A 712th Tank Battalion veteran of Patton's Third Army returned home after the Second World War, but for over fifty years rarely speaks of his wartime experiences. His son grows to manhood with only a perception of combat gleaned from the movies of his youth and knowing little of his father's wartime ordeals. During a difficult time in his son's life, the father breaks his silence as they travel across Europe along the battle route of the 712th Tank Battalion from the hedgerows of Normandy, across France to Metz, and through Luxembourg and Germany. This is not only a story of the father's wartime experiences, but also of the father and son's journey, the bond that developed between them as well as the son's change in perception of combat. A Soldier's Story: Gunner Gruntz of the 712th Tank Battalion tells the gripping yet emotional account of his father's firsthand experiences while standing on the sites where he battled, was wounded, saw friends killed in Normandy and during the Battle of the Bulge, and where he earned the Bronze Star in bloody combat.
An exhaustive and essential account of the horrors of war where Gruntz took on the might of the Third Reich and Tiger panzers in his Sherman, A Soldier's Story: Gunner Gruntz of the 712th Tank Battalion is also lavishly illustrated with unpublished period photographs.