On a recent television show I saw an author who is an acquaintance of mine doing an interview. One of the questions he was asked was what books he recommended for reading regarding WWII. And lo and behold, one of those books was one that has graced my collection for many years, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, by Eugene B. Sledge. The Old Breed refers to the 1st Marine Division. Though officially activated in 1941, the division was filled with many old timers with service going back to the WWI era and the banana wars in Central America in the 20’s and 30’s, thus the nickname, “Old Breed”.

Thinking of this book put me in mind of another author and book, Robert Leckie and his WWII memoir A Helmet for My Pillow. These two works by Sledge and Leckie formed the basis of HBO’s series The Pacific, and they were two of the main characters portrayed in the series. Also portrayed was a famous marine, John Basilone, a Medal of Honor winner. Basilone was killed on Iwo Jima, after volunteering to go back to war when he could have stayed stateside doing war bond tours. But he wanted to be with his men, his buddies. A memoir by one of Basilone’s buddies, Chuck Tatum, called Red Blood, Black Sand, was also instrumental in telling this saga.

The Pacific was HBO’s follow up to an earlier series, Band of Brothers, which told the story of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Both these series were produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. I, for one, was so happy that finally the real tale of the Marine’s war in the Pacific was finally being told in an historically accurate way after seeing so many dud movies over the years which were gung ho and jingoistic.

Eugene Sledge so wanted to join the military and do his patriotic duty. But he had had an unhealthy childhood, later developing a heart murmur. And his father, being a surgeon and having served in WWI, didn’t want his son to go to war, knowing that not only was great bodily harm done to bodies but also great traumatic damage to the psyche. But Sledge finally did enlist in the Marine Corp to be with his buddy who had joined before him.

His book greatly details the horrors of war he saw at Peleliu and Okinawa, and then deals with his homecoming and trying to readjust to civilian life. He also penned another book, China Marine: An Infantryman’s Life After WWII, telling of his time doing occupation duty in China after the war.

The war did affect him greatly. Once an avid hunter, after the war he went dove hunting with his father, and after killing ten bird with ten shots, he broke into tears and explained to his dad that he just couldn’t do it anymore, see the hurt and suffering of his prey. He then, instead, became a bird watcher, later on going to college and becoming a biology professor.

Robert Leckie also joined the Marines, taking part in the assaults of Guadalcanal, New Gloucester and, along with Eugene Sledge, Peleliu. After the war he became a newspaper correspondent. But after writing his memoir, he went on to write more than 40 books of American war history. And not only do I have Helmet for My Pillow by him, I also have March to Glory, the story of the Marine’s heroic struggle at the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War, and Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines vs. Japan, a great history of the war in the Pacific, told in an up-close-and-personal way, not a dry history.

It’s interesting how these two memoir came to be written. As for Eugene Sledge, his father fears about the damage to the mind he saw in the boys he treated in WWI  came to pass for Sledge had nightmares for years after the war, a quintessential case of what we now call PTSD. He eventually sat down and wrote his memoir for his wife and children so they could understand the reasons he acted the way he did at times. On reading it, his wife urged him to have it published. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa is now considered one of the best books ever written about combat in the Pacific in WWII. Robert Leckie decided to write his story, Helmet for My Pillow, after walking out of the play South Pacific halfway through, telling his wife, “I have to tell the story of how it really was. I have to let people know the war wasn’t a musical.”

Just as Stephen King – my favorite fiction author – isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I know not all are into military history. But I have been since I was nine-years old, when I got my first grown-up books at the library, with the help of an understanding librarian. And one of those just so happened to be a book about WWII Marines, Guadalcanal Diary. And that was the beginning for me. I mentioned in an earlier post that by author, there were two who fill my bookshelves more than anyone else: Stephen King and William Manchester. But when it comes to military history, there are twice as many of those than any other genre on the shelves.

As for the love of books, I have my Mama to thank. She got me my first library card when I was only six-years old. Just this last week would have been her 83rd birthday. I paid a visit to her gravesite and one of the first things I thought of was that library card. And I once again thanked her for that greatest of gifts, thankfully knowing that I had told her so many times before while she was still here to hear me. I just hope that maybe I’ve given something to you readers, an idea of some books to check out on your own. These books I’ve spoke of here are definitely what I call must-reads. And if you’ve yet to see the HBO series The Pacific, it’s definitely an exciting and educational experience, so try to see it if you possibly can.