The Rifle: Combat Stories from America’s Last WWII Veterans, Told Through an M1 Garand
£12.20£14.20 (-14%)
The Rifle is an inspirational story and hero’s journey of a 28-year-old U.S. Marine, Andrew Biggio, who returned home from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, full of questions about the price of war. He found answers from those who survived the costliest war of all — WWII veterans.
It began when Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle, the most common rifle used in WWII, to honor his great uncle, a U.S. Army soldier who died on the hills of the Italian countryside. When Biggio showed the gun to his neighbor, WWII veteran Corporal Joseph Drago, it unlocked memories Drago had kept unspoken for 50 years. On the spur of the moment, Biggio asked Drago to sign the rifle. Thus began this Marine’s mission to find as many WWII veterans as he could, get their signatures on the rifle, and document their stories.
For two years, Biggio traveled across the country to interview America’s last-living WWII veterans. Each time he put the M1 Garand Rifle in their hands, their eyes lit up with memories triggered by holding the weapon that had been with them every step of the war. With each visit and every story told to Biggio, the veterans signed their names to the rifle. 96 signatures now cover that rifle, each a reminder of the price of war and the courage of our soldiers.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Regnery History (22 July 2021) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 278 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1684510791 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1684510795 |
| Dimensions | 15.24 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm |
by Sean Keane
This book describes similar scenes from band of brothers and the pacific, in such great historic detail.
Andy did a wonderful job documenting these stories first hand.
Once you start reading the book you will not be able to put it down !
Cant wait for volume 2
Semper FI
by jagjit
Few books have captured what veterans experienced during the Second World War in the same way that The Rifle has done.
The work carried out by Andrew Biggio is unlike anything done in decades and will act as a vital link to the last of The Greatest Generation before they leave us. As the grandson of a D-Day veteran I will be forever grateful that Andrew has dedicated himself to this task and to the veterans for telling their stories.
We will forever be in their debt and this book serves to remind us of this.
If you don’t have it in your collection, please get a copy now, you need it.
by Chris Ferguson
Possibly the most important book I’ve ever read. What the author is doing here is of the utmost importance. It’s vital these stories are told before it’s too late.
by Bob
Been an incredible journey to witness Andrew Biggio doing incredible things with his m1 garand rifle and with WW2 veterans! This book is absolutely fantastic and sheds a new light on what it must have been like for veterans! Once you pick the book up you’ll struggle to put it down. This incredible story has inspired me to follow my own journey with WW2 veterans here in the UK and I can’t wait to see where it takes me!
All in all the best thing you can do is order this book!
Thank you Andy