Million Miles to Go

Book Description
When young John Lebda waded ashore on that beach in North Africa during World War II, he had no idea he was walking into the biggest mess the world has ever seen. All he wanted was to find a way back home, but the road seemed to be a million miles long - across deserts, up mountains, over oceans and rivers, through many countries resembling hell. He knew he had the right stuff, but he had to have God on his side when the machine guns chattered, artillery crackled and bomb bursts were sent to put him down.

About the Author
I was born in the coal mining region in the hills of Pennsylvania. Before devoting myself to the defense of the world with the military, I was a hunter, trapper, woodsman, farmer, sportsman and coal miner where I was trained in the use of explosives. I was a pure outdoorsman. I never had the desire to author a book, but during and after the war, I had an insatiable urge to tell the world why so many young men died because of blunders. Inept leadership often put us in situations where we could never win, as in Kasserine Pass, Tunisia. Most generals and staff were good leaders but there were those glory hunters like Clark, Anderson, and Montgomery who had no regard for precious life. History would remember the generals but the sacrificed young lives would only appear on grave markers or perhaps a legend, 'HERE LIES IN HONORED GLORY, A SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD". I believe that anyone can write a book if he locates his story on familiar ground. During more than five hundred days of contact with the enemy, I saw and was part of every dirty incident that comes with war. Historians were too kind to these lords of war; nothing was written about the boys who are at the bottom of the seas, nothing about why the boys died in the mountains of Italy nor why there was an Ardennes massacre. Maybe the ghosts of the past will disappear when the truth appears in print. I am proud of service to my country and devotion to my wife and family who now live in Baden, Pennsylvania, the pioneer gateway to the west.

Excerpted from Million Miles to Go by John F. Lebda. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
When German General Rommel's Afrika Panzer Korps with the Italian Army overran my battalion's position in Kasserine Pass, Tunisia, pinned my platoon in our foxholes and tried to kill us; it took some kind of God given Herculean miracle for us to extricate ourselves. It was a taste of many hazards to come because that same road went through Berlin and Berlin seemed to be a million miles away. I was the only one in that platoon to make it to the end of the road and to Berlin.


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John Lebda never had the desire to author a book, but during and after the war, He had an insatiable urge to tell the world why so many young men died because of blunders.


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