When We Were One: Stories of World War II - Hardcover

Heinz, W.c.; Heinz, W. C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306811154 ISBN 13: 9780306811159

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2002

Synopsis

W. C. Heinz is one of the great sports writers of the past half-century, but few people know that before he began his sportswriting career he served as a war correspondent for the New York Sun. No less an authority than Stephen E. Ambrose has said of Heinz that both he and Ernie Pyle were the two best journalists to cover World War II. Now for the first time ever, Heinz's finest reporting both during and after the war is collected in one volume. From a first-person account of the scene aboard the U.S.S. Nevada during D-Day (the very same ship that plied the waters at Pearl Harbor) to a six-part series on conducting a night attack to an account of the shooting of several German spies, we are given an up-close-and-personal chronicle of the action by a reporter who was in the thick of it all. Few writers conveyed as vividly as Heinz the heroic efforts of GI's in the face of battle; the sheer humanity, humor, and courage displayed by so many. When We Were All One is a superb collection of war reporting and commentary that ranks with the finest ever assembled on any war.

About this title

About the Author

W. C. Heinz was born in 1915. He is the author of What a Time It Was and The Professional, both recently published by Da Capo Press. He also co-wrote MASH, under the pseudonym Richard Hooker. Last year he was inducted into the National Sports Broadcasting and Sportswriting Hall of Fame. He lives in Vermont.

From the Inside Flap

"Tells his stories the way Heifitz fiddled or Hopper painted, or the way Willie Pep boxed--with a kind of lyrical understatement." (Jeff McGregor, Sports Illustrated)

"No one will ever produce work of comparable range." (Vanity Fair, Hall of Fame inductee, July 2002)

Selected as the "It Lit Comeback" (Entertainment Weekly, June 2002)

"Every W.C. Heinz sentence is as clear and cold as an ice cube." (Elmore Leonard)

"One of the most respected sportswriters of the 20th century, a peer of Damon Runyon, A. J. Liebling, and Red Smith." (Boston Herald)

Reviews

Heinz is a longtime sportswriter and author of The Professional as well as a coauthor of MASH. During World War II, he was a young correspondent for the New York Sun, and this collection of his war pieces begins with his personal observations aboard the USS Nevada. The battleship had been restored after the attack at Pearl Harbor and was now supporting the Allied invasion on D-Day. From D-Day, Heinz continues his war coverage with stories from the Siegfried line and Aachen. Heinz was one of the few reporters who witnessed the execution of three German spies captured after the Battle of the Bulge, an experience he writes about with clarity and controlled emotion. In his of-the-moment dispatches, Heinz does a good job of telling the story of the war and profiling its fighting men and scenes of horror. His narrative brings all the chaos of battle to the reader. In the newspaper dispatches, of course, there is little room for historical background. But the book also includes several longer magazine pieces, most memorably an account of returning years later to the Normandy beaches with a D-Day hero and his son. This book of wartime observations will be riveting for the interested reader. Recommended for all public libraries and academic libraries with historical collections. Mark Ellis, Albany State Univ. Lib., GA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0306811154
• ISBN 13: 9780306811159
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224