A review by robear20
42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division: A Combat History of World War II by U.S Army 42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division

5.0

In March of 1945, my great-grandfather, PVT Ellis M. Pope, died while serving his country in WWII. In recognition of his heroic actions, he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross. Just this past year, 75 years after the death of Ellis, a man from northern France reached out to my mom on Facebook claiming to have my great-grandfather's combat helmet, and he was hoping to reunite it with our family. Several months later, it was in our possession.

I recently found this exhaustive account of the 42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division, the division in which Ellis served. This book gave me an opportunity to follow my great-grandfather's ventures with the 42nd from training at Fort Gruber (Oklahoma) to landing in France to his eventual death in Germany. Having not known much about Ellis's life before now, I'm grateful for this book's existence.