SURVIVING THE ODDS
D-Day to VE-Day with the Fourth Division in Europe

Jack Capell’s account focuses on his experiences from D-Day (June 6, 1944) when he landed on Utah beach to VE-Day (May 8, 1945) when he learned that the war in Europe was over. He spent the first months in France as a wireman—laying and repairing wire between command centers and outposts—and then was assigned to other duties, but whatever his particular job he remained a frontline rifleman. He never portrays himself to be other than a typical soldier, which he indeed was, but Capell was also an unusual one in that he survived 300 days of combat which included some of the hardest fought battles in the European campaign.

He places his memoir in a larger context by basing it on material taken from the published history of his regiment (the Eighth) and his division (the Fourth) so that the reader has a sense of the whole campaign as well was his part in it. He refreshed his excellent memory with a number of conversations with comrades so that he could check his version with theirs. The result is a story that is both compelling and authentic prompting a well known military historian to comment: “I am sure that Capell’s book will be of great interest not only to World II buffs, but to professional historians as well.” That endorsement is high praise, but I believe that it is well merited.

On VE-Day (May 8, 1945), Capell was one of a handful of men in his division who had been on the line from the beginning to the end. This fact alone gives a special authority of his account. He had seen it all and then some. His division suffered more total casualties then any of the other 62 American divisions which fought in North Africa and Europe, a total of over 30,000—more than twice it original strength.

S.L.A. Marshall in his well-known study of combat soldiers in the Second World War, entitled Men Against Fire, wrote that wars were won not by heroes but by men who do their duty conscientiously day in and day out. It is those men who are the real heroes. He claimed that the highest honor one can bestow on a frontline fighter is simply, “He was a good soldier.” Capell, surely merited that accolade.

As the ranks of World War II veterans of inexorably thin year by year we can be grateful that men like the author have given us a chance to, at least vicariously, share their experiences. I can only say that Capell was indeed a member of “the Greatest Generation.”      —Jon Bridgman, Department of History, University of Washington.