"With Musket and Tomahawk Volume II: The Mohawk Valley Campaign in the Wilderness War Of 1777" by Michael Logusz

I have not read "With Musket and Tomahawk: The Saratoga Campaign and the Wilderness War of 1777" by Michael O. Logusz. I am proof you don't have to read volume I to enjoy volume II. I'll confess I have a good background in the history of the American Revolutionary War. I have a BA in history. I took every undergraduate course offered on the American Revolution at my university. I also studied it when taking United States military history. The author does a good job of telling the story. The book is a good balance on scholarly level research and documentation wrapped around a very good story. You feel like you are there at of Fort Stanwix and the Battle of Oriskany. You learn that in many ways the neighbor versus neighbor and family versus family first happen in this war, not the US Civil War. You learn there were Indians fighting on both sides as well. You experience the wilderness of this war right down to the lay of the land. You experience the military strategies and maneuvers as well as the frightening viciousness of battle. You learn of the key role western New York played in this war. This watershed campaign helped seal England’s demise and America’s eventual triumph. The book doesn’t read like an after action report with mind numbing details and numbers. It tells the story and held my attention. If you’re looking for reality based “leather-stocking” tales, this is it.

Battered Bastards of Bastogne by George Koskimaki

George Koskimaki wrote three books on the 101st Airborne Division. They are 1) D-Day with the Screaming Eagles, 2) Hell's Highway: Chronicle of the 101st Airborne Division in the Holland Campaign, September - November 1944, and 3) Battered Bastards of Bastogne. This is a review of book three, Battered Bastards of Bastogne. George Koskimaki offers unique insights, as he was 101st Airborne Division commanding general, General Maxwell Taylor’s radio operator.

Battered Bastards of Bastogne fleshes out in vivid detail the entire story of the Screaming Eagles' valiant struggle. It gives us information not covered in the other books by interweaving the stories of 530 soldiers interviewed who were on the ground or in the air over Bastogne. They lived, made this history and much of it is told in their own words.

The story of the Battle of the Bulge is amazing. We learn how little time had passed from the Holland Campaign before the 101st is pulled from being their reserve role. We see ill-equipped they were in terms of weapons. We find out their equipment and uniforms had not been replenished after Market Garden/Holland Campaign. We hear the often-told story of the lack of winter weather gear. We see how stupid some were in tossing their limited cold weather gear like over shoes when the weather was a little less cold at the beginning of the battle. We see circumstances with General Taylor being called back to the USA for a staff conference, the shifting of key senior NCO's due to enjoying their time off line too much, and how the division moved into combat via ground transportation for the first time.

I especially enjoyed the detail and interweaving of the soldiers stories. It is amazing to view moments on the battlefield through multiple points of view. Some readers may find the book hard or even tedious to get through because of the detail. I did not. I found it added to the story. As in the author's two previous works on the 101st I find the personal accounts gave vitality to the story. It kept it flowing instead of reading like a military after action report. Once again, Mr. Koskimaki did a superb job of telling the history the 101st Airborne Division. I appreciated the way the book is both descriptive and detailed. It gives you a feel that you are there with the men. The author did an outstanding job in this area. This is must reading for any student of World War II history.