Elm Grove Publishing

This is the story of one infantryman of the 175th—Forest S. Birch—as told to the author, his son, John F. Birch—over a period of many years, culminating in a recorded interview, made on June 6, 1994 (50th anniversary of the D-Day beach landings). The transcript of the interview is included.

There were those who doubted whether National Guard Units could hold up like regular U.S. Army units in wartime. Routinely assigned missions where the odds were stacked heavily against them, the 175th Regiment–29th Infantry Division not only silenced the doubters, they went on to gain a reputation as one of the fiercest fighting units of World War II.

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Forest Birch’s story is personal and intimate—and brings to light experiences shared by many who served during World War II. Birch had more than his fair share of good fortune but never forgot the horrors he witnessed, nor the fear he felt, from the first wave of beach landings until the ultimate surrender of the Nazi war machine in April, 1945 which saw his unit just 40 miles outside Berlin.

“The last thing Birch remembered was looking into the barrel of the turret gun on the Tiger tank. This was the gun that made such a horrible shrieking noise when fired that he felt like he was going to come out of his skin. He absolutely hated to hear the screeching scream of the Tiger 88s when they went off and considered that the Tiger with its artillery might very well be the most dreadful weapon in the German arsenal. Now this horrific weapon was no more than 200 feet from him with its artillery pointed directly in his direction. He knew he was looking at certain death if the tanker decided to fire, and he could do nothing about that.”