****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is quite simply one of the best World War II memoirs I have ever read. Period. From the fleeting glimpses of the mundane soldier life to the harrowing moments of combat, Roll Me Over gives the best snapshot of what it was like to be a soldier in the European Theater of Operation.Right from the beginning you are transfixed by Gantter's ability to take a snapshot of something and describe it in such detail so that you feel as though you are there with him. His writing is impeccable and drew me in immediately. I was disheartened for a little while when I found the first 140 pages didn't talk about any combat at all. What kind of WWII memoir doesn't write about the combat? Yes, the descriptions of the day to day life of a soldier - what it's like to dig a foxhole in the freezing cold, how soldier's slept, how they ate, the grizzly tokens of war - are amazing, but I want combat. Gantter went through the whole of The Battle of the Bulge and didn't write about any combat, even though he writes about how other people in his platoon were being decorated for their efforts. Strange.Shortly thereafter the tone of the memoir went from the slow day to day life to the action packed life of a combat soldier. Entering villages with snipers taking potshots at you, slipping across a river/stream to take a town only to find that this was where the Germans were amassing their troops for a massive new offensive, watching scared as enemy tanks roll through the village you were just attacking. A major point in his memoir was when he describes a massive mortar dump on the village he was attacking to fend off the Germans and how he hid, ducked and cowered amidst the massive bombardment. Or sometimes walked around looking for food while it went on outside. I particularly like his descriptions of what he and his men did whilst pinned down in a building or village, how they foraged for food and trinkets to while away the time.When all is said and done this is easily one of the best, if not the best, of the WWII memoirs I have ever read. The only other one that is on the same playing field so far is Sledge's With the Old Breed, but these are hard to compare as one is of the army in Europe and the other is of the marines in the Pacific. Too bad Gantter has never written anything else as he is such a great writer. A most certain recommend.5 stars.
