I finished this book a few weeks ago With the 41st Division in the Southwest Pacific, Francis B. Catanzaro, 2002, Indiana University Press, 188pp, photos, maps, index This book was an interesting read and focus heavily on the fighting in New Guinea and Biak. It moved quickly in the landings in the southern Philippines and by that point, the author was no longer grunt but the company armorer. I've not read a great many books that focused on ground combat in the southwest Pacific and this book is a welcomed history of the unappreciated ground fighting endured by the men there. The book was well written and flowed well. The author mentioned many men by name and used pseudonyms for those who needed their identities obscured. Catazanaro described the day to day trials the infantry faced in the later New Guinea campaign and heavy combat on Biak. 8/10 A good read, but a bit brief.
I also read another memoir of a rifleman, this time in the ETO. Not In Vain, A Rifleman Remembers World War II, Leon C. Standifer, 1992, Louisiana State University Press, 272pp, photos, Mauldin cartoons, This was a well written memoir and study of why the author fought. The author was later a college professor and his examination of his thoughts on war are well presented. Mr. Standifier is from Mississippi and was also the son of a college professor in a small town. The author spends several chapters devoted to his pre-war life and I found these chapters interesting, getting another view of the rural south from what I experienced. The author served with K/301IR/94ID. A large portion of his war was spent in the Brittany Peninsula, isolating Lorient. His description of the combat made it seem somewhat benign and he essentially described it as such. Eventually, K Co was shipped to the German frontier, where the unit was roughly handled in Nennig, Germany and Standifer was wounded. He time in combat ended as it took the rest of the war from him to recover. 9/10 a nice addition to the library.
The Damned Engineers, Janice Holt Giles, 1970, US Corps of Engineers, 391pp, Photos, appendices, index. I cannot speak highly enough of the book. The author is the wife of Sgt Henry Giles, who served with 291st and was the author of The GI Journal of Henry Giles. GIles was wounded during the Ardennes Offensive, and thus his book did not cover that campaign. His wife picks up where that book left off and goes into far deeper detail. The 291st Engineer Combat Battalion was in winter quarters, spending most of it time cutting lumbar for the upcoming Allied Spring offenses, when the Germans initiated Wacht am Rhein. The commander of the 291st, Col Davis Pergrin decided to defend Malmedy and the bridges across the various rivers in his area.. The author had access to records, and personal accounts from a large number of the men involved and she managed quite well to tell a story that is easy to follow. The 291st was scattered, divided by company, platoons, and squads in different locations. Giles describes their movement, referencing activities mentioned earlier to help the reader follow what is happening. She also tells many personal stories. shared by the men themselves, and had direct access to Pergrin, to provide his thoughts on the decisions he made. She goes into great depths in describing the terrain and it shows that she had traveled the area herself. The author mentions the efforts of I&R/394th/99thID years before it became well known and gave Lyle Bouck and his men credit for the fortuitous delay of Peiper. 15/10 (yes 15 out of 10) You must read this book if you want to study the BotB adequately.
"The damned engineers" was a supposed comment by Joachim Peiper, frustrated at how the engineers blowing up bridges, felling trees across roads, etc. held up his advance.
Reading "One Million Steps" by Bing West. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510bnZunPLL._SY177_.jpg I'm 2/3ds through the book, West as usual tells a compelling story in an easy to read, narrative style. It is the story of a squad in Kilo 3/5 (the same company that Eugene Sledge "With the Old Breed" had served with 66 years earlier, in fact their call sign was "Sledgehammer") in the Sangin, Afghanistan fight in 2010-11. Sangin was the deadliest battle for NATO forces in the Afghanistan War. One Marine General described 3/5's mission as the toughest in the battalions history, which says a lot. Belleau Woods, Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Okinawa, Pusan, Inchon, Seoul, Chosin Reservoir where the division fought 12 Chinese Communist divisions in 40 below temperatures, the Arizona and Hue City in Vietnam, the toughest fight says something. The casualties were so high the SecDef offered to pull the Marines out, they refused. Thus far I admire the testicular fortitude the Marines had to have had to do the mission day after day. I've lost all respect for General Stanley McCrystal (worthless POS), he was the one who implemented a policy with regards to rules of engagement that handcuffed the troops, and in my opinion led to many of the deaths and woundings. His gidance placed lawyers in charge of making some life and death decisions for troops in contact over the judgement of the men on the ground, in the fight. Why send troops trained to close with and destroy the enemy then tell them don't kill so many, convert them to our way of thinking. It ain't gonna happen. Not covered in the book but, President Obama, through Vice-President Biden decided to surge troops to Afghanistan in order to win. McCrystal replied he needed 40,000. They came back and asked how many would be needed if the parameter was changed from winning to just degrading the Taliban. How do you ask troops to go into harms way, risk life and limb, and then resort to half measures. Those mf'ers will, if God is just, find themselves in a particularly hot section of hell.. I'd be willing to go myself if I get to torment them for eternity, sorry sacks of sh#t. To McChrystal's shame, instead of standing up to Obama/Biden, he chose to disclose the conversation via a press leak. A real General would have stood up, revealed the issue and resigned. He ended up being asked to resign anyway, which he did. I also wanted to read a book on Sangin to understand my son's war, his unit was supporting 3/5 in the fight. Radio communications were spotty due to the terrain. They'd insert 6 man teams onto prominent terrain and establish radio relay points to insure reliable comms. If the Taliban gained the upper hand they'd have over run these small, critical outposts. One of my former corporals,, who deployed to Iraq with the US Army, extended as an augment to SF to act as an advisor to the Kurd's, came home and went back into the Marines, trained up as a reconnaissance Marine and deployed multiple additional times, had a son on a MEU (3/8 Marines) that was sent in to support the fight. 3/5 was fuggin up the Taliban but high casualties were degrading combat effectiveness. In order to prevent the Taliban from shifting forces to Sangin from neighboring Now Zad and Musa Qala, the Marine Corps deployed battalions (including the MEU) into those other areas to tie down the enemy and let 3/5 concentrate on destroying the Taliban in Sangin. I'll give further updates when done, but great thus far.
Just finished reading "Prisoner of the Samurai" by James Gee. This is from the Introduction. A excellent look at the psyche of American POWs During World War II, Lieutenant Rosalie Hamric was an R.N., serving as Charge Nurse in the Psychiatric Ward of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Hospital. At the end of the war, a group of liberated P.O.Ws from Southeast Asia (survivors of the sinking of the U.S.S. Houston) was sent to this ward for treatment. Many were encouraged to write down their experiences as part of their therapy and for the sake of all those who did not make it to Guantanamo. One, James Gee, PFC, USMC did a particularly detailed job. During the course of his treatment, he and other POWs shared many of these experiences with Rosalie, who wove them into this account. After her death, the manuscript was found in an attic and, although its conclusions were made at the time of the Viet Nam War, the sentiments are just as timely in our day of “wars and rumors of wars.” This is especially true in light of the fact that 2017 is the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Houston. Special appreciation must be given to Craig Smith, “he of the eagle eye,” whose contributions are immeasurable in making this book clear, concise and accurate; to Brad Gee, who filled in so many gaps and provided photos of his father, and to the survivors of the sinking of the Houston, whose story of courage and tenacity this is. —Allyson Smith
I'm slow marching through the PERN* dragon books (by internal chronology), by Anne and Todd McCaffrey. Nice world building. Genetically engineered to fight a plague from space.
Hollis Nobody Ever Asked Me. Omaha Indian Hollis enlisted in the 45th Infantry Division (Thunderbird), transferred to the 2nd Armored Div on a M-3 Stuart and after handing it over to the French, a M4A1 Sherman. In Sicily the Rangers needed a radio man so he went with them and after Anzio, he and other Rangers joined the First Special Service Force in time for Anvil/Dragoon.
Current read. Each chapter seems to be about another boat and its exploits in WW2. I'm looking forward to reading it. Sounds interesting.
Breathes There A Soldier - the biography of 81st Infantry "Wildcats" Division Robert Heatley. Heatley served with the 321st Infantry Regt.
Not as good as I hoped. Chapters are short and lack detail. More of a cursory look at various subs without much information on their patrols. Could have been much better.
Ian W. Toll's Twilight of the Gods. Pretty good book. Perfect for my level of knowledge of the Pacific Theater. Maybe too basic for some, but I would certainly recommend it to someone with casual interest in WW2.
Currently reading this. The author does a nice job switching between the Japanese point of view and the American point of view. The chronological approach allows the reader to see what was going on in both camps simultaneously. I've read several of the books that are in the bibliography and it's interesting to see how he weaves them into his narrative.