A Machine Gunner's War

From Normandy to Victory With the 1st Infantry Division in World War II

By Ernest Albert "Andy" Andrews Jr. with David B. Hurt, and Reviewed by Westin E. Robeson

Article published on: June 1, 2025 in the Summer 2025 edition of Army History

Read Time: < 5 mins

Casemate Publishers, 2022 Pp. xii, 356. $34.95

The memoir A Machine Gunner’s War: From Normandy to Victory with the 1st Infantry Division in World War II is a mostly successful balance of a personal narrative and a chronicle of the European Theater of Operations from the perspective of an enlisted infantry soldier in the 1st Infantry Division. Overall, the book provides an engrossing grunt’s-eye view and a valuable lens through which the reader can understand the life of a machine gunner and his tactical role on the battlefield during World War II. Ernest Albert “Andy” Andrews served as a gunner in the 1st Infantry Division from January 1944 through October 1945. The book chronicles his day-to-day experience—examining the terrific, the absurd, and the mundane—and explores the “profound ethical tension” many soldiers experienced during the war (x).

The prologue opens with a phenomenal recounting of the marshaling and embarkation operations during the week leading up to D-Day. When boarding the USS Henrico, Andrews marveled that a boarding officer sounded off his name just as he stepped aboard the ship. He reflected, “With this truly amazing display of efficiency that belied its well-deserved reputation for screw-ups, the U.S. Army was demonstrating it knew the exact location of every one of its GIs” (9). The narrative is rich in absorbing details, such as Andrews’s riveting four-page account of the perils of descending the scramble nets into the jouncing Higgins boats on D-Day. The first chapter concludes with the 20-year-old machine gunner dug-in on the bluffs of Omaha Beach.

Chapters 2 through 5 cover Andrews’s life leading up to the war, enlistment, and training. In March 1942, Andrews received his draft notice and reported to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Though he had requested a photographic unit in his processing questionnaire, he told a clerk that he enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking, thus sealing his fate to serve in the infantry. He soon began training, which took him through Fort McClellan, Alabama, and Fort Meade, Maryland, before his ultimate embarkation camp—Camp Shanks, New York. Specifically, he trained on the M1917A1 .30-caliber water-cooled machine gun.

After landing in Greenock, Scotland, Andrews traveled 450 miles by rail to Bridport, England, where he joined the 1st Infantry Division’s 16th Infantry Regiment, serving as a machine gunner in the 2d Battalion’s heavy weapons company, H Company. Andrews’s training was interrupted momentarily when he was drafted to be the chaplain’s assistant, as his record indicated he played piano. Soon enough, however, he was back to lugging a tripod and serving as the primary gunner for his unit.

Chapters 6 through 9 recount the division’s breakout from Normandy and drive toward Belgium. The narrative is anchored to the author’s perspective of digging foxholes, hefting 22-pound ammunition boxes, and constantly scrutinizing the hills, gullies, and roads beyond his machine gun for enemy activity. Readers will appreciate the details of his experience. For example, he notes that many machine gunners were shot through the head, “reflecting the fact that the gunner’s head was most exposed to enemy fire” (218). Thus, he recalls monitoring his tracer fire by lowering his head to peer under the gun to adjust his fire. He also describes the company’s use of jeeps and trailers to haul the heavy equipment, explaining how they were loaded, when they were used, and if the jeeps were relative to any action or frontline positions. Exhaustion was frequently present; the author recalls, “[The] mind-numbing fatigue left me apathetic to what might be happening around me, even when we came under fire” (143). Even crossing a few hundred yards of open ground near Aachen, Germany, the author remembers that his “legs involuntarily slowed to a walk. . . . After expending all the energy we had, a passive resignation had set in” (160).

Chapters 10 through 15 trace the 16th Regiment’s operations in the Stolberg Corridor, the Siegfried Line, Operation Queen, and the Battle of the Bulge. One chapter is devoted to the seizing and holding of Hill 232, a prominent hill with a commanding view of routes toward Gressenich and Schevenhütte. Reading almost like a play-by-play, the chapter takes the reader into the foxholes with Andrews as he metes out (and endures) deadly fire. Artillery fire rained in as did numerous German counterattacks, endeavoring to dislodge the Americans from the commanding hill.

The narrative is rich in expositional gems on topics often overlooked in memoirs. Andrews candidly addresses the physical toll of war, from his aching muscles to the hassle of cleaning his glasses. He uses vivid language to harness sensations of fear, indifference, or exhilaration, intensifying the reader’s connection to his experiences. Throughout the narrative, the author reflects upon his Christian faith, on which he relied to navigate the personal loss, violence, and emotional trauma of the war.

Overall, the book is a successful account of the experience of war from behind a machine gun. Some readers, such as this reviewer, may opine that many scenes in the book teeter on the cliché, possibly drawing some influence from film or television rather than memory. Many readers may wince at some of the details, such as the author’s “choosing” to fight in the European Theater of Operations rather than the Pacific, or the memory of spring-loaded German mannequins popping up during training. These types of details may be forgiven as they do not detract from the book’s aim to deliver “greater understanding of that war in which [so many Americans] gave their lives” (vii). This reviewer certainly gained a better understanding of the life of a machine gunner in World War II.