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The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau Kindle Edition
“Exceptional . . . worthy addition to vibrant classics of small-unit history like Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers.”—Wall Street Journal
Written with Alex Kershaw's trademark narrative drive and vivid immediacy, The Liberator traces the remarkable battlefield journey of maverick U.S. Army officer Felix Sparks through the Allied liberation of Europe—from the first landing in Italy to the final death throes of the Third Reich.
Over five hundred bloody days, Sparks and his infantry unit battled from the beaches of Sicily through the mountains of Italy and France, ultimately enduring bitter and desperate winter combat against the die-hard SS on the Fatherland's borders. Having miraculously survived the long, bloody march across Europe, Sparks was selected to lead a final charge to Bavaria, where he and his men experienced some of the most intense street fighting suffered by Americans in World War II.
And when he finally arrived at the gates of Dachau, Sparks confronted scenes that robbed the mind of reason—and put his humanity to the ultimate test.

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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
“A revealing portrait of a man who led by example and suffered a deep emotional wound with the loss of each soldier under his command….The Liberator is a worthwhile and fast-paced examination of a dedicated officer navigating — and somehow surviving — World War II.” – Washington Post
“Kershaw’s writing is seamless. He incorporates information from a vast array of sources, but it works – you get a sense of the different voices coming into the story….A gripping read.” – Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A history of the American war experience in miniature, from the hard-charging enthusiasm of the initial landings to the clear-eyed horror of the liberation of the concentration camps….An uncynical, patriotic look at our finest hour.” – The Daily Beast
“Kershaw has ensured that individuals and entire battles that might have been lost to history, or overshadowed by more ‘important’ people and events, have their own place in the vast, protean tale of World War II....Where Kershaw succeeds, and where The Liberator is at its most riveting and satisfying, is in its delineation of Felix Sparks as a good man that other men would follow into Hell — and in its unblinking, matter-of-fact description, in battle after battle, of just how gruesome, terrifying and dehumanizing that Hell could be.” – Time.com
“Kershaw’s accounts of the battles Sparks survived are clear and grisly and gripping.” – World War II
“[Kershaw] is a captivating narrator, hammering home the chaos and carnage of war, sparing no sensory detail to paint a cohesive picture. [His] portrayal of his subject (based on interviews with Sparks, who died in 2007, and other survivors) makes for a riveting, almost epic tale of a larger-than-life, underappreciated figure.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“This engrossing wartime narrative offers a fresh look at the European campaign and an intimate sense of the war’s toll on individual participants.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Inspiring….A gripping and superbly told account of men in war.” – Booklist
“Alex Kershaw's gripping account of one man's wartime experiences has both the intimacy of a diary and the epic reach of a military history. The Liberator reminds us of the complexity and moral ambiguity of the Second World War.” – Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire
“A searing, brilliantly told story of the heroism and horror of war, Alex Kershaw’s The Liberator is a book that’s impossible to put down. A must read for anyone who loved Band of Brothers.” – Lynne Olson, author of Citizens of London
“Alex Kershaw, long acclaimed for his terse, lightning-fast narratives of true wartime action and heroism, reaches his full maturity with this sweeping saga of a legendary infantry unit and the leader who spurred it to glory.” – Ron Powers, co-author of Flags of Our Fathers
“A literary tour de force. Kershaw brilliantly captures the pathos and untold perspective of WWII through the eyes of one of its most courageous, unsung officers – a great leader, who always put his men first. The Liberator is a compelling, cinematic story of the highest order." – Patrick K. O’Donnell, combat historian and author of Dog Company
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The West
Miami, Arizona, 1931
Felix Sparks woke early. It was getting light outside. He pulled on his jacket, grabbed his shotgun, and headed out into the dusty canyon, past miners' shacks and mountains of tailings from the nearby mine, and into the red-rocked canyons, eyes darting here and there as he checked his traplines. The Tonto forest and mountains surrounding his home were full of bounty and menace: snapping lizards, tarantulas the size of his fist, and several deadly types of scorpion. It was important to tread carefully, avoiding porcupines beneath the Ponderosa pines and always being alert for the raised hackles of the diamondback rattler and the quick slither of the sidewinder snake, with its cream and light brown blotches.
Each morning, he checked his traplines and hunted game, hoping to bag with just one shot a quail or a cottontailed rabbit or a Sonora dove. He couldn't afford to waste a single cartridge. As the sun started to warm the cold, still air in the base of canyons, he returned to the small frame house he shared with his younger brother, Earl, and three sisters, Ladelle, Frances, and Margaret. His mother, Martha, of English descent and raised in Mississippi, and his father, Felix, of Irish and German blood, counted themselves lucky to have running water. They had moved to Arizona a decade before to find work. But now there was none. Every animal their eldest son brought home was needed to feed the family.
The economic panic and failure that followed the October 1929 Wall Street crash had swept like a tsunami across America; more than nine thousand banks had failed, and unemployment had shot up tenfold, from around 1.5 million to 13 million, a quarter of the workforce. There was no stimulus spending, nothing done to stop the catastrophe enveloping the nation like one of the dust storms that buried entire towns in Oklahoma.
By 1931, the copper mines in Miami had closed down and a terrible silence had descended on the town that stood three thousand feet in the lee of Mount Webster. The rumble of machines far below, the distant growl made by their grinding and lifting, was gone. Over Christmas, at age fourteen, Sparks hiked far into the mountains with his father and Earl, laid traps and hunted for two full weeks, then skinned and dried pelts. They also fished for perch. But none of it was enough.
When he was just sixteen, Sparks's mother and father sent him to live with his uncle Laurence in Glendale, Arizona. There were too many mouths to feed. It hurt to see the anguish and guilt in his father's eyes as they said good-bye. In Glendale, he had to pay his way by doing chores, milking cows and working in his uncle's store on Saturdays.
When he returned to Miami a year later, in 1934, a government program had been set up, part of President Roosevelt's New Deal, to provide people with basic food requirements. Families in Miami were able to at least eat, even if there was no work. Once a week, he went down to the train depot in town and drew free groceries, staples such as flour, beans, and lard, salt pork, so many pounds per person, per family. Nothing was wasted. His mother was a resourceful woman, cooking salt pork gravy and biscuits for breakfast, feeding her five children as best she could, making them clothes on an old sewing machine, and cutting their hair.
When he wasn't hunting or studying, he became a regular visitor to the public library in Miami. His passion was military history: the Indian Wars, tales of the mighty Cherokee and Custer's Last Stand, and the heroics at the Alamo, where his great-grandfather, Stephen Franklin Sparks, had fought. He hoped someday to go to college and become a lawyer. But he was also drawn toward the military and applied to the Citizens' Military Training Program. To his delight, he was one of just fifty young men from around the state accepted into the program. Those who completed it became second lieutenants in the U.S. infantry. Training took place every summer in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, a hundred and fifty miles from Miami, at an old cavalry post. He hitchhiked to the camp, saving his travel allowance until he had enough to order a new pair of corduroy trousers from the J. C. Penney catalog.
The long marches and drills in more than one-hundred-degree heat tested the hardiest, and many youths did not return after the first summer, but Sparks enjoyed playing war with real weapons in the desert and nearby canyons. Aged eighteen, he was fully grown, around 140 pounds, slim, and tall, as wiry as a mesquite tree, with a toothy smile, thick black hair, and a broad and handsome face.
In his last semester at high school, he won a nationwide essay competition and received a $100 pocket watch. In June 1935, he graduated, the most gifted student in his senior year. He knew he had it in him to go far. Of one thing he was certain: He would never be a miner like his father. He would earn his living with his mind, not his hands. But he did not even have enough money to buy a suit for the graduation prom. Nor did he have a way to escape the poverty that had engulfed so much of America. There was not a spare dime for him to go to college, no loans to be had, and no jobs in Miami. He would have to leave home to find work of any kind.
Late that summer, his father borrowed $18 from a friend and gave it all to his oldest child. It was a grubstake for a new life somewhere else. His mother, Martha, sewed a secret pocket in his trousers for the borrowed money, which would have to last him until he found a job. He had no clear plan other than to head east and maybe get a berth on a ship out of Corpus Christi, on the Gulf Coast. At least he might get to see some of the world he had read about.
One morning, he put a change of clothes and a toothbrush in a pack, slipped a small metal club he'd bought for a dollar into a pocket, said a wrenching good-bye to his family, and then got a ride from a friend to Tucson, where he was dropped off near some rail tracks. Other men were hanging around, waiting to "catch out." One of them pointed out a train due to go east, south of the Gila Mountains, through the Chiricahua Desert, toward El Paso, Texas. The hobo warned Sparks to make sure he got off the train before it arrived in the rail yards in El Paso; otherwise he might be beaten or shot by railroad security men--"bulls"--armed with clubs and Winchester shotguns.
Sparks pulled himself up into a chest-high boxcar. There was the acrid odor of hot oil mixed with steam. He was suddenly aware of dark shapes in the recesses, movements in the shadows, other men. It was safer, he knew, to travel alone. He had bought the club just in case he had to defend himself. Instead of backing away, he moved to an empty corner and lay down.
"The Jungles," the Dust Bowl, 1936
The train jerked to life, shuddering as it began to move. The shaking slowly became an almost comforting, rhythmic click-clack of iron wheels on rails. Then came the adrenaline rush. For the first time, Sparks felt the exhilaration and intense sense of freedom that came with all the dangers of riding the "rods." It was like being on an iron horse, snaking back and forth through canyons, through the desert, headed east, toward the sea.
When the train built up speed, acting like a runaway colt, it was wise to stand up and brace oneself. When the boxcars slowed, it was possible to actually relax, to lie on one's back with a pack as a pillow and gaze out of the open doors, watching the desert pass leisurely by: the brittle mesquite trees, the greasewood bushes, and the cactus that dotted the horizon.
He wanted to stay awake, in case he was jumped by the other hobos, but the sweet syncopation of the wheels on the tracks and the train's rocking motion eventually sent him into a deep slumber.
"Kid! It's time to get off."
The train was approaching San Antonio, Texas, the city where he had been born on August 2, 1917. Its rail yards, patrolled by ruthless bulls, were up ahead.
"We got to get off here, buddy," the hobo added. "If they catch you, they put you on a chain gang or make you join the army."
When the train slowed, Sparks jumped down. He hiked into San Antonio, where he spent the night in a flophouse. In the morning, he walked to the other side of the city and hopped another train, bound for Corpus Christi. For several days, he watched what other bums did and copied them, learning how vital it was to carry a water jug and to hop freights with covered boxcars to protect him from sun, sandstorms, and rain. He adapted fast to the ways of the "jungles"--the rail-side camps--as did a quarter million other teenage boys during the height of the Depression, thousands of whom were killed in accidents or violent encounters with bulls or predatory older men.
Once in Corpus Christi, he searched without luck for a job. Hundreds of men with families waited in lines for just a few openings. The prospects were dire, so when he heard things were better out west he hopped another freight train and rode the high desert to Los Angeles, first glimpsing the Pacific from a rattling boxcar. But there again scores of men queued for every opportunity. Not knowing where else to go, he hung around for a few weeks, sleeping rough in parks, learning the feral habits of the urban homeless, getting by on just 25 cents a day: hotcakes for a dime in the morning, a candy bar for lunch, and a hamburger for dinner.
He decided to try his luck farther north, caught out again, and was soon watching the Sierra Nevada Mountains slip slowly by to the east. In San Francisco, he went to yet another hiring hall, this time on a dockside. There were jobs, but he would have to pay $15 to join a union to get one. He was down to his last couple of dollars. Again he slept rough. Then he ran out of cash.
One morning, as he was walking along Market Street, hungry and penniless, he passed a man in uniform.
"Hey, buddy," said the man. "Do you want to join the army?"
Sparks walked on.
What the hell else have I got to do?
He turned around.
"Yeah, I do."
"Are you kidding me, buddy?"
"No, I'm not kidding you--I want to join the army."
The recruiter gave him a token and pointed at a streetcar.
"Get on that streetcar. At two o'clock there will be a small boat coming in from Angel Island."
He was soon heading across the bay to Angel Island. From his boat, on a clear day, he would have been able to see the infamous Alcatraz prison, built on a craggy rock that rose from the riptides like an obsolete battleship, and where Depression-era killers like Al Capone and "Machine Gun" Kelly were kept under maximum security. At the army post on Angel Island, he was sworn in and given a choice of wherever he wanted to serve. So it was that one fall day in 1936 he found himself on a troopship, passing beneath the cables and iron girders of the half--constructed Golden Gate Bridge. He went below to his assigned bunk amid hundreds of others stacked three high in the fetid hold. He couldn't stand the crowding, so he grabbed his mattress and took it up on deck. The journey to Honolulu lasted a week. He slept every night under the stars and ate three square meals a day as he headed toward the land of lanais, perpetual sunshine, and coconut shell cocktails.
Camp Kamehameha, Hawaii, 1936
The barracks were airy and spacious, with fans lazily circling on the high wooden ceilings. The palms shading the base, located at the mouth of a channel leading to Pearl Harbor, were taller than those back in Arizona, the air humid and the breezes warm. Sparks's days began at 6 a.m. with the sharp call of a bugle, followed by training in how to operate huge sixteen-inch guns.
Army life suited him. He didn't mind the routine and discipline, the hurry-up-and-wait bureaucracy and boring details, the endless hours mowing the grass and practicing drills on the parade ground surrounded by sugarcane fields. He was warm and well fed. There were no bums waiting to jump him in a boxcar or a rail-side jungle. His barracks had a library, a pool table, and a piano. His weekends were free and his days ended at 4:30 p.m., leaving him plenty of time to explore Honolulu, eight miles away.
One day, he bought a camera from a soldier for $2 and photographed the base as well as other soldiers. Then he discovered that the only place he could develop his images of fellow artillerymen and nearby beaches was at an expensive camera shop in Honolulu. Some men saved money and time by developing their negatives in the barracks latrine, but the prints were crude and faded. He quickly saw an opportunity. In Honolulu, he bought a book about photography and then asked his company commander if he could get him an appointment with the Post Exchange Council, which operated a large store on the base. He told the council he was an experienced photographer and suggested they set up a shop where soldiers could drop off film to be developed. To his delight, the council agreed to loan him money and equipment to set up the print shop. A week later, he was in business, developing roll after roll by hand, bent over developing trays in a red-lit darkroom. Soon, he had to hire a fellow soldier to help him. Within a month, he was "rolling in money," he later recalled, earning more than the battery commander. He put it all in a postal savings account that paid 2 percent interest.
He also taught himself how to take high-quality portraits and began snapping officers, their families, and the various tourist attractions. He scanned newspapers for details about arrivals of Hollywood stars at the pink-hued Royal Hawaiian hotel in Honolulu, so he could capture them lounging under sunshades. The musical star Alice Faye, a twenty-two-year-old natural blonde, was one of several actresses who agreed to be photographed, despite the protests of a boyfriend. He promptly sold the pictures as pinups back at base. By the time his enlistment was up, he had saved $3,000, more than enough to finance a college education.
Product details
- ASIN : B0083DJTXK
- Publisher : Crown (October 30, 2012)
- Publication date : October 30, 2012
- Language : English
- File size : 34.0 MB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 554 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #102,313 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #46 in Biographies of World War II
- #110 in World War II History (Books)
- #144 in World War II History (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Alex Kershaw is a journalist, public speaker and New York Times best-selling author of ten books, including The Liberator - the basis for the Netflix series - The Longest Winter, The Bedford Boys, Avenue of Spies and The First Wave. His next book, Against All Odds, a saga of four Medal of Honor recipients, will be released in May 2022.
Please visit www.alexkershaw.com for more information.
You can also catch up with him and his work on Facebook - BattlesofWW2; Instagram - AlexKershawAuthor; and Twitter - Kershaw_Alex
He blogs at www.alexkershawauthor.com.
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST WAVE
“[A] fast paced tale… Kershaw is at his evocative best describing the chaos, courage, and carnage of combat, vividly portraying the bravery of the ‘greatest generation.’ Even readers well-read on the subject will enjoy this perspective.”—Publishers Weekly
“A masterful retelling of the most dramatic day of World War II—the Allied landings on the beaches of France. In Alex Kershaw’s expert hands, readers will feel the sting of the cold surf, smell the acrid cordite that hung in the air, and duck the zing of machine gun bullets whizzing overhead. The First Wave is an absolute triumph.”—James M. Scott, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and national bestselling author of Target Tokyo and Rampage
“Master storyteller Alex Kershaw brings the key Allied players of D-Day to life once more. He vividly portrays their exploits—Rangers at Pointe du Hoc, French Commandos at Ouistreham, American paratroopers on the Cotentin, and assault troops who hit the Normandy beaches. These pages ooze with the unforgettable human drama of history’s most consequential invasion. Read them and you might even feel as though you were there.”—John C. McManus, author of The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day—The Big Red One at Omaha Beach
“Meet the assaulters: Pathfinders plunging from the black, coxswains plowing the whitecaps, bareknuckle Rangers scaling sheer rock. Will they secure the landing zone? Wrest the beachhead? Or will that last bridge blow up in their faces? Even if we know how D-Day ends, The First Wave grips with all the power of a first read. Fast-paced and up-close, this is history’s greatest story reinvigorated as only Alex Kershaw can.”—Adam Makos, New York Times bestselling author of Spearhead and A Higher Call
“Alex Kershaw brilliantly brings a new perspective to one of the seminal events of WWII. The First Wave is an awe-inspiring and important book that portrays the blood on the risers, from Captain Frank Lillyman’s airborne pathfinders to Lieutenant George Kerchner’s Rangers and their remarkable assault on the cliffs of Pointe Du Hoc. The sights, sounds, and fury of D-Day are vividly captured in Kershaw’s virtuoso narrative.”—Patrick K. O’Donnell, author of The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Who Brought Him Home
“The First Wave is Alex Kershaw’s stirring tribute to the warriors who successfully carried out the largest and most difficult military operations in history 75 years ago. One of the US First Infantry Division NCO’s who survived that desperate day in Normandy later said, ‘You can’t buy valor and you can’t pull heroes off an assembly line.’ Kershaw’s superb account of D-Day and beyond is the story of their amazing courage under fire and how men ranging from a lord of the realm to the humble son of a president answered the call and began the liberation of occupied Europe from Nazi tyranny.”—Carlo D’Este, author of Decision in Normandy and Patton: A Genius for War
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find this World War II memoir engaging and well-written, with vivid descriptions that immerse readers in the action. Moreover, the book is well-researched and informative, providing a valuable record of sacrifices, and customers appreciate its fast-paced narrative. However, the storytelling receives mixed reactions, with some customers finding it disjointed. Additionally, the historical content also gets mixed reviews.
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Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as an astounding and excellent story that's worth the time spent reading it.
"...has lived and worked in America for twenty years, has written an astounding book about an outstanding Army officer and his equally outstanding men...." Read more
"Alex Kershaw's "The Liberator" is an excellent, well-written historical narrative in the tradition of Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers."..." Read more
"The true story of Felix Sparks as he rose in rank from Lt. to Lt...." Read more
"...calculations, mud, debris and gore of combat this story will both inspire and astonish. If some sleep loss results, at least you were forewarned." Read more
Customers appreciate the storyline of the book, which provides a valuable record of the sacrifices made during World War II. One customer notes how it brings life to the men who fought, while another describes it as a fascinating account of one soldier's war.
"...Along the way, we get fascinating sketches about the major players including Churchill, Hitler, Himmler, Montgomery, Stalin, Patton, Eisenhower, and..." Read more
"...But it also tells the story of a remarkable leader and the young men he fought with, many of whom never returned home from battlefields in Europe...." Read more
"...This is a gritty, hard fought campaign, very costly in American lives...." Read more
"This brilliant work of non-fiction whisks you through the hell of WWII in a way that personalizes and champions the protagonist, Felix Sparks...." Read more
Customers praise the writing quality of the book, describing it as well written and vivid, with one customer noting how the author effectively immerses readers in the action.
"Alex Kershaw's "The Liberator" is an excellent, well-written historical narrative in the tradition of Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers."..." Read more
"...Kershaw strikes again with a simultaneously panoramic and micro-detailed exposition that chronicles the astonishing career of one Felix Sparks...." Read more
"...I highly recommend it without reservation. The writing portrays the events of WWII, and Felix Sparks' role in it, with alacrity and grace." Read more
"Very detailed account of one man's war. He was very lucky" Read more
Customers find the book well-researched and educational, with one customer describing it as a real eye-opener.
"...Kershaw is an adept researcher, and he did his homework, spending time with Sparks before he passed away to capture his gripping story...." Read more
"...So, while the subject matter was appreciated, informative and educational, in my opinion the author detracts from the work through his hagiography..." Read more
"...Liberator" by Alex Kershaw to be a unique and excellent vehicle to learn about World War II...." Read more
"...It was a great book and series done well and important. But there are so many compelling stories that don’t get that exposure...." Read more
Customers find the book enchanting, praising the author as a great man and first-class officer, with one customer noting how the book introduces readers to many brave young men.
"...for twenty years, has written an astounding book about an outstanding Army officer and his equally outstanding men...." Read more
"...commitment to retelling these crucial stories about these incredible human beings who committed their lives, and in many case sacrificed their lives..." Read more
"...The author lets us admire the men and understand how their accomplishments fit into the picture of the larger war...." Read more
"...a capable enemy, against horrible losses, we get this story of these proud men and their leader Felix Sparks...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's pacing, describing it as fast-moving and a quick read that moves right along.
"...Also well described and moving was the account of the Thunderbirds liberation of the Dachau concentration camp where the soldiers were overcome by..." Read more
"A book that moves at a brisk pace. Filled with action and pathos. The main character is likable, active, compassionate, and brave...." Read more
"...Overall this was a relatively quick read, but a very engrossing one as we're placed into the story of Felix Sparks and his experience in WWII Europe...." Read more
"...It is lucid, moving, and detailed. The writer gives us a sense of the real agony our men had advancing toward Germany. It is well worth your time...." Read more
Customers have mixed reactions to the book's storytelling, with some finding it disjointed and lacking prose appeal, while one customer describes it as a gripping read.
"...There is no hint of embellishment. The book suffers from some repetitive narratives but that is the nature of war. Dig in, and stay alive...." Read more
"...A gripping story, and sometime brutally honest, depiction of men at war...." Read more
"...These newer books lack some of the immediacy of first hand accounts...." Read more
"The story is written in times without as much detail as one would hope for...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the historical content of the book, with some finding it interesting and well-researched, while others criticize it for lacking background and analysis, and one customer describes it as an unfeeling third-person account.
"...Good references from the German side as well as our side. The book fills in the blanks of history that is lacking in formal reports of the big war...." Read more
"...And there were other things like this that lacked background and analysis and threw me off of the story...." Read more
"The information in this book helps one to understand WWII ground battles in Europe...." Read more
"Good story and very interesting coverage of WW2 from a different angle; Sicily to Germany." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2015Alex Kershaw, a British born journalist, historian, and author who has lived and worked in America for twenty years, has written an astounding book about an outstanding Army officer and his equally outstanding men. The name of the book is The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey From the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau. The officer's name was Felix Sparks, and Kershaw tells his story, a story that covers over 500 days of fierce combat in World War II involving four amphibious landings starting in Sicily, through Italy, into France, and ending in the hell of Dachau in Germany. Sparks started out in Sicily as an infantry captain and ultimately became a colonel of the Thunderbird division of the 157th Regiment, an outfit that saw more combat than any other regiment or division in World War II. "The men he had commanded had achieved something of lasting greatness, something of permanence. They had defeated barbarism...The graves of his men stretched across Europe, over two thousand miles. They had died in Sicily, in France, at the dark heart of Nazi Germany. There had been several hundred killed under his command, half of them buried in Europe."
Kershaw is an adept researcher, and he did his homework, spending time with Sparks before he passed away to capture his gripping story. The descriptions of the firefights as Sparks and his men battled the Germans are harrowing. Kershaw has a knack for using his literary gifts to put you amid all the fierce and vicious action. You experience the pain and trauma of fighting the good fight. The famous battles of Anzio, Salerno, and Monte Cassino in Italy, the Vosges mountains in France, the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and France, and the Siegfried Line, Aschaffenburg, and Nuremberg in Germany are all chronicled expertly. There is a heartbreaking and extremely disturbing section on the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp.
Along the way, we get fascinating sketches about the major players including Churchill, Hitler, Himmler, Montgomery, Stalin, Patton, Eisenhower, and FDR. There are also not-so-famous players such as Allied generals Mark Clark ("the Germans' favorite enemy General"), Robert Frederick (awarded "eight Purple Hearts by war's end" but making a huge mistake at the town of Reipertswiller in southern France) and Henning Linden (an infuriating headline grabber at Dachau's gate), and German generals Kesselring ("arguably Germany's finest World War II field commander"), Jodl ("one of Hitler's most despicable generals"), and Lamberth (the butcher of Aschaffenburg).
The staggering amount of casualties and destruction of World War II are revealed at the end of the book. The casualties also extended to the emotional life of the Americans who fought it. Audie Murphy, the most decorated Allied infantryman of World War II, who fought alongside the Thunderbird Division from Sicily to Germany, said this at the end of the war: "There is V-E Day without but no peace within." A Thunderbird infantryman Guy Prestia echoed this emotion: "People were damaged. It was like we'd been in a car crash. There was trauma. It takes a while to get over that."
"It was indeed America's greatest achievement: Two highly advanced forces of immense inhumanity and destruction had been defeated in less than four years." And Felix Sparks and the men who fought with him had a huge hand in that achievement in Europe. "He [Sparks] had fought in eight campaigns and earned two Silver Stars, two Purple Hearts, and the Croix de Guerre, among many other honors." His "career in the U.S. Army [was] one of the most distinguished of any American in combat in World War II."
This book is highly recommended as a fine addition to any history of World War II collection.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2012Alex Kershaw's "The Liberator" is an excellent, well-written historical narrative in the tradition of Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers." Much as Ambrose focused on the leadership career of Dick Winter, Kershaw tells the story of Felix Sparks, an American citizen soldier who served as an officer in the 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th "Thunderbird" Division. Sparks fought from the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 through the liberation of Dachau in April 1945, quickly rising in the ranks from Lieutenant to Lt. Colonel. He led some of the first soldiers to reach Dachau--his men were so enraged by what they saw there that a few began executing SS soldiers, and Sparks had to use his discipline and leadership to stop those few from compounding one war crime with another.
German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, who may have been the Wermacht's most capable general officer in World War II, once said that the 45th Division was one of the two best units he had ever fought against. The Division's story deserves to be told and remembered, but its great accomplishments are often overshadowed by battles and theaters that have drawn more attention from historians. The 45th was engaged in some of the toughest fighting of the war, and the 157th Infantry Regiment was the tip of the spear. The Regiment fought in Sicily, Italy, in defense of the Anzio beachhead and in the little-remembered second invasion of France, when Allied forces landed on the French Riviera and began moving north and east into Germany, ultimately reaching the death camp of Dachau (near Munich).
"The Liberator" gets high marks for telling the story of these campaigns, which deserve to be much better remembered than they are. But it also tells the story of a remarkable leader and the young men he fought with, many of whom never returned home from battlefields in Europe. "The Liberator" pulls no punches: the casualties are gruesome, the losses are personal and traumatic, the experiences are horrifying. I can only marvel at how a young man like Felix Sparks took on such enormous responsibility and bore his burdens so courageously, both during the war and for the rest of his life as a lawyer, leader and activist. This book is both a history and an inspiration.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2012The true story of Felix Sparks as he rose in rank from Lt. to Lt. Colonel with the 157 Regiment of the 5th Army in Sicialy, Italy, the invasion of Southern France and on to the gates of Dachau via Munich. This is a gritty, hard fought campaign, very costly in American lives. This campaign was never well covered, like D-Day or Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands. Montgomery, in my opinion one of the best assets the Germans ever had, was there. Hogging resources, choosing the easy beaches and operations, leaving the hard work to the American's.
Sparks assignments were brutal and most of his men were lost in the battles but he persisted and took his objectives despite a lack of supplies and support.
After Italy, and invasion of Southern France in the Rivera and a march up through the Vosges Mountains toward the Moselle River near Belgium. The battle portions of the book ends with 5th Army stumbling upon the Dachau Concentration Camp. No one had warned them of what they might find there. They were revolted, and some retaliated upon the SS troops running camp, summarily executing SS guards on the spot.
The last fifth of the book is taken up with political infighting in Colorado after WW II. Sparks eventually becomes a General and battles the NRA and state politics.
The photos and maps in the Kindle edition are too small to be of use to me. Amazon tells me this is an issue controled by the publisher.
Top reviews from other countries
- David EReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars The Liberator
Just loved reading this book which Alex Kershaw has written so well. The life set out of one man Felix Sparks and especially his wartime service from Sicily then mainland Italy, France and Germany. Just an enthralling read.
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RaphaelReviewed in Germany on June 26, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Bewegendes und beeindruckendes Zeugnis über einen Amerikanischen Soldaten
Wir nachgeborenen nehmen vieles als gegeben hin, was andere zu hunderttausenden uns erst erkämpfen mussten. Es ist immer wieder unglaublich, welcher Blutzoll nötig war, um uns von dem Nationalsozialismus zu befreien. Diese Geschichte des Felix Sparks nimmt uns mit auf seinen (Lebens-)Weg und hinein in die Hölle auf Erden. Es lehrt uns, dass Eitelkeit eine der größten aber auch gleichzeitig gefährlichsten Triebfedern menschlichen Handelns ist, zeigt aber am Beispiel des Felix Sparks, dass Bescheidenheit, Ehrlichkeit und Wahrhaftigkeit möglich sind und hierin die wahre Menschlichkeit verborgen ist. Dieses Buch ist jedem zu empfehlen!
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洋書の友Reviewed in Japan on March 30, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars シシリーからダッハウまで戦い抜いた米軍中佐の感動的記録
著者は前著(The Longest Winter)ではバルジ作戦を取り上げていた。本作品はバルジ作戦と連動した南部の「北風作戦」で苦戦した米軍第7軍45師団157連隊F.スパークス中佐の戦闘記録を中心に構成されている。その構成、記録、適切な写真、豊富な地図、どれをとっても素晴らしい。アンチオとダッハウの記録は感動的ですらある。星2つ足したい!! 第157連隊は脚光を浴びたノルマンディー上陸部隊に比してあまり取り上げられてこなかったが、戦歴は500日以上に及び、なんとシシリー上陸から、アンチオ上陸作戦を経て、フランスを戦い抜け、「北風作戦」で苦闘し、ドイツ領内では町中を要塞化し、徹底抗戦を試みたアッシャフェンべルク攻略を経て、最後は悪名高いダッハウ収容所解放へと至る米軍最長の従軍戦闘部隊であった。本書は連隊の戦闘記録である以上に、貧しかった青年時代から、中佐で除隊後、コロラド州最高裁判事、州軍准将(最高司令官)にまでなった部下想いの軍人スパークスその人の記録でもあり、何度か眼も潤んだ。
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Jerome91Reviewed in France on October 6, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Très intéressant
L histoire méconnue de Felix Sparks et de la 45eme division d infanterie « Thunderbird ». Sujet qui a inspiré une mini serie de Netflix.
Je la recommande a tous ceux qui s interessent aux destins individuels de la seconde guerre mondiale
- Matthew E ColemanReviewed in Canada on September 2, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Man of action
Detailed, blow by blow story of the American forced as they moved through Sicily and Italy, then France and finally Germany. Clearly Alex did extensive research and I thoroughly enjoyed his writing. If you enjoy reading nonfiction military history, I highly recommend you read this.