Review: Finding Grandad's War - World War II History

BOOK SPECIFICATIONS
Paperback
Author: Jeffrey Badger
Page count: 321
Language: English
Publisher: Ancestry Publishing

It is very fitting that Ancestry Publishing (Ancestry.com) was the publisher for Jeffrey Badgers Finding Granddad's War. As it's title states, this book details the research methods and the travels of a young man in search of the history of a grandfather he never knew.

Jeffrey Badger was only two months old when his grandfather, Leo Kavanaugh, passed away in 1970. Twenty seven years later Jeffrey Badger began to piece together the life of his grandfather and learn where he had been, who he knew and what some of his experiences had been.

As part of the 9th Army's 978th Engineer Maintenance Company, Leo Kavanaugh visited 9 countries, trailed almost 30,000 miles and was one man in a unit of 377. Finding Granddad's War is not about a frontline soldier, action packed with combat stories, but is a deeply personal rebuilding of a war experience, tales and memories from those who were there, and filling in the memories for a grandson who never knew his grandfather.

Badger reached out to many people, finding a little information here and there, but also found and met many of the men his grandfather served with. They told him their stories, personal, funny and painful, which helped him to know what really happened in his grandfathers life. Badger ended up tracking to 17 states and Europe to meet 32 veterans and get their story.

What really is of value in this book is Jeffrey Badger describes how he went about researching this chronicling history, what you should do to research your own family. This is a great guide that shows just how much information is out there to find, where you can look, and how to go about getting official records.

This book is a good read for anyone looking to research their own family history. I found it to be very entertaining and insightful, getting to hear the histories of so many people that were involved in one man's life. There are a lot of good resources contained and detailed that will assist in researching individuals histories. Finding Granddad's War shows how even a beginner with little background knowledge can end up traveling the globe and filling a book with what he learned.

Finding Granddad's War

To discover the grandfather he never knew, Jeff Badger began tracking down dozens of World War II veterans from the 978th Engineer Maintenance Company, his granddad’s unit. Through his new “war buddies,” some who told him stories they had never shared before, Jeff began to reconstruct both a life and a very personal vision of a war and the men who fought it.

Some stories were funny: tales of brothels, brawls, and bank robberies. Some were painful: the death of a best friend; building a bridge under enemy fire; the harassment a Jewish GI endured—not from the Germans, but from his fellow GIs. Jeff even retraced his grandfather’s travels in Europe to track down French, Dutch, and Germans who remembered men in the unit.

Ultimately, Finding Granddad's War becomes the story of Jeff Badger’s own journey, told through first-hand accounts, scores of original photographs, and the friends he makes as he traces the footsteps of the 978th back through Germany, Holland, and France—and trough time. In part II of the book, Jeff provides readers looking to fill in blanks in their own family stories a roadmap based on things he learned during his own 10-year voyage.