Battle of the Bulge stories to become e-book
By Caurie Putnam, Democrat & Chronicle
This week marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, widely considered to be the largest and toughest battle won by American troops during World War II.
U.S. Department of Defense statistics list 19,000 Americans killed, 47,500 wounded and 23,000 missing in the battle that took place from Dec. 16, 1944, through Jan. 25, 1945 in The Ardennes, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.
My grandfather, Donald “Poppy” Miner was one of the men who survived the Battle of the Bulge and helped lead the allied troops to victory. He never talked about his experience during the battle, or anything to do with World War II, for that matter. When Poppy died in 1993, he took his stories with him — which is not uncommon.
According to the National WWII Museum, only about 1 million of the 16 million veterans of World War II are still alive, and 555 die per day. Most, like Poppy, never share their experiences during the war, which makes it critically important to listen to and support those World War II veterans who do.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to interview several Rochester-area World War II veterans for a series of articles about an extraordinary book they made called The Battle in Common. The book, first published in 2012, bears firsthand accounts of 19 local men who fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
The Battle in Common did not start out as a book, but as a three-ring binder of first-person stories collected by members of the now-disbanded Genesee Valley Chapter of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge. Some of the stories were handwritten and rife with grammatical errors; others read like polished manuscripts.
“I remember feeling in awe at the time,” recalled Michael Riordan, director of the Open Publishing Lab at RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences in Henrietta, who was the recipient of the binder and felt moved to help the veterans preserve and publish their stories. Riordan and his students helped turn the binder into a book. The first printing was so well received, it is virtually sold out throughout the Rochester area. A handful of copies remain at the Veterans Outreach Center’s Flag Store in Rochester, Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport and Yesterday’s Muse Bookstore in Webster.
Upon the 70th anniversary of the battle, the book’s lead organizers decided to create more copies, but this time they are going digital. An electronic version of the book will be released after the first of the year on Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com and Apple iBook.
“We want to keep the stories available to people forever,” said Riordan, explaining why the book committee (made up of several of the book’s authors and key supporters) chose to go digital for this edition.
Like the hard-copy version, all proceeds from the e-book sales will go to the national headquarters of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge.
“The fact that the release of the e-book coincides with the big anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge is very appropriate,” said David Brookins, a Vietnam War veteran from Webster who sits on the book’s committee. “The stories are all heartfelt and true, and it’s great to be able to capture them forever.”
Photo of book by Michael Riordan