William Dow

Menu of War William Dow

Dow kept detailed notes, military maps, army directives and a 1942 printed Christmas Dinner Menu, that lists all members of Company G, 350th Regiment, 88th Infantry Division, where he served most of his basic training. This book provides insight into the performance of a premier unit comprised principally of civilians drafted into combat against powerful Nazi armies led by "Smiling Albert" Kesselring, one of Hitler's favorite generals. Dow uses highway drawings to detail the locations of more than thirty Division Headquarters' Command Posts from the empty school building just north of Naples to a vacant elementary school in the Italian Alps.