A Private's Memory of WWII

This is a story of war and of combat; but not of front-line action. This rather deals with men in the backwash of war, in that area between the front lines and safe places far in the rear; and it puts this in the context of larger actions. It is told solely from the point of view of an enlisted man; specifically, it is the view of a man who went in a private and came out a private, who served in five campaigns in Europe, and along the way, together with his friends, participated in the Liberation of Paris, where they remained for over two months. This concentrates on the daily lives and actions of men in that peculiar state of being; men prepared for combat and expecting combat (ultimately), and meanwhile living comparatively free from constraint in a foreign culture, for a time. Some of the men at last reached front lines, in the last battles in Europe. This is a story also of black-marketeering, major and minor, with severe sentences meted out for trivial causes, and of one man (fellow soldier with the author) sentenced to die for desertion; a story also of love, sex, honor, betrayals, and courage. While knowing the necessity of this war, the author comes out at last with a jaundiced view of huge armies and of governments that feed on them.

Vernon Johnson returned from World War II (having been in five battles in the ETO) to enroll in college-something he could not have done without the GI Bill. After graduation, he went on to careers as an actor, stage director and college professor. He is the author of numerous commentaries on Shakespearean productions and sources and is co-author of four books on a range of subjects: theatrical memoirs, the social impact of the novel, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and Homer's The Odyssey. He now lives in the Bay Area of California.