I am ecstatic to have found a new reprint of this book. I read this when I was probably too young but I enjoyed it then and I’m looking forward to rereading this.

Truly this book has stayed with me for decades. ( )

The best book about war I've ever read, and the drawings are excellent. ( )

This a collection of Mauldin's cartoons was done for the 45th Infantry Division and then for the soldiers newspaper, Stars and Strips. All were based on his experiences in Italy with the American infantry and accompanied in this book by his comments that give the background on what inspired him to draw the cartoon. This volume top the best sellers list in 1945.

He created two characters for his drawings who were known as Willie and Joe. They represented the average GI and his hardships fighting a war as a foot soldier but done with humour in this drawings. ( )

This is a gritty, absolutely real account of life up front during World War II, written, cartooned and published during the war. The version I read was especially wonderful because the paper was extremely thin,cheap material, showing the era when it was printed.

I've seen Mauldin's cartoons before, but didn't understand many of them until he explained them here. His is the rawest, most straight-forward description of life as a U.S. "dogface" (infantry soldier) during WWII that I've ever read, but is of course prejudiced, since he too was a doggie and sufffered alongside them in the wet foxholes.

If it had just been the writing, without the cartoons to illustrate them or to discuss, it wouldn't have been as enjoyable or special, but together it was fascinating.
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