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  • Once upon a Time in War: The 99th Division in World War II by Robert E. Humphrey
  • Michele Curran Cornell
Once upon a Time in War: The 99th Division in World War II. By Robert E. Humphrey. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. xix, 366 pages. Paperback, $19.95.

Robert Humphrey’s World War II narrative is a history of the 99th Army Infantry Division, also known as the Checkerboard Division, a nickname that reflected the design of their uniform insignias. Across a preface and ten chapters, Humphrey utilizes oral history interviews he conducted with 350 veterans of the 99th, whose voices compose the backbone of the book. Tracing the opinions, experiences, and emotions of these men, Humphrey outlines their story from the attack on Pearl Harbor and their army induction, through the war, to their return home and discharge (for most); he also provides descriptive accounts of the 99ers during their training at Camp Maxey, Texas, their first weeks on the front lines, their involvement in the Battle of the Bulge, crossing the Rhine River, and the closing of the Ruhr Pocket.

Humphrey explores many issues that prevented the men of the 99th Division from unifying. In late 1943 at Camp Maxey, men pulled from the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) joined the original men of the 99th, many of whom had been training together since November 1942 at Camp Van Dorn in Mississippi. An educational and cultural divide caused a “chasm” between the Van Dorn 99ers and the ASTPers; in the 99th, the ASTPers occupied the bottom ranks and were under the command of the Van Dorn men. The ASTPers considered the Van Dorn 99ers to be their “social and cultural inferiors” because most presumed them to be less intelligent, and the Van Dorn 99ers thought of the ASTPers as college “whiz kids” from “privileged classes” who needed to be taught how to act like “real men” (28). Even though most never overcame these initial rivalries and prejudices, Humphrey explicates that the “shared pain” of training and the “later shared danger” of war “brought squad members together” (40).

During the Battle of the Bulge, the 99th suffered staggering casualties and fatalities—units “shattered” under the pressure and unit cohesion “almost disintegrated” (103). Many of the Camp Van Dorn men were killed or wounded and the ASTPers stepped into their positions as officers. Although replacements “trickled” into the 99th, the division did “not regain full strength” and “never again achieve[d] the same degree of cohesiveness” (104). In fact, ten thousand replacements joined the division overseas as the “99th had an 85 percent replacement rate” (118). Battle-hardened veterans who had been with the 99th at Camp Maxey were wary of replacements and waited for them to prove whether they could be depended upon. If replacements survived multiple patrols and a few weeks at the front, they “transitioned into veterans,” though many never had the “opportunity to form comradely bonds” with the older 99ers and, therefore, felt “estranged,” as if they were never accepted as equals (121, 119, 143). [End Page 442] Through his narrative, Humphrey explores the ways that issues of class, culture, education, seniority, and experience deeply impacted the solidarity of the 99th.

While many issues ate away at the group cohesion of the frontline 99ers, Humphrey’s work also shows that their common experience as combat soldiers and the suffering that they shared enabled them to understand one another and the challenges they faced better than their own division commanders, other rear echelon soldiers, civilians, and even their family members back home. Combat soldiers were in a class of their own, bonded by their experience, which made them an exceptional group as far as soldiering was concerned. Using these veterans’ voices allows Humphrey to paint what can be seen as the defining characteristics of combat soldiers: their ability to endure continuous misery, suffering, and fear and to live through such anguish or to die trying. Frontline soldiers struggled to survive through severe weather without proper clothing, hunger, exhaustion, and the horrors of war, including vast destruction, the fear of death or becoming...

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