French MacLean

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So far French MacLean has created 272 blog entries.

How did you manage to travel back in time to Company B?

Dying Hard appeals to a wide variety of reader.  Below is a recent review of the book on Amazon from a reader who is a weapon’s enthusiast.

I’m a gun guy, and I love to read how historical military weapons were used, so in many respects, Dying Hard seemed to be written for me! It’s real life stuff; not endless technical jargon. The author tells you why a weapon was effective, and even how to listen to that weapon and know exactly what it is. Like the MG42 machine gun and what American infantrymen thought about them. As Colonel MacLean wrote: “we call them Hitler’s buzz saws or Kraut bone saws, and when you hear them firing, you’ll know why.” Then he describes the sound – “a burrrp-burrrp-burrrp, somewhat like a bedsheet being torn in two.” In my mind I could hear that.

In many parts of the book the author describes the wounds our soldiers received, because he found their US Army Hospital Admission Records. And those tell you about weapons too. You’ll read where one soldier was crossing a field and was hit by a burst of machine gun rounds in the stomach, lower back, groin, pelvis, both legs, and a foot. Later you’ll read that he was evacuated to England, where he had five operations and once back home had to go into another hospital.

I never realized how truly interesting barbed wire is, and how nasty anti-personnel mines are. Where else would you read, “With enough mines, you have a minefield; if it’s big enough, it gets its own name, like the huge German Wilde Sau “Wild Pig” minefield near Wittscheidt, just north of Germeter”?

The piece on Marksmanship Training was fascinating and easy to understand. It’s in the School of the Soldier section at the end of Chapter 1. These sections tell you what really goes on in the Army and many are very humorous. In the Introduction, the author gives you a hint why these are in the book, when he writes, “School of the Soldier is an old Army term that has to do with teaching a soldier the really important stuff in the Army – like goldbricking, sleep, chow, and hooch – and how to survive.” There are more than fifty of these topics, all easy, fun, reads.

Dying Hard is more than a great book. It’s almost a one-on-one conversation with the author, who obviously has a great interest in the topic, and due to his own background, knew what to look for and how to find that. If I ever talked with him, my first question would be: How did you manage to travel back in time to Company B?

How did you manage to travel back in time to Company B?2025-04-01T17:09:23-05:00

1stLt Wallace “Wally” Boyes, Pilot, B-17G “Rebel Queen”

By 1945, 1,500 prisoners of various nationalities are in Stalag VI G; 177 are Americans. Air Corps 1stLt Wallace “Wally” Boyes, (0826086) from Mobile, Alabama, captured on January 28, 1945, is one of the senior American POWs; he keeps the men’s morale up and looks after the injured. Wally piloted a B-17G (Tail number 42-97164 nicknamed “Rebel Queen”) in the 749th Bombardment Squadron, of the 457th Bombardment Group, that was hit by flak at 1430 hours that afternoon, about 24,000 feet up during a bombing mission on the Cologne rail yards; the plane crashes near the village of Weibern, west of Koblenz.

Wally and his crew bail out just before the crash. He sees co-pilot, 2ndLt Elmer Felgenhauer, and bombardier, 2ndLt Merritt Turner, floating downward and hears shots from where he believes both have landed, near the village of Kempenich. Both men are declared missing and later listed as killed – possibly by civilians or local military. Wally is lucky. He survives and heads to Stalag VI G.

1stLt Wallace “Wally” Boyes, Pilot, B-17G “Rebel Queen”2025-03-30T16:16:43-05:00

Bazooka Charlie

Dying Hard has an interesting description of the word “bazooka” and how it originated. You’ll see that Bazooka bubble gum owes its ordnance-inspired name to the World War II anti-tank weapon, Bazooka, which in turn owed its name to a musical instrument developed in Arkansas before World War I. The details of all three are right after Chapter 3.

Even more widespread is the attachment of the name “Bazooka” to almost every soldier who accomplishes some feat of marksmanship with the weapon. During the fighting near Arracourt, France in the summer of 1944, for example, Ltc Charles Carpenter from Edgington, Illinois, piloting a light L-4H observation plane, nicknamed “Rosie the Rocketer”, straps six bazookas under the wings and reportedly knocks out six enemy tanks from the air, earning him the immortal nickname of “Bazooka Charlie.”

Bazooka Charlie2025-03-30T14:49:33-05:00

When Quotes Are More Important Than Numbers

A great many “war books” are fairly dry reading; lots of numbers and the “Big Picture.” Dying Hard is written from a much narrower point of view, where names are more important than numbers – one small unit – Company B, and their story is not dry! Nowhere is that more evident than in its many quotations — from people you have read about, such as General George Patton, to just soldiers in Company B. In no particular order, here are a few.

“I don’t make the infantryman look noble because he couldn’t look noble even if he tried.” (Bill Mauldin)

“We kept asking ourselves, Why me? Why do we have to keep on until we all get killed? (Al “Hawk” DiRisio, Company B)

“The Army is good for one ridiculous laugh per minute.” (Ernie Pyle)

“They wish the hell they were someplace else, and they wish to hell they would get relief. They wish to hell the mud was dry and they wish to hell their coffee was hot. They want to go home. But they stay in their wet holes and fight and then they climb out and crawl through minefields and fight some more.” (Bill Mauldin)

“Because legends don’t die with a bang; they die with a whimper.” (Author)

“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” (Bruce Lee)

“There are no atheists in foxholes.” (Dwight Eisenhower)

“We’re going to have to dig down deep to find our hard core of scrappers.” (George Patton)

“You don’t want the Vienna Boys Choir in an infantry platoon.” (Author)

“To me, there is no higher accolade that one can bestow than to refer to an individual as a dogface soldier.” (Lindsey Nelson)

“There is an agony in your heart and you almost feel ashamed to look at them.” (Ernie Pyle)

“Hell’s bells, Brad [General Omar Bradley]. I’m wastin’ my talents with all those featherbed colonels in the rear.” (Colonel Harry “Paddy” Flint)

“Any bastard can be born and then just die, that just happens to you, but it takes a man to achieve immortality through battle.” (George Patton)

“Nobody beat me. We were playing pinochle. It’s a rough game.” (J.J. Sefton)

“Ah, the Air Force gets the glory. And the Navy gets the cheers. But all the dogface ever gets is mud behind the ears.” (Mel Blanc, Private Snafu)

“Neither an officer’s job nor a sergeant’s job in infantry-combat is more important than the other; they just do different things that complement one another.” (Author)

“Isn’t it wonderful what you can do with Spam?” (Bob Hope)

“It was cold and raining and blowing vigorously, and before us stretched the dark tree wall of the Snow Eifel where the dragon lived.” (Ernest Hemingway)

“The reason the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices it on a daily basis.” (Some German general)

“Now every second man in it was dead and the others nearly all were wounded. In the belly, the head, the feet or the hands, the neck, the back, the lucky buttocks, the unfortunate chest, and the other places. Tree burst wounds hit men where they would never be wounded in open country. And all of the wounded were wounded for life.” (Ernest Hemingway)

“It’s like what Bing Crosby said, ‘The further up front you get the snappier the salute.’ Well that shows he didn’t get very far up because we don’t even salute up here.” (Jack Jewell, Company B)

“We don’t have corporals in this outfit. So within a week you’ll be a sergeant or be dead.” (Jack Dunlap, Company B)

“Hear the One-Five-Fives a barking; Hear the angry shrapnel whine; The airplanes they will help us; To saturate the swine; We’ll have our Christmas dinner; In a big Berlin hotel; While Hitler and his buddies; All sweat it out in Hell.” (lyrics to song composed by soldiers of Company B, sung to the tune Wabash Cannonball)

“Stop worrying. Everything is going to be all right now. They’ve sent in the first team.” (LTC Wallace Wade, former head football coach Alabama Crimson Tide)

“Coffee with Hawk; it ain’t “Puttin’ On the Ritz.” But when you’re standing in the wet snow in your foxhole, your hands are freezing, your nose is running, and your eyes are tearing-up – because your heart is aching for home – that cup of hot coffee just might be worth a million bucks to you about now.” (Author)

“Charge!” (Lieutenant Louis Benoist, Company B)

“The first time you quit, it’s hard. The second time, it gets easier. The third time, you don’t even have to think about it.” (Paul “Bear” Bryant, head football coach Alabama Crimson Tide)

“Tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you also go. He will not be alone.” (Jiddu Krishnamurti)

“Listen you son of a bitch; you better not die on me!” (Jay Lavinsky, Company B)

“The rifleman fights without promise of either reward or relief. Behind every river there’s another hill – and behind that hill, another river. After weeks or months in the line only a wound can offer him the comfort of safety, shelter, and a bed. Those who are left to fight, fight on, evading death but knowing that with each day of evasion they have exhausted one more chance for survival. Sooner or later, unless victory comes this chase must end on the litter or in the grave.” (Omar Bradley)

“There is simply not enough marble and granite on God’s green earth upon which to truly record the sacrifice that American soldiers made for their comrades, their families, their fellow citizens, and for millions of people they never knew around the world.” (Author)

“A soldier can be a hero and a hero can be a legend and a legend can make a superman out of a soldier.” (Memorial for Colonel Harry “Paddy” Flint)

What isn’t shown here is the context in which the quotation is found. When you read Dying Hard, you’ll know why they’re all important. Dry? By the time you finish, you may even be wiping a tear from your eye — some from laughing and some not.

When Quotes Are More Important Than Numbers2025-03-30T13:03:32-05:00

39th Infantry Regiment Opposition

An old military adage states that an army’s achievements in war must be measured in terms of the ferocity of its enemy.  By that measure, the 39th Infantry Regiment faced tough units indeed:

10th Panzer Division — North Africa in Tunisia 1943.  In combat since 1939: Poland, France, Russia.  Part of the famed Africa Corps under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.  Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in the unit until severely wounded on April 7, 1943.  He later detonated the bomb that almost killed Hitler at Rastenburg on July 20, 1944.

15th Panzer Grenadier Division — Sicily in 1943.  Later fought in Italy and on the Western Front at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.  Commanded by Eberhard Rodt, winner of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves.

Panzer Lehr Division — Normandy 1944 and Germany 1945.  Quite simply, the most powerful unit in the German Army.  Equipped with Panther and Tiger tanks; only German Army panzer division that could transport all its infantry in armored halftracks; all the others need some trucks.  Most NCOs and Officers had extensive combat records and had taught tactics at various military schools; in many respects, the best of the best.  Commanded at Normandy by Major General Hyacinth Graf Strachwitz von Gross-Zauche und Camminetz, who had a distinguished combat résumé even longer than his name.  With the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, he fought almost continuously since 1939, and been wounded twelve times.  In Germany, the division was commanded by Colonel Paul Freiherr von Hauser, winner of the the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

3rd Fallschirmjaeger (Fallschirmjäger ) Division — Merode Castle 1944.  Luftwaffe paratroop unit.  Formed  1943 around a cadre consisting of the veteran 3rd Battalion, 1st Parachute Regiment that had ben in combat since 1939.   Division was well equipped with 930 deadly MG42 machine guns.  Each company had 20 MG 42s and 43 MP40 submachine guns, while each squad had 2 MG42s and 5 MP 40s.

91st Air Landing (Luftlande) Division — Army infantry division; air landing in name only.  Normandy 1944.  Commanded by Eugen König, winner of the the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

77th Infantry Division — Normandy 1944.  Rated a first tier division, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel attempted to extricate the division from Normandy but was unsuccessful.  Commanded by Rudolf Gustav Moritz , winner of the the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

275th Infantry Division — Hürtgen Forest 1944.  Formed 1943.  Commanded by Major General Hans Schmidt, winner of the the Knights Cross.  Schmidt has no problems court-martialing officers who lack enthusiasm in the attack.

353rd Infantry Division — Hürtgen Forest 1944.

3rd Panzer Grenadier Division — Elsenborn Ridge, Battle of the Bulge, 1944.  Formed 1934.  Fought at Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad.  Commanded by Major General Walter Denkert, winner of the Knights Cross.  Part of the Sixth SS Panzer Army under SS General Josef “Sepp” Dietrich.

39th Infantry Regiment Opposition2025-03-25T10:16:35-05:00

Review: Should be required reading in every history class

This review of Dying Hard was submitted on February 26, 2025 on Amazon.com.  The reviewer titled it: “Should be required reading in every history class.”                            

I just finished reading this amazing book.  I bought it presale several months ago before it came out and it was well worth the wait.  My father was in the 9th Infantry, 39th Regiment, the same as the author’s father, but like most men of this generation, he didn’t talk about his experiences much.  We had to learn about it from others. I was able to retrace his path with the 9th Division all the way from the landing at Normandy through France, Belgium and Germany through the help of this historic account.   
         
Although I was well aware that these men had it tough and many didn’t come home, I didn’t have a full appreciation of what these men went through on a day to day basis. Through the inclusion of actual battle reports and his personal conversations with the children and grandchildren of many of the men in B Company, the author brought their experiences to life.  My only hope is that the sacrifices that these men made, and what they endured, will never be forgotten now that most of them are gone.  I highly recommend reading this book and sharing it with everyone you know.  We owe it to the Greatest Generation that gave us our freedom that we enjoy today.  Thank you French MacLean for all the hard work and painstaking detail that went in to preserving this history and the memories of what these men did for us.
Review: Should be required reading in every history class2025-03-29T18:03:47-05:00

Fabulous Photographs

A review of Dying Hard recently on Amazon.com commented on the photographs and maps. The reader obviously analyzed these by categories. I wish I had done that too!

 

Fabulous Photographs
 

As an Infantry combat veteran of the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, I can attest that Dying Hard is the most realistic portrayal of infantry combat I have ever read. The facts and easy writing are obviously the keys to the book’s accuracy and smooth flow, and the photographs and maps are excellent as well. 10 large well-done maps help you follow the unit’s progress and each is located close to the text it illustrates so you don’t have to page back and forth.

Of the 95 photographs, 5 are in color; 14 are combat shots (bazooka, machineguns, mortars, patrolling, etc.) 23 are from the National Archives (NARA) and I have only seen one that was previously published- you are going to view a great deal for the first time. Others show general infantry life and includes one of Paddy Flint, George Patton awarding a Silver Star to the 39th Infantry Regiment commander, a couple showing graves, one (from the archives) showing a piece of a mattress cover used to bury a sergeant in Company B (we ran out of wooden caskets), and a wartime shot of the famous Town Pump bar where hundreds of soldiers from the 9th and 82nd divisions battled it out in a bar fight.

But the heart of the photos are 56 individual- and one group-shot with 9 more, of identified soldiers in Company B. Combined with detailed background of many of the soldiers, you are going to feel that you actually know many of them personally. That is the beauty of Dying Hard. It puts you there.

Fabulous Photographs2025-03-29T18:04:35-05:00

Dying Hard — Sleep

This is a typical description in the School of the Soldier section at the end of most chapters.

Sleep – For many an infantryman he is always tired. Really tired; in fact, after the war, a Hürtgen veteran stated: “I saw men die under artillery fire because they were so tired that they were only able to scratch the outline of a foxhole in the dirt.” Move here; move there. Carry this; carry that; now carry some more. Dig a foxhole all day; now go out on patrol tonight. Then go back in your foxhole and spend half of the rest of the night awake on security. And tomorrow? Do it all over again.

So, soldiers learn how to sleep in conditions that seem impossible to others. They are ingenious in staying dry enough to fall asleep, when water is dripping from overhanging trees, or oozing up from the wet ground below. Loud noises, causing civilians to wake up startled, are seemingly ignored by soldiers apparently slumbering in infant bliss. Once you get used to a few mortar rounds falling in your general vicinity, you can get used to almost anything. But don’t give in to the urge to sleep in captured bunkers; the straw inside is full of fleas and lice.

As to sleeping surfaces, GIs appear can almost levitate to be comfortable – curling around large rocks, avoiding sharp jutting roots, and steering clear of ground that might appear dry now, but will be damp by morning. Louis Benoist wrote about sleep: “You know you have seen pictures of infantrymen sleeping wherever they hit the ground. It can be done – I do it. After so long a time you have to get used to it. Not so bad when you do. After your hips get tough the ground gets pretty soft.” Some soldiers even claim they can slip into a sleeplike trance while walking – trudging one foot ahead of the other in thousands of repetitions – all the while staying the proper distance behind the trooper in front of him.

After the war, former combat soldiers – now fathers and grandfathers – can seemingly take a short catnap anywhere: the sofa; the ballgame; outside in the backyard, at the beach; listening to the wife, all while the kids and grandkids are running around screaming, crashing into furniture, playing tag, lighting fireworks, and causing general auditory mayhem.

Dying Hard — Sleep2025-03-25T10:00:27-05:00

Not Just Another War Book

Dying Hard is not just another war book.  It is also about how Americans lived back in the World War II years.  For example, you’ll read how soldiers back then scrounged and liberated alcohol, because, “No one is more creative than American service members at obtaining booze.  They drink to celebrate; they drink to reduce stress; they drink to relieve boredom; they drink to avoid facing the images of terror slinking through the dark recesses of their minds; and they drink just to get gassed.”

Even General George Patton got in the act, writing home to his wife about a special Old Fashioned cocktail, that he had helped create.  If he made it with his favorite bourbon, it went as follows: I.W. Harper’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; “melt up a teaspoon of orange marmalade in a glass; add whiskey and stir; then add ice and drink; it is swell.  You put a little water in first to melt the marmalade it [doesn’t] melt well in whiskey.”

You’ll read about the boxing fight for the heavy-weight championship of the world between American Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling.  And how that was so important in society.  70 million people listened to the fight on radio in the US, as did a further 100 million around the world.  Because there was no TV back then.  You had to visualize in your mind what was going on.

And you’ll see how America’s most well-known Big Band leader, Glenn Miller, ended up in the US Army instead of the US Navy.

Then there’s baseball and its impact on America in this era.  And Company B got into that act as well, when prior to the war, the future Company B first sergeant, Joe Gravino, signed a Major League contract to play for the St. Louis Cardinals — not a farm team, but on the big club under Billy Southworth in St. Louis!

Just another war book?  Not hardly.  But you will read about how Bob Hope got his start, and how his USO show wasn’t just entertainment — although that was really important.  But more significantly, Bob Hope passed on what he sees overseas to the loved ones of these soldiers – who viewed his visits as vicarious travels they cannot make: “I was there.  I saw your sons and your husbands, your brothers, and your sweethearts.  I saw how they worked, played, fought, and lived.  I saw some of them die.  I saw more courage, more good humor in the face of discomfort, more love in an era of hate and more devotion to duty than could exist under tyranny.”

Not Just Another War Book2025-03-29T18:06:21-05:00

A Distinguished Soldier’s View of Dying Hard

The following review comes from quite a remarkable US Army Infantry officer:

“I just finished Dying Hard.  Wow!  What a great read.  You have captured the visceral feel of what the charter members of the Greatest Generation were so silent about.  Your research is evident on every page and it makes the reading interesting, informative, and enjoyable.  I do my reading in the last hour and a half every night.  I found myself looking forward to that time during the day and in a few cases, like today, I cheated and read during the day.

I hope somehow that the children and descendants of the solders you write about know about the book.  What joy and pride it would / will bring to them when they read it.  I know the effort it must have taken to get the firsthand accounts and the diligence it took in your research to mine such great information and personal detail.

Your history of the company during the Battle of the Bulge gave the reader a great feel for the frustration and challenges leaders at the squad, platoon, and company level had to endure.  The constant rotation of soldiers in and out of the company must have been frustrating and disheartening to leaders at every level.  Reading Jack Dunlap’s detailed daily reports lays out exactly what junior leaders had to overcome to get the even simplest things done.

I recently read, Antony Beevor’s Ardennes 1944.  Dying Hard gives a much better view of what that battle was like for the common soldier, not just the fighting but the challenges of everyday life as a grunt.  Dying Hard introduced me to Paddy Flint.  What a hero and great leader who understood how to inspire his entire unit with his lead from the front and deeds not words leadership.

I very much enjoyed the School of the Solder.  It brought back many memories.  This 30 veteran learned some things I did not know about the gear that I carried for three decades.  It’s funny, my Dad gave the same advice about not playing cards with Sergeants.  I caught myself several times wiping a tear from my eye as I read about the great soldiers lives during and after the war.  They truly were the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation.

I am glad that you have written a book about one of the many units that were not elite or famous.  These were the yeoman units that really won the war but unfortunately got very little press, praise, or recognition.  I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed Dying Hard.  You have helped me decide on what to buy my son for Christmas.  The research is exceptional, and the writing is wonderful.  It stands among the very best WWII reads I have had.”

A Distinguished Soldier’s View of Dying Hard2025-01-08T16:08:13-06:00
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