To Hell and Back Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It was interesting to read this account of Audie Murphy's travails in World War II (Murphy was one of the most highly decorated soldiers of that war) having read Ambrose's eulogy Band of Brothers .
Murphy received (every major medal, some more than once, that the army has to offer). He joined the army at age 17 to support six siblings after his mother died (his father had left the family earlier), and he doesn't talk about how the war haunted the rest of his life.
He portrays a brutal, harsh struggle to survive, where the only thing that matters is keeping oneself and one's friends alive. There are moments of great poignancy, others of humor. Once, hungry, dirty and wet, mired in their foxholes, they notice they are under a tree with ripe cherries. Not daring to stick a head up, let alone climb out of the foxhole, Murphy's buddy gets the idea of shooting down the branches with his machine gun, and soon they are delighted to have cherry branches falling on them, making the day just a little brighter.
Not once does Murphy mention his numerous awards, Clearly, Murphy believed that luck played as much a part in his survival as anything he did. He was however, the kind of person who tried to control his destiny, doing what was necessary and taking the initiative in order to get through the day. A little piece of Murphy died every time a friend was killed, and soon almost all of his friends were gone. He was delighted if they received a wound that would return them to the rear, away from battle. He sympathized and worried for the lieutenant who had been badly injured and returned voluntarily to the front only to lose his nerve under the intense shelling. It must have been horribly traumatic to develop such close bonds and to have them ripped apart.
At the risk of sounding a little chauvinistic, I quote from the last lines of his book:
" When I was a child, I was told that men were branded by war. Has the brand been put on me? Have the years of blood and ruin stripped me of all decency? Of all belief? Not of all belief. I believe in the force of a hand grenade, the power of artillery, the accuracy of a Garand. I believe in hitting before you get hit, and that dead men do not look noble.
"But I also believe in men like Brandon and Novak and Swope and Kerrigan; and all the men who stood up against the enemy, taking their beatings without whimper and their triumphs without boasting. The men who went and would go again to hell and back to preserve what our country thinks right and decent.
"My country. America! That is it. We have been so intent on death that we have forgotten life. And now suddenly life faces us. I swear to myself that I will measure up to it. I may be branded by war, but I will not be defeated by it.
"Gradually it becomes clear. I will go back. I will find the kind of girl of whom I once dreamed. I will learn to look at life through uncynical eyes, to have faith, to know love. I will learn to work in peace as in war. And finally - finally, like countless others, I will learn to live again."

Click Here to see more reviews about: To Hell and Back

The classic bestselling war memoir by the most decorated American soldier in World War II, back in print in a trade paperbackOriginally published in 1949, To Hell and Back was a smash bestseller for fourteen weeks and later became a major motion picture starring Audie Murphy as himself. More than fifty years later, this classic wartime memoir is just as gripping as it was then. Desperate to see action but rejected by both the marines and paratroopers because he was too short, Murphy eventually found a home with the infantry. He fought through campaigns in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. Although still under twenty-one years old on V-E Day, he was credited with having killed, captured, or wounded 240 Germans. He emerged from the war as America's most decorated soldier, having received twenty-one medals, including our highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. To Hell and Back is a powerfully real portrayal of American GI's at war.

Get 32% OFF

Click here for more information about To Hell and Back

Read More...

The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This diary reads very fast, maybe not so much because it's a small book with large-ish text but more because it is written with surprising skill-- surprising considering the author was a Napoleonic "foot" soldier, a non-officer (i.e. a common man that most likely had little access to a "quality" education). Walter himself mentions that many of the people he meets on his journey to Moscow are without any schooling whatever, even the simplest of religious teachings, and that many children can not read or write. That realization obviously attests to Walter's own level of learning compared to the average citizen, and Walter's writing is obviously well above that level -- even if it does not approach genius -- making this work very accessible.
What I appreciated most about this diary was the point of view, that of the poor, starving, battered, exhausted soldier in the ranks, which serves as a definite counterpoint to a commanding officer's battlefield or campaign memories. Reading an account by a Napoleonic general's aide on the building of bridges to cross a river during the Moscow retreat and reading Walter's impression of the same event is quite enlightening. The general's experience, one of honor, valor and sacrifice, seems world's away from Walter's experience of horror, squalor and pointless death. Without placing one account or type of account above the other in terms of "rightness," I view it as extremely valuable to be exposed to both.
Still, as interesting as this work is, it is necessary to point out that many, very many, of Walter's observations and assertions, particularly those involving his own motives, are questionable. The simple fact that the work was written some years after the wars -- which in itself seems to dissuade the use of the word "diary" -- allows for error in judgment and interpretation, but it seems that Walter is given to rationalization of hard actions and building up the correctness and moral certitude of his own character. In other words, this book, like all books, I suppose, should be read with circumspection.
Also, I enjoyed the account of the Moscow retreat most out of any section of the book, and I saw the added letters at the end as the least useful. It does have some valuable background in the introduction, but as it really lacks a sweeping account (and why should it have it?) this book should make up a small portion of a larger study of the Napoleonic Wars

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier

Get 20% OFF

Click here for more information about The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier

Read More...

Hope Is Not a Plan: The War in Iraq from Inside the Green Zone (Praeger Security International) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)In July 2004, the Major General in charge of the Strategic Political/Military section in Iraq asked the Superintendent of the Air Force Academy to send him some "Strategic Thinkers" to help with the war effort. Within two weeks, military academics with advanced degrees began arriving in Baghdad. They were embedded with headquarter units in the Green Zone and their assignment was to look at the planning process. "Hope is Not a Plan" is an anthology written by the participant observor academics. The book's scope is the critical months of late 2004 to early 2005.
What makes this book interesting is that it covers the operational aspects of the war. This is the critical intermediate step between the strategic and the tactical. The operational aspects of the war are not as inherently interesting as the behind scenes power struggles in Washington DC or as dramatic as the stories the men and women who are doing the fighting. Yet it is at the operational level that war is planned and ultimately either won or lost.
What Thomas Mowle and his fellow authors found was a disorganized planning effort that was not up to the task of rejuvinating a failed nation state. The irony is that a military that dedicated itself to learning the lessons of Vietnam discovered that at the critical moment it forgot nearly everything that it had learned about counter-insurgency in Vietnam. It is a depressing performance and one can only hope that American military is beginning to turn itself around in 2007.
"Hope is Not a Plan" is an academic work and it will require members of the general public to have patience to get through it. The United States military will be analyzing what went wrong in Iraq for a generation. The value of this book is that it is a first attempt to describe what went wrong at the operational level. "Hope is Not a Plan" will be a starting point for future historians. Recommended.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Hope Is Not a Plan: The War in Iraq from Inside the Green Zone (Praeger Security International)

Click here for more information about Hope Is Not a Plan: The War in Iraq from Inside the Green Zone (Praeger Security International)

Read More...