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Footsloggers: An Infantry Battalion at War, 1939-45
Shortlisted for the 2023 Military History Matters Book of the Year AwardThe only way to truly understand what it was like to fight in the Second World War is to listen to the experiences of those men who were there. And often, there was nowhere more dangerous than on the ground. In Footsloggers, Peter Hart reconstructs one infantry battalion's war in staggering detail. Based on his interviews with members of the 16th Durham Light Infantry, Hart bears witness not only to their comradeship, suffering, dreadful losses and individual tragedies, but also their courage and self-sacrifice as they fought their way across North Africa, Italy and Greece. This is a human look at the inhuman nature of war from the author of At Close Range and Burning Steel.
432 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2025
About the author
Peter Hart
39 books199 followersPeter Hart is a British military historian.
He has been an oral historian at Sound Archive of Imperial War Museum in London since 1981.
He has written mainly on British participation in the First World War. His books include; The Somme, Jutland 1916, Bloody April on the air war in 1917, Passchendaele, Aces Falling (on the air war in 1918), 1918 A Very British Victory and Gallipoli.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
He has been an oral historian at Sound Archive of Imperial War Museum in London since 1981.
He has written mainly on British participation in the First World War. His books include; The Somme, Jutland 1916, Bloody April on the air war in 1917, Passchendaele, Aces Falling (on the air war in 1918), 1918 A Very British Victory and Gallipoli.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 31, 2023
A very good look at the experiences of a particular unit during WW2. It was a unit from northern England, but I imagine that a lot of it would apply to any other unit within the allied armies. The average German soldier's experience would probably be similar, in many respects. Much of the book is anecdotes told to the author by men who were in the unit, so it is very authentic that way.
My dad served as a sapper in Italy for the Canadian army, so I took a particular interest in the chapters related to the Italian campaign, especially the period after D-Day, which is generally not well covered. His company was in many of the same areas, as the 1 Cdn Corps was attached to 8th Army up until Feb 1945, so many of the events in this book were quite familiar from my other reading.
But the account also includes combat in North Africa and Greece (a little-known episode, near the end of the war).
Now for a shameless plug: my book is called The Sappers' War: A History of 12th Field Company RCE. I based the book on some of his recollections, but mostly on the War Diaries and related orders and other material. Books about engineers aren't that common, so if you had a relative in an Engineering unit, it might be of interest.
P.S. I didn't write the review just for the sake of plugging my book. I genuinely liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to read authentic recollections of their experiences (a people's history, I think it is called).
My dad served as a sapper in Italy for the Canadian army, so I took a particular interest in the chapters related to the Italian campaign, especially the period after D-Day, which is generally not well covered. His company was in many of the same areas, as the 1 Cdn Corps was attached to 8th Army up until Feb 1945, so many of the events in this book were quite familiar from my other reading.
But the account also includes combat in North Africa and Greece (a little-known episode, near the end of the war).
Now for a shameless plug: my book is called The Sappers' War: A History of 12th Field Company RCE. I based the book on some of his recollections, but mostly on the War Diaries and related orders and other material. Books about engineers aren't that common, so if you had a relative in an Engineering unit, it might be of interest.
P.S. I didn't write the review just for the sake of plugging my book. I genuinely liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to read authentic recollections of their experiences (a people's history, I think it is called).
July 27, 2025
Instructive and emotional account of the 16th Durham Light Infantry training, fighting and recuperating during WWII. As much as observing a minute's silence on Remembrance Sunday, or buying a poppy from the British Legion, I think it's important to read a book like this, written from the reminiscences of the soldiers who were there. Despite the loss of life (I approached each chapter with dread, as the footnotes give the date and burial details for many of those - too many - whose deaths were witnessed by their colleagues), the book actually records far more of the better side of humanity, unusually given the circumstances. Both life-affirming and humbling.
July 25, 2024
Another fascinating account of an 'unremarkable' battalion.
Interestingly I found the recollections of the end game of WWII and the subsequent demobbing to be the most interesting part of the book.
Interestingly I found the recollections of the end game of WWII and the subsequent demobbing to be the most interesting part of the book.
January 22, 2025
unusual and Very Interesting memories of The Big One..
I didn’t know about the hard fought battles in Esstern North Africa and the number of Germans who surrendered there. Very interesting book and great citizen soldiers they were…
I didn’t know about the hard fought battles in Esstern North Africa and the number of Germans who surrendered there. Very interesting book and great citizen soldiers they were…
February 21, 2025
"Don't remember them as old or frail; remember them as they were! Determined men, sometimes frightened, but fighting as best they could for their country and a cause they believed in...I still believe that, amid all the other cross-currents of twentienth-century politics, the Second World War was a war against fascism."
Peter Hart's story of the 16th Durham Light Infantry (DLI) is told through interviews with the men of that regiment recorded by the Imperial War Museum. Hart's text in between statements from the men forms a superstructure of historical writing that holds it all together.
The book covers the training and then their introduction to action. They fight in North Africa, in Italy, and in Greece. Each battle sees casualties and deaths. In the aftermath the battalion is re-built and goes again. The more I read about the war in Italy the more I think that it has been forgotten. It was a bloody, brutal series of battles.
Hart's interviews also show that this constant feeding into the mixer did break men. Everyone seems to have a reservoir of courage that is eventually drained. You can be saved by time out of the line or even a wound but eventually it runs out for almost everyone. And the ridge after ridge battles of the Italian campaign, often in terrible weather, seem to have been particularly draining.
The book does a great job of making the ups and downs of the whole thing real. I don't think there's ever a good place to serve in a war. There's a great moment where a radio operator, Ronald Elliot (I think) is put inside a tank to help co-ordinate communication between infantry and tanks when he realises that being in a tank isn't quite as comfortable as he thought, for example. But the infantry seems to be amongst the hardest.
The stories make it clear how shattering artillery and mortar barrages could be on the nerves or how the waiting to go into action was often worse than being in action when you didn't have time to think.
I'd recommend this as a book for anyone interested in WW2 and what it was really like on the front line. It's easy I think from the cynical 21st century to find WW2 somewhat mythical or to equivicate about what the Allies did versus what their enemies did, but fundamentally this is the story of the good guys. At its most simplistic.
Peter Hart's story of the 16th Durham Light Infantry (DLI) is told through interviews with the men of that regiment recorded by the Imperial War Museum. Hart's text in between statements from the men forms a superstructure of historical writing that holds it all together.
The book covers the training and then their introduction to action. They fight in North Africa, in Italy, and in Greece. Each battle sees casualties and deaths. In the aftermath the battalion is re-built and goes again. The more I read about the war in Italy the more I think that it has been forgotten. It was a bloody, brutal series of battles.
Hart's interviews also show that this constant feeding into the mixer did break men. Everyone seems to have a reservoir of courage that is eventually drained. You can be saved by time out of the line or even a wound but eventually it runs out for almost everyone. And the ridge after ridge battles of the Italian campaign, often in terrible weather, seem to have been particularly draining.
The book does a great job of making the ups and downs of the whole thing real. I don't think there's ever a good place to serve in a war. There's a great moment where a radio operator, Ronald Elliot (I think) is put inside a tank to help co-ordinate communication between infantry and tanks when he realises that being in a tank isn't quite as comfortable as he thought, for example. But the infantry seems to be amongst the hardest.
The stories make it clear how shattering artillery and mortar barrages could be on the nerves or how the waiting to go into action was often worse than being in action when you didn't have time to think.
I'd recommend this as a book for anyone interested in WW2 and what it was really like on the front line. It's easy I think from the cynical 21st century to find WW2 somewhat mythical or to equivicate about what the Allies did versus what their enemies did, but fundamentally this is the story of the good guys. At its most simplistic.
Want to Read
September 11, 2023"...the story of a single British infantry battalion during World War II. From North Africa to Italy and Greece, the 16th learned their military skills the hard way facing determined German opposition every step of the way."
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews