Islands of the Damned

Author: R.V. Burgin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451232267
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
A remarkable eyewitness account of the most brutal combat of the Pacific War, from Peleliu to Okinawa, this is the true story of R.V. Burgin, the real-life World War II Marine Corps hero featured in HBO®'s The Pacific. “Read his story and marvel at the man...and those like him.”—Tom Hanks When a young Texan named R.V. Burgin joined the Marines 1942, he never imagined what was waiting for him a world away in the Pacific. There, amid steamy jungles, he encountered a ferocious and desperate enemy in the Japanese, engaging them in some of the most grueling and deadly fights of the war. In this remarkable memoir, Burgin reveals his life as a special breed of Marine. Schooled by veterans who had endured the cauldron of Guadalcanal, Burgin’s company soon confronted snipers, repulsed jungle ambushes, encountered abandoned corpses of hara-kiri victims, and warded off howling banzai attacks as they island-hopped from one bloody battle to the next. In his two years at war, Burgin rose from a green private to a seasoned sergeant, fighting from New Britain through Peleliu and on to Okinawa, where he earned a Bronze Star for valor. With unforgettable drama and an understated elegance, Burgin’s gripping narrative stands alongside those of classic Pacific chroniclers like Robert Leckie and Eugene Sledge—indeed, Burgin was even Sledge’s platoon sergeant. Here is a deeply moving account of World War II, bringing to life the hell that was the Pacific War.

Islands of the Damned

Author: R.V. Burgin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101196688
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193

You'll Be Sor-ree!

Author: Sid Phillips
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0425246299
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Sid Phillips, a World War II Marine Corps hero featured in HBO®'s The Pacific, offers up an invaluable firsthand account of the war against Japan. A mortarman with H-2-1 of the legendary 1st Marine Division, Sid was only seventeen years old when he entered combat with the Japanese. Some two years later, when he returned home, the island fighting on Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester had turned Sid into an "Old Timer" by Marine standards, and more: he left as a boy, but came home a man. These are his memoirs, the humble and candid tales that Sid collected during a Pacific odyssey spanning half the globe, from the grueling boot camp at Parris Island, to the coconut groves of Guadalcanal, to the romantic respite of Australia. Sid recalls his encounters with icons like Chesty Puller, General Vandergrift, Eleanor Roosevelt, and his boyhood friend, Eugene Sledge. He remembers the rain of steel from Japanese bombers and battleships, the brutality of the tropical elements, and the haunting notion of being expendable. This is the story of how Sid stood shoulder to shoulder with his Marine brothers to discover the inner strength and deep faith necessary to survive the dark, early days, of World War II in the Pacific.

The Book of the Damned

Author: Charles Fort
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1613106424
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 442

Book Description
"Time travel, UFOs, mysterious planets, stigmata, rock-throwing poltergeists, huge footprints, bizarre rains of fish and frogs-nearly a century after Charles Fort's Book of the Damned was originally published, the strange phenomenon presented in this book remains largely unexplained by modern science. Through painstaking research and a witty, sarcastic style, Fort captures the imagination while exposing the flaws of popular scientific explanations. Virtually all of his material was compiled and documented from reports published in reputable journals, newspapers and periodicals because he was an avid collector. Charles Fort was somewhat of a recluse who spent most of his spare time researching these strange events and collected these reports from publications sent to him from around the globe. This was the first of a series of books he created on unusual and unexplained events and to this day it remains the most popular. If you agree that truth is often stranger than fiction, then this book is for you"--Taken from Good Reads website.

Battalion of the Damned

Author: James F. Christ
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Book Description
Based primarily on interviews with the marines who were there, this volume reconstructs the six weeks spent in the Pacific theater of World War II by the First Marine Parachute Division. One of the prime impetuses for the volume is to highlight the neglected, yet extremely costly, contributions made by the division to the assault on Guadalcanal in

Hell in the Pacific

Author: Jim McEnery
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451659148
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
In what may be the last memoir to be published by a living veteran of the pivotal invasion of Guadalcanal, which occurred almost seventy years ago, Marine Jim McEnery has teamed up with author Bill Sloan to create an unforgettable chronicle of heroism and horror McErery’s Rifle Company—the legendary K/3/5 of the First Marine Division, made famous by the HBO miniseries The Pacific—fought in some of the most ferocious battles of the war. In searing detail, the author takes us back to Guadalcanal, where American forces first turned the tide against the Japanese; Cape Gloucester, where 1,300 Marines were killed or wounded; and bloody Peleliu, where McEnery assumed command of the company and helped hasten the final defeat of the Japanese garrison after weeks of torturous cave-to-cave fighting. McEnery’s story is a no-holds-barred, grunt’s-eye view of the sacrifices, suffering, and raw courage of the men in the foxholes, locked in mortal combat with an implacable enemy sworn to fight to the death. From bayonet charges and hand-to-hand combat to midnight banzai attacks and the loss of close buddies, the rifle squad leader spares no details, chronicling his odyssey from boot camp through twenty-eight months of hellish combat until his eventual return home. He has given us an unforgettable portrait of men at war.

Battleground Pacific

Author: Sterling Mace
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250009774
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Book Description
A powerfully wrought military memoir by a member of World War II’s fabled 1st Marine division. “Engrossing account of the vicious combat encountered by US Marines in the Pacific theater of World War II. . . . Will appeal to fans of The Pacific or Band of Brothers.” —Kirkus Reviews Sterling Mace’s unit was the legendary “K-3-5” (for Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division), and his story takes readers through some of the most intense action of the Pacific War, from the seldom-seen perspective of a rifleman at the point of attack. Battleground Pacific is filled with indelible moments that begin with his childhood growing up in Queens, New York, and his run-in with the law that eventually led to his enlistment. But this is ultimately a combat tale—as violent and harrowing as any that has come before. From fighting through the fiery hell that was Peleliu to the deadly battleground of Okinawa, Mace traces his path from the fear of combat to understanding that killing another human comes just as easily as staying alive. Battleground Pacific is one of the most important and entertaining memoirs about the Pacific theater in World War II. “Another great tribute to “The Greatest Generation.” Mace’s tale is written in the language of a grunt speaking for all the unsung heroes who lived and died in the Pacific. A good read from this Marine’s perspective.” —Jerry Cutter, former Marine, nephew of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC, and author of the authorized biography of Basilone, I’m Staying with My Boys

Voices of the Pacific

Author: Adam Makos
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0425257835
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Spearhead and A Higher Call comes an unflinching, brutal, and relentless firsthand chronicle of United States Marine Corps' actions in the Pacific during World War 2. Following fifteen Marines from the Pearl Harbor attack, through battles with the Japanese, to their return home after V-J Day, Adam Makos and Marcus Brotherton have compiled an oral history of the Pacific War in the words of the men who fought on the front lines. With unflinching honesty, these Marines reveal harrowing accounts of combat with an implacable enemy, the friendships and camaraderie they found--and lost--and the aftermath of the war's impact on their lives. With unprecedented access to the veterans, rare photographs, and unpublished memoirs, Voices of the Pacific presents true stories of heroism as told by such World War II veterans as Sid Phillips, R. V. Burgin, and Chuck Tatum--whose exploits were featured in the HBO(R) miniseries, The Pacific--and their Marine buddies from the legendary 1st Marine Division. Includes rare photos

Strong Men Armed

Author: Robert Leckie
Publisher: Da Capo Press, Incorporated
ISBN: 9780306807855
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 602

Book Description
This account sweeps from one island of death to the next in a fierce succession of battles. . . . [Leckie's] work has that magic ingredient so rare in the vast library of war literature--the essence of terrible reality.--John Toland, "The New York Times Book Review."

Twenty-Two on Peleliu

Author: George Peto
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612005284
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Book Description
A memoir of a tough childhood—and tough combat—by an “adventurous, lively, outspoken, opinionated” WWII Marine veteran (Columbus Dispatch). On September 15, 1944, the US First Marine Division landed on a small island in the Central Pacific called Peleliu as a prelude to the liberation of the Philippines. Among the first wave of Marines that hit the beach that day was twenty-two-year-old George Peto. Growing up on an Ohio farm, George always preferred being outdoors and exploring. This made school a challenge, but his hunting, fishing, and trapping skills helped put food on his family’s table. As a poor teenager living in a rough area, he got into regular brawls, and he found holding down a job hard because of his wanderlust. After working out west with the CCC, he decided that joining the Marines offered him the opportunity for adventure, plus three square meals a day—so he and his brother joined the Corps in 1941, just a few months before Pearl Harbor. Following boot camp and training, he was initially assigned to various guard units until he was shipped out to the Pacific and assigned to the 1st Marines. His first combat experience was the landing at Finschhaven, followed by Cape Gloucester. Then as a Forward Observer, he went ashore in one of the lead amtracs at Peleliu and saw fierce fighting for a week before the regiment was relieved due to massive casualties. Six months later, his division became the immediate reserve for the initial landing on Okinawa. They encountered no resistance when they came ashore, but would go on to fight on Okinawa for over six months. This is the wild and remarkable story of an “Old Breed” Marine—his youth in the Great Depression, his training and combat in the Pacific, and his life after the war, told in his own words.