SOLVED. World War II anthology of short stories I read in the early/mid 1970s. [s]

[Tim]

I read this as a kid (early or mid 1970s), but don't know when it was actually published. It was an anthology of fiction set in World War II. What I THINK is the first and longest story in the book involved the commander of an American unit scaling a cliff, using judo or another martial art to take out a German sentry, then deciding he could attack the German position atop the cliff with his unit. He leads a portion of his unit up the cliff, where they capture some ground and dig in while waiting for the rest of the unit to come up a pass and join them.

Other details I remember are:

1. His second-in-command was slow in bringing reinforcements up the pass and was relieved of his command when he arrived.

2. The description of the men holding out atop the cliff while waiting for the reinforcements includes a mention that their aid station was hit by an artillery or mortar shell, killing the wounded there.

Sorry I don't remember more detail.

[stormhawk]

sounds like the sort of thing Alistair MacLean would have written ...

[Tim]

stormhawk wrote: "sounds like the sort of thing Alistair MacLean would have written ..."

I was and still am a huge MacLean fan, but this one wasn't one of his. You are right, though. What I remember from the story is very similar to parts of The Guns of Navarone.

[Kris]

Tim, is this collection of WW2 short stories for young adults/teens or older adults?

Fiction or non-fiction?


Check out these search results on Worldcat. They can be narrowed down by adding Fiction/Non-fiction and Juvenile/Non-juvenile to the search.
http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=su%3...

[Tim]

Kris wrote: "Tim, is this collection of WW2 short stories for young adults/teens or older adults?

Fiction or non-fiction?


Check out these search results on Worldcat. They can be narrowed down by adding Ficti..."

It was fiction. My memory is that it was not juvenile, though I didn't have any trouble reading it as an 11 or 12 year old and don't remember any age-inappropriate content.

I appreciate the link. I've tried Worldcat before, but it's always good to see someone else's search results which might use criteria I didn't think of.

[Andy]

I wonder if it's this one "Battle stations; true stories of men in war." by Margaret Scoggin (1953)

[Kris]

A cover image for "Battle stations; true stories of men in war." by Margaret C. Scoggin - Andy's suggestion:

https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Station...

[Tim]

I'm pretty certain it was fiction. I do appreciate the links, though.

[Tim]

SOLVED. It's "The Zone of Sudden Death," an anthology of WWII and Korean War short stories written by William Chamberlain. Most of the stories had been originally published in the "Saturday Evening Post" during the 1950s. The anthology was first published in 1964 as "More Combat Stories of World War II and Korea." The re-titled edition I got in the mail today was published in 1969. I have no idea which edition I read as a kid, but this is definitely it.

I found it by googling the titles of several different anthologies published during the correct time frame. I found an old review of this one that described one of the stories--while reading the review, I realized I had read that particular story and realized the anthology might just also contain the specific story I had already been looking for.

This has proved to be the case. The story I described in the first post, by the way, is titled "Battle Party." It was a delight to read it again.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions. They did help me narrow the search down.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...