MWSA Book Review

The Hunter and the Hunted – A Combat Soldier’s Story

Author:  Bennett J. Palmer Sr.

Publisher: 

Reviewer: Bill McDonald – President of the MWSA

One of the last of the great American heroes from World War II, Bennett J. Palmer Sr. has captured a historic time capsule with his book, “The Hunted and the Hunted – A Combat Soldier’s Story.”  This is a first person account that takes the reader through the war in North Africa, Italy, France and all over Europe.  He tells his story from the point of view of a infantryman not some behind the scenes general and it gives a more gritty down in the foxhole memory of the war.

He was “wounded at San Pietro and fought at Cassino, and watched the bombing of the Benedictine Abbey.”  He saw the action in five different campaigns.  When he talks about war he speaks from personal experience and the reader can feel emotionally through his words all the action.

He starts the book off with his visit back to the battlefields of Europe which gives the book a sense of retrospection that comes from decades of peace for an old soldier.  It is a fitting way to begin the journey of his story.  This book is World War II action that can only be captured in non-fiction by those would were there.

“What a great way to share with others that we were ordinary people thrust into an extraordinary moment in history” Bob Doyle

“Some fill their stories with things that make me wonder if they were really there. You leave no doubt. You were there.” Andrew A. Rooney