Author Description

This book is an annotated work of more than 87,000 words, which would appeal to readers interested in military history and the European Theater of Operations during World War II. In July 1944 my father, Francis R. Gough, entered the European Theater of Operations as a 25-year old armored cavalryman from Ashland, Pennsylvania. He was part of the 15th Cavalry Group (Mechanized), 17th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron that landed near Utah Beach in France on the heels of D-Day. From 1944 on, he fought the Allied battle waged against the Nazis from the St.-Lo breakout through Brittany, into the Netherlands, and eventually on to German soil. He witnessed death, brutality, unexpected kindness, and even frivolity, all through the lens of a young man who had known only small-town America for most of his young life. During the war, he kept a daily diary while serving as M5A1 Stuart tank crewman in the 17th Cavalry Squadron. Before his death several years ago, he asked me to write an account of his life centering on his wartime experiences, and I agreed to do so. I have taken passages from my father's diary and woven them into the story of a young GI's journey to adulthood against the backdrop of the most extensive conflict of the twentieth century. His story unfolds through the battles he fought in, the daily army life he lived, the military equipment he used, and the stratagems of the military generals who influenced the course of the war as the Allied powers ground the Axis down to defeat.