 18th Infantry Regiment saw more combat in World War II than most other units of its size. The 18th Infantry participated in three major invasions (Algeria, Sicily, and Normandy), along with several other major North African/European battles (Tunisia, Aachen, Hürtgen Forest, Ardennes, and the Ruhr Pocket). Baumer and Reardon present their history in a coherent chronological fashion and include literally dozens of combat actions at every level from squad through regiment. The authors argue, however, that the book is more than a mere regimental history, because the 18th Infantry established a battle record that was almost a microcosm of the U.S. Army's experiences in North Africa and Europe during World War II. After a bloody learning process in their first actions in North Africa, the senior officers of the 18th Infantry used initiative, flexibility, and creativity to create a cohesive combat unit that went on to defeat its Vichy French, Italian, and German opponents.The authors used numerous primary and secondary sources in their research, including: intelligence reports, captured operational documents, personal accounts by enemy participants, and wartime reports with first-hand accounts provided by everyone from individual riflemen to senior officers. While the authors provided ample endnotes, for some reason, they did not include a bibliography. Other than that curious omission, I have only positive things to say about the book. I recommend this volume for individuals interested in regimental histories and/or the U.S. Army in North Africa and Europe during World War II.