Allan Wilford Howerton's World War II Memoir

"Dear Captain, et al.: the Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory

"Dear Captain, et al." tells the story of Company K, 335th Infantry, 84th Division during the last six months of combat in Europe during World War II and the authorÕs struggle for survival within it. As its communications sergeant he was one of a handful of survivors who made it from the Siegfried Line, through the Battle of Bulge in Belgium, and across the Roer, Rhine, and Weser rivers to finish at the Elbe near Berlin without becoming a casualty.

Written from notes made just after hostilities ceased and integrated over a period of eight years with official military records, visits to battlefields and cemeteries, contemporary news accounts, letters, and testimonials of company veterans it is one of the most thorough accounts ever written about a combat unit. There are scores of interesting characters, eyewitness accounts of every battle, documentation of every casualty, and powerful descriptions of warfare.

For readers interested in the military aspects of the ground war in Europe the book covers several major battles: the taking of Lindern, in the Siegfried Line, which cleared high ground in preperation for the crossing of the Roer river; the defense of Marche-en-Femmene and the battle for nearby Rochefort during the Bulge; the counter-reconnaisance patrol around the villages of Bure, Grupont, Tellin, and Chanly, Belgium along the road to Givet, France; the January, 1945 counterattack to take back the Bulge including the gruesome three-day battle in the snow to capture the village of Devantave and the costly battle for Ourthe to close the Ardennes enclave; the battle for Hoven, Germany just after the Roer river crossing and the breakout to the Rhine; the crossing of the Rhine and Weser rivers and the tragic battle of Eisbergen; the taking of Hannover; and the last battle at Restorf-Pevestorf on the Elbe river shortly before V-E Day. In following these actions the book resembles Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" in the detail it provides while still presenting a powerful human story about the men of Company K. If you liked that book and others by Ambrose and Tom Brokaw on World War II you will find that "Dear Captain, et al."is of the same genre as to content and compares favorably as to quality.

Woven also throughout the book is a poignant love story between the author and a girl named Mary who lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Her letters add a tender ecstasy providing welcome relief for the battle action which makes up the main storyline. The book is beautifully written with a passion not unlike James Jones and the nostalgic longing of F. Scott Fitzgerald. While writing it the author was often brought to tears. Memory is a bitch, he notes.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING . . .

"The memoir is moving, filled with sadness, anger, humor, and joy . . . You do not hint at what is called the glory of battle, yet your account is full of human courage and determination. And love."

VINCE RYAN, Army Security Agency,
served in Germany in the 1970s.

"This is a great effort . . . I bought the hardcover (will buy four or six more) and the ebook. All of my memories of (my father) were seeing him in the hospital."

MIKE MATUSKA, son of Steve Matuska,
severely wounded, Battle of the Bulge.

"I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed your book, laughing and crying in parts . . . and to think you lived it makes everything you wrote much more interesting."

MARILYN FLAHERTY,
daughter of a Pacific, WW II veteran.

"I feel privileged to have 'met' Captain Carpenter, and Lt. Prewitt, and the others, too many to mention . . . I have never read a book before that brought tears to my eyes . . . the names (in the division roster) are now men."

ANDY BRADLEY, North Yorkshire, UK
84th Division World War II buff.

"It is a powerful story . . . easily the best book I have read about the infantry in World War II. I laughed when I heard you mimic (the Camp Claiborne first sergeant's) language, color, and accent . . . was touched by the fantasy of the young Railsplitters who rest in peace together at Margraten close enough that they could visit back and forth . . . perhaps it is not a fantasy. The book was deja vu all over again."

ROY OGLE, Hq-333, 84th Division
Clemson University (horticulture)

"Outstanding. Particularly impressed by incorporation of so much research detail without interfering with the flow of the narrative. Should be read by anyone who was touched in any way by World War II."

TED JOHNSON, Arvada, Colorado
Public Relations Professional

"I was delighted to find that Dear Captain, et al. is not just a book about war. It is also a beautiful love story."

KATHY GILES, Alexandria, Virginia
Wife of a former Navy Officer

"Time is mystery . . . (In Author Howerton's words) his own Pandora's box . . . the demons, the memories, the questions within.

"A suitcase carried home from Germany at the end of World War II . . . lugged in the years since across this country. Finally (ending) in the attic . . . where eight years ago he brought it down and began a re-exploration of a time and a world he had known a half-century earlier.

"Its contents formed the nucleus that has launched him into the ranks of the latest World War II authorsÑa picture of a long-ago sweetheart, whose letters had warmed his heart as the 9th Army clawed its way across Belgium and into Germany through the cold, snow and mud, the shellings, the fighting and dying of late 1944 and early '45; a picture of Ernie Pyle; a torn swastika; a coffee-table of photos of Adolph Hitler looted from a German house; some wartime snapshots of young men in khaki and olive drab; several sets of sergeants stripes; a Presidential Unit Citation and other insignia; and notes typed shortly after the fighting ended.

"It led to months of reading and copying records in the National Archives at Washington and the Federal Records Center at St. Louis, re-establishing contacts with members of his old outfit . . . interviews with them and two trips to Europe to retrace their route across the Siegfried Line, through the Battle of the Bulge and on to the Elbe.

"The result of the effort, 'Dear Captain, et al.,' 525 pages . . . a bit of a personal memoir, a company history and a war novel.

"At first the reader has a tendency to become bogged down in minutiae. But finally, those details emerge among the bookÕs merits. For those of us removed from foxhole fighting they paint a detailed picture of what it was like to be a dogface hoping each day wouldn't be your last . . .

"The 'good war' and 'the greatest generation' are myths, Howerton says, (emphasizing) that:

" 'There were just a few brave men among us and not many willing warriors. Grousing about the Army filled the air more often than the sounds of patriotism. Yet it was there in a fuller measure than words. There were many men of honor, and purpose, and big dreams.' "

JOHN LUCAS, West Kentucky Bureau

Allan Wilford Howerton's World War II Memoir

"Dear Captain, et al.: the Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory

What the book is like and who should read it

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