"Greatest Generation Anecdotes" is by a court reporter with the Army Field Historical Section in World War II in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Sicily, Itally, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany sharing anecdotes, epigrams and like episodes in the context in which they took place, it being the purpose here to tell more of the irony rather than of the hell of war. It reminded me of "Tales Of The South Pacific."

With the following indication of what's included in this book, with its highest rating, you can see why I was very much impressed with a reminder it seems similar to "Tales Of The South Pacific," which might have been called "Tales Of The North Atlantic:"

ILLUSION BECOMES REALITY - In the early part of August there was a plan for the 1st Canadian Corps to move to the Central sector of Italy. An elaborate deception scheme was put into effect by the Canadians to give the impression their Corps would be going to another sector - the Adriatic coastal. Then a change in plan was suddenly decided on at higher level for the Canadians to go, instead of to the Central sector, to the Adriatic coastal sector, the very illusion the Canadians had tried to create of going to the Adriatic coastal sector becoming a reality.

ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY RUSSIAN TO DO HIS DUTY - In 1942 there was the possibility of Russia being driven out of the war with Germany. It was felt there was doubt on the part of Russia an Anglo-American Second Front in Europe would ever take place to take pressure away from Russia and that Russia suspected Britain and the U.S. of letting Germany and Russia fight it out while they talked about an invasion of Western Europe. Going around was a famous British saying which had been paraphrased - "England expects every Russian to do his duty."

HERE IS THE WASHING - In the early days of the war the British sang a song which went something like: "We're going to hang our washing, On the Siegfried Line, If the Siegfried Line's still there..."
As we passed through the Siegfried Line at the end of the war we noticed at one point some washing on a line by a sign reading: "This is the Siegfried Line, Here is the washing."

WHERE'S THE STATION - A captured German prisoner interrogated in the closing days of the war said, "It used to be you would go to a train station in Germany and find the train gone. Now you go to the station and find the station gone."