Poor Bloody Infantry

Nobody in the Second World War paid a higher price for the failure of politicians and generals than the infantry, whatever their nationality. Most battalions had a 100 per cent turn over due to casualties, some as high as 200 per cent. The majority of histories of the Second World War focus on what are perceived to be the more glamorous aspects of the conflict: flying aces, new technologies, politics. However, Charles Whiting's classic book, now reprinted in paperback is in the author's own words not a history. Poor Bloody Infantry is the story of the brave men whose efforts were so central to Allied victory but which has been gravely neglected by many writers on the Second World War. Whiting's vivid account of their experiences puts the reader in the thick of their struggles: firing useless Boyes rifles at oncoming SS tanks; crouching low in foxholes beneath a yellow incandescence as the surrounding dessert rocks and roars. Detailed and personal in scope, Poor Bloody Infantry deals with all aspects of the uncomfortable day-to-day life of infantrymen in the Second World War ranging from experiences in combat to such matters as foul tinned rations and VD.