Bootprints | 
 enlarge | Authors: Hobert Winebrenner, Michael Mccoy
Publisher: Camp Comamajo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 308259
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0975915509
Dewey Decimal Number: 940
EAN: 9780975915509
ASIN: 0975915509
Publication Date: February 2005
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Product Description
After over sixty years of holding it deep within, an aging World War II veteran shares his harrowing tale of life and death on Northern Europe's front lines. From Utah Beach, through the hedgerows of Normandy, the liberation of France, the Battle of the Bulge, the assault on Germany and the chase into Czechoslovakia, follow in Sergeant Hobert Winebrenner's "Bootprints." Wounded twice and captured once, with five Bronze Battle Stars and one Silver Star, he saw much in his "Walk Through World War II."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
True to life account of combat in WWII October 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book offers a rare glimpse into the lives of combat unit as told by one of their own. It is moving to read about those who died and to see their pictures in that very same context. This is undoubtedly one of the more unique approaches taken in writing a memoir about combat.
 Another all expenses paid tour of Europe September 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
At least that's what my father (Co. K, 359th Infantry, 90th ID) called it. He even went over on the Queen Mary.
I rated this book 4 stars for a good reason, so let me explain myself. If you sat down at Hobert Winebrenner's kitchen table (like Michael McCoy did) and listened to him tell his story, what you would hear is what you will read in this book. Is it great literature or great history (history in the sense of what we read in books, rather than the actual events)? No. Is it a great story, well-told? Absolutely. Is it important? You're damn right it is. Hobert Winebrenner is no Stephen Ambrose (Band of Brothers : E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, Citizen Soldiers) and he would never claim to be. His introduction to this book could have easily been one sentence: "This is what happened to me."
Although I am an avid reader of military history, I have never been a fan of memoirs. Too many are self-aggrandizing. Even Omar Bradley's A Soldier's Story (Modern Library War) has occasional touches of "If they'd listened to me, the war would have ended sooner." However, this latest (and perhaps last) generation of WWII memoirs has been written by (mostly) men who went on to be plumbers and postal workers, contractors and car salesmen. United States Senators and corporation presidents were more the exception that the rule (though there were a few of those). These are not the men who strategized great plans or organized great armies to save the world. These are the men who did the actual saving, who did the fighting and the killing and the dying. And there is a common theme that runs through these memoirs that can be summed up as: "look at the incredibly stupid, lunk-headed things I did in the war and look at the unbelieveably courageous things done by men that I knew."
Do NOT be put off by this book's sparse, straight forward narrative style. What Winebrenner says is more important than how he says it and both he and McCoy seem to know that. This is testimony. Winebrenner wants us to know these men he served with, their names and their deeds. He wants us to remember them, not merely because they saved the world, but because of what they endured and sacrificed to save it. And we must remember them, not merely for their own sakes, but for the sakes of our children who we may well call on for similar sacrifices. The game had better be worth the candle.
Read this book, remember these men. You won't be sorry.
A memoir worthy of the highest praise!!! June 2, 2007
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Without reservation, "Bootprints: An Infantryman's Walk Through World War II" is one of the best memoirs out there by a front-line soldier! Co-authored by Hobert Winebrenner [former Staff Sgt. in the 3rd Bat., 358th Inf., 90th Div.] and Michael McCoy [a much younger freelance writer and publisher], "Bootprints" takes the reader on a journey from the entrance of Winebrenner into the US Army as a 'citizen soldier' in 1942 to post-V-day occupation duty, and beyond (ca. 2005 when the book was published). In short, "Bootprints" is a gripping story of humanity and sacrifice during a time when civilization seemed doomed by the forces of tyranny and fascism.
The military history literature is crowded with memoirs of WWII veterans from all echelons of service, but very few are truly worthy of the highest praise. Still fewer memoirs present war from the perspective of the frontline soldier and are capable of emoting considerable shock, empathy, anger and awe from a 21st Century reader. "My Brother, Hail and Farewell!" by Edward J. Zebrowski (another former US Army footslogger) and "Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS" by Johann Voss (obviously a story told from 'the other side of the hill') represent two examples of books that fit this latter category of WWII memoirs. Add to these two books "Bootprints" and one has a trilogy of outstanding memoirs from the foxholes, fields and rumble of the Second World War. It is unfortunate but true that none of these books is a bestseller in the traditional sense. Each of these three books is fast-paced and full of emotion; each tells a unique story worth reading; and none glorifies war or is self-aggrandizing. So why aren't they bestsellers? Simply put each is published by a small publishing house and their importance as historical literature is spread not by big money marketing as much as by grass-roots word of mouth. So from this reviewer to each of you who reads this, pick up a copy of each of these books!
Clocking in at 283 pages (seventeen chapters and an Afterward), "Bootprints" exudes character and emotion that engages the visceral senses of the reader start to finish. In fact, the reader feels as if they are alongside Winebrenner as the 358th lands on the Normandy beaches as part of second wave of grunts of the First US Army; then participates in the breakout from the bocage and subsequent headlong rush across France to the German border as part of Patton's Third US Army; to breach of the West Wall and retrograde movement back to the Bulge; and the bounce of the Rhine and final drive to V-E Day and beyond. Needless to say "Bootprints" is highly readable prose and at no point should a reader feel 'tired' with the book. This is a 'sit down and read it cover-to-cover' book. Do yourself a favor, find a copy of "Bootprints" and enrich your life with a story from a man who paints a self-effacing picture and gives all of his buddies from the war full credit for successes. While everything written in "Bootprints" suggests Mr. Winebrenner would humbly and firmly disagree, this reviewer feels that, based in what is written in "Bootprints", Winebrenner could have been a prototype man on which the ideal of "The Greatest Generation" was based.
"Bootprints" is a 5 star book that should be read by adults who wish to gain perspective on life, freedom, happiness and humility!!
One of the best combat stories of WW2. May 11, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Hobert Winebrenner has a way of telling about his WW2 service. Although many suffered the same hardships as Winebrenner, only few are able to put it in words as he does. We should be grateful he wrote it down for all of us to read and remember.
Footsteps to follow May 5, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Bootprints by Hobert Winebrenner and Michael McCoy
Bootprints is Hobert Winebrenner's story (Michael McCoy wrote for him) of his experience in WWII. In telling his tale, Mr. Winebrenner opens before the war and tells about being drafted into the army. Interestingly, once he'd completed training he was asked to train the next batch with the promise that he'd go to officer training school. Fortunately (or not), Mr. Winebrenner was given the option to become a sergeant at Ft. Sill working with forward observers and training them on basic infantry weapons. After doing this for awhile, Mr. Winebrenner was assigned to the M Company (the heavy weapons company), 358th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division and sent to Europe.
After spending short period of time training in England, the 90th ID was to fight in the hedgerows of Normandy. It is in this time period that Mr. Winebrenner's tale picks the pace that he follows throughout the book, chapters about a series of battles, with sub-chapter that tell of particular parts of the battle (interestingly, more often than not Mr.Winebrenner tells the exploits of others). Chapters include the battles thru the hedgerows of Normandy, recovering from wounds, Operation Cobra and the race across France, breaking into Germany, the Battle of the Bulge, and the battle for Germany. To close things out, Mr. Winebrenner closed out by telling us about the men he served with and what happened to them after the war.
Reading this book I was torn many times between four and five stars. By the end of the book it had become a strong 4.5 star book. If there are weakness's in it, they're very few and far between. The strengths are many; Mr. Winebrenner paying tribute to his mates, many of the stories are exciting, and the details are exact. Because the strength's, I have to give this book the nod to 5 stars! Mr. Winebrenner, thank you for your service!
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