When We Were One

Stories of World War II

(DaCapo Press, 2002)

"If you are interested in stories of World War II, you have a choice: you can read young writers like me who imagine what It was like, or you can read the words of great writers who were actually there and lived it. Let W.C. Heinz take you back to experience the sound and the fury, back to a heroic time When We Were One." —James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers

"W.C. Heinz was an enormously important figure to my generation of journalists — a pioneer in what later became known as the New Journalism. This collection of pieces gives us eloquent testimonial why." — David Halberstam

"When We Were One is journalistic literature at its best: suspenseful, harrowing, and touching. I read it with the keenest interest and pleasure." — John S.D. Eisenhower

Before W.C. Heinz embarked on his illustrious career as one of the premier sports writers of the past fifty years, he served as a war correspondent for the New York Sun. Now for the first time ever, Heinz's finest work on World War II, written both during and after the war, is collected in one volume.

Beginning in 1944, with his first-person account aboard the U.S.S. Nevada during D-Day, to his legendary dispatches from the towns and battlefields of the European front, Heinz vividly conveys the courage, humor, and humanity of men under fire. Whether describing how a captain broke down as he recounted his men's bravery in combat against the Germans for 39 straight days, or recalling a jeep ride on a moonlit night in Belgium with a major who was later killed, or witnessing the execution of three German spies, Heinz places you right in the thick of the action.

When We Were One is a superb collection of writing on World War II that ranks with the finest ever assembled on any war.