Need book recommendations..Pacific Theater.

[Der Texaner]

Hello all. I'm a want to be student of the Pacific Theater and have been concentrating on some of the well known island battles. I've recently read...

With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge
Okinawa by Robert Leckie
Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie
Islands of the Damned by R.V. Burgin
The Ghost Mountain Boys by James Campbell
One Square Mile of Hell (Tarawa) by John Wukovits
Pacific Alamo by John Wukovits
The Pacifc 1941 - 1942 by Ian Toll
In Harms Way by Dean Stanton

And I think that's it. I've thoroughly enjoyed them all. The standard setter is With the Old Breed, by Eugene Sledge. It also made reading Islands of the Damned by Burgin more interesting because he was Sledge's Sgt and you got 2 different views of the same battles and conditions.

One Square Mile of Hell was simply amazing. You could almost hear the shells and screams as you read it.

The Ghost Mountain Boys is a book that you will remember. Even the hardest of the hard Marine showed respect to these Army National Guard men out of Michigan.


But you can see the type of books I like. Can someone recommend any others? I need a good book on Iwo Jima and one on Guadalcanal, that preferably read like With the Old Breed and not a tactical analysis from a historian's point of view. Flags of our Fathers is out. I hate to say it, but the movie really disapponted me.

Regards,
Joel

[blinky]

The Ghost Mountain Boys is a book that you will remember. Even the hardest of the hard Marine showed respect to these Army National Guard men out of Michigan.

....and Wisconsin! Remember, the Michigan battalion was being led across the Owen Stanleys by a boy from Wisconsin!

[Der Texaner]

You are certainly correct blinky!!!! That book totally changed how I view MacAuthur.

Regards,
Joel

[blinky]

Joel, pm me your mailing address....I have something for you.

[Der Texaner]

Thanks blinky!

[wilhelm Saris]

Maybe you have read it, when not:
The Caves of Biak (New-Guinea), copyright 1955 by the George Macy Co, Inc. reprinted of Dial Press.

You can find a chapter about this in:
Combat, the War with Japan, published by Dell Publishing Co, Inc. (adress from those days was: 750 Third Avenue, New York 17). Copyright 1962 by Don Congdon. Dell First Edition TM 641409, Dell Publishing Co, Inc.

The chapter "The Caves of Biak" was written by Colonel Harold Riegelman and is about 23 interesting pages and how they got out the Japanese soldiers out of these caves. They needed the island for "island hopping", as there were several airstrips. The caves were enormous. I was for about 14 month on the island of Biak, doing my army-service in 1961-1962 with the Dutch anti-aircraft artillery as an observer. The Japanese were kicked out by the US forces; we were kicked out by the Dutch government upon advise by the US government!!
The island was handed over to the Indonesian government.

[Der Texaner]

I will certainly check it out. Thank you sir!

Regards,
Joel

[peleliuexplorer]

My top pick is Russell Davis' "Marine at War" who was a scout in the First Marines on Peleliu (same outfit as Leckie). The book will give you a perspective of the battle from a unit in the 1st Marines that was decimated on Peleliu. Jim Johnston's "The Long Road of War" is also a good one.

-Eric