"The Liberator" - Felix Sparks and the 157th Regimental Combat Team

Alex Kershaw's new book on Felix Sparks and the
157th RCT is now available:

The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau: Alex Kershaw: 9780307887993: Amazon.com: Books

By the way, a review of the book was just published today in the WSJ:

"From July 10, 1943, to May 8, 1945, America's 157th Regimental Combat Team carved a long, bloody arc across Europe, burying 1,449 of its own in Sicily, southern Italy, Anzio, southern France, the Rhineland and Germany. One of the 157th's standouts is the subject of Alex Kershaw's exceptional "The Liberator": Felix Sparks, who rose from a Depression-era Army private to the regiment's lieutenant colonel.

"Born in 1917, Sparks hailed from Miami, Ariz., a parched boom town whose copper mines were stilled by the Depression. As a youth, he hunted quail and rabbits to help feed his family and sought refuge at the local library, where he read books about the Indian Wars and the Alamo; in the summer, he applied his love of military history by drilling in the Citizens Military Training Program."

Book Review: The Liberator - WSJ.com

Sparks is one of the many unsung heroes of the war.


Dave

 

I am a fan of Alex Kershaw's books. I just recently finished his latest "The Liberator", great book, really enjoyed reading it. Felix Sparks definitely one of America's unsung heroes. I am curious, are you "The ace researcher Dave Kerr" that the author lists in his Acknowledgments section of the book?