Endorsements & Praise for The Cow Spoke French
“What a wonderful story concerning your D-Day experiences! I’ll never forget you standing in the door of your C-47 on June 6, 1944 over Normandy. Keep writing – you are good at it. And keep the copies of what you write on the war coming down to me. I can’t get enough of them.”
- Stephen E. Ambrose, historian and author
“The Cow Spoke French provides some tantalizing insights into the wartime experiences of one American paratrooper and in so doing, provides the reader with a greater understanding of the men who belonged to one of the most successful combat units of World War II. I highly recommend this book.”
- Chris Anderson, Editor, World War II Magazine
“Whether you’re a combat veteran yourself, as I am, or just someone who’d like to know more about genuine wartime experiences, The Cow Spoke French is for you. Veterans will recognize its truth, and rare taste of reality. You may not smell the cordite of an exploding 88mm shell from a German tank, or feel the hot air from machine gun tracers brushing your hair, but you’ll have a real sense of it. Bill True’s experiences in Fox Company, closest unit in the regiment to our Easy Company, were of course similar to many of mine. Close cousins to our Band of Brothers, this story of the Fox men had to be told. As a guy who was there, I can tell you this is the real thing. Man, I loved this book!
- Sgt. William “”Wild Bill” Guarnere, Co. E. 506 th PIR, 101 st Airborne
After interviewing over 930 WWII survivors of the 101st Airborne, I can attest that there is no more personable storyteller than Bill True. His easygoing and humorous approach to viewing even the most terrifying events is reflected in the title of the book itself. It also runs throughout his narrative and helps explain how he was able to mentally cope with his WWII experiences. His detailed account of the training at Camp Toccoa is the best I've seen, and there are other surprises in the battle-related stories. In all, a fascinating reading experience.
Mark Bando, historian and author of The 101 st Airborne at Normandy, Breakout at Normandy, The 101 st Airborne: From Holland to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, and others.
“The Cow Spoke French is a joint endeavor between a father and son. Bill True, the father, served as a paratrooper in Fox Company of the 2 nd Battalion of the famous 506 th Parachute Regiment of the 101 st Airborne Division. True relates his wartime experiences as a member of the First Platoon fitting them in with the experiences of close members of his squad. The son, Deryck True, provides an overview in third-person and fits the actions of his father and buddies into the big picture.”
George E. Koskimaki, veteran of and widely regarded as the “first historian” of the 101 st Airborne Division. Author of D-Day With The Screaming Eagles, Hell’s Highway, and The Battered Bastards of Bastogne.
Bill True’s book, The Cow Spoke French, is a vivid, personal account of colorful and sometimes humorous experiences as a 506 th paratrooper of World War II. It includes training in Toccoa, the night before the D-Day jump into Normandy, Bastogne, the end of the war. A longtime buddy of Easy Company’s David Kenyon Webster, author of Parachute Infantry and Band of Brothers fame, Bill True tells it like it was.
Barbara Webster Embree, widow of David Kenyon Webster and world renouwned fine artist.