ANOTHER RIVER, ANOTHER TOWN by John Irwin

John Irwin’s ANOTHER RIVER, ANOTHER TOWN provides a powerful autobiographical account of a teenage tanker during World War 2. It’s a gripping memoir about coming of age in war.

Irwin shows up at the front idealistic and wanting to be a hero fighting the Nazis. A series of mishaps and the brutal fighting during the Allies’ final push into Germany quickly cures him of both. In the end, there is only his desire to survive and not let his fellow tankers down. Through the process, a local misfit boy becomes a man. When the war comes to an abrupt finish after endless combat against SS diehards in one German town after another, there is far more a sense of relief than victory.

In ANOTHER RIVER, ANOTHER TOWN, Irwin provides an engaging memoir about what life was like in a Sherman tank fighting the final months of World War 2. Recommended for history buffs.