About a week ago I binged The Pacific, the HBO follow-up to Band of Brothers about the Marines in WWII. After that, I started the audiobook Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie. Helmet had been one of the two main sources for The Pacific, and Leckie was a main character in the series.
First, the book is read by the actor that played Leckie, an excellent choice. Second, Leckie had been a reporter before and after the war which really comes through, the book is a "can't put down" book.
Leckie decided to write the book after he stormed out of watching South Pacific and said to his wife that someone needed to tell Americans the war in the Pacific wasn't singing and dancing.
Leckie is a big believer that the Marines/soldiers weren't really given good motivation to fight. "Beating the Japs" isn't a cause, it is an end. He thinks the troops became sardonic because they couldn't see the big picture, the "Four Freedoms' could not be turned into a marching song, it could not be screamed at men cowering in their foxhole. We needed more, and he frequently suggests what we needed was a song. He uses Bill Mauldin's comics as an example of how the average fighting man was so sardonic.
Unlike Band of Brothers, where everyone has a love for Winters, there aren't officers that receive such praise. He does comment about some being brave, but usually, that offsets some other weakness of character. If anyone wants a good book on a first-person account of Guadalcanal through Peileliu, this is it. Next up is the second sourcebook for The Pacific, With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge.
First, the book is read by the actor that played Leckie, an excellent choice. Second, Leckie had been a reporter before and after the war which really comes through, the book is a "can't put down" book.
Leckie decided to write the book after he stormed out of watching South Pacific and said to his wife that someone needed to tell Americans the war in the Pacific wasn't singing and dancing.
Leckie is a big believer that the Marines/soldiers weren't really given good motivation to fight. "Beating the Japs" isn't a cause, it is an end. He thinks the troops became sardonic because they couldn't see the big picture, the "Four Freedoms' could not be turned into a marching song, it could not be screamed at men cowering in their foxhole. We needed more, and he frequently suggests what we needed was a song. He uses Bill Mauldin's comics as an example of how the average fighting man was so sardonic.
Unlike Band of Brothers, where everyone has a love for Winters, there aren't officers that receive such praise. He does comment about some being brave, but usually, that offsets some other weakness of character. If anyone wants a good book on a first-person account of Guadalcanal through Peileliu, this is it. Next up is the second sourcebook for The Pacific, With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge.
