The English GI: World War II Graphic Memoir of A Yorkshire Schoolboy’s Adventures in the United States and Europe. Edited by J. Sandler. Art by B. Bicknell. Design by BK Suru. Graphic Memoir. 2022. 123pp. $8.99
Britain enters the war; Bernard suddenly is an Englishman lost in New York.
It’s essential to support the kind of graphic narratives that really do some good in the world and here’s a wonderful example. This book is a comics adaptation of the editor’s grandfather’s wartime recollections: An Informal Family Autobiographical Memoir by Bernard Sandler (1995). Think of it as a prized family heirloom: Our ancestor wrote a memoir of what he did during World War II! In this case, all the touching elements you’d like to see in such a memoir are here elevated by the compelling content and the beauty of the graphic memoir that resulted.
Last Stop, USA.
Soldiers become Infantrymen.
What’s remarkable to me is all the heart-felt will and determination that I see on each page to bring this story out into the world. What’s fascinating to me are all the specific details going into telling a story we will never tire of: a classic coming-of-age story.
Kate Smith belts out, “God Bless America.”
Then you add the drama and the monumental: a young man off to war, World War II no less. It’s all in the details and, as an amateur historian myself, I marvel as much over the big as the small details, the sort of things that can get lost. I mean, I never knew that Kate Smith was out on the docks of New York harbor belting out “God Bless America” as young men were boarding ships off to fight in Europe. This is depicted on page 53 of this graphic memoir. Was it just a recording of Kate Smith on perpetual loop? No, it looks like the real Kate Smith was singing which is equivalent to, say, having Taylor Swift out in person today to rally the troops. I don’t mean to linger too long on this one particular moment just to demonstrate that this book successfully evokes the era with such “you are there” kind of material, stuff you can only get right from the source. That’s exactly what this gem of a book is about: one average man’s account of being thrown into the heart of world events. It’s a great read and, most importantly, a valuable addition to all we know about the World War II era.
Challenging times can bring out the best in people. This is such a story. It’s one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction kind of stories as you have an innocent young lad, an English boy visiting New York City, in 1939, just prior to the outbreak of the war, who ends up joining the ranks of U.S. soldiers once the United States enters the conflict in 1944. So, yes, quite a remarkable story as you see young Bernard go from total greenhorn to serving on the frontlines alongside General Patton’s Third Army during one of the most brutal campaigns of the war. There’s even a love story in all this since Bernard meets the woman of his dreams while in New York and vows to marry her. Seek this book out!
