Kerry
HBO's Pacific Sources
February 25, 2010 12:00 AM
I promise John and I talk and think about more than just HBO's The Pacific over here in New York, despite my insistence on only posting about Pacific-related subjects. This one is slightly different, though. I'm actually wondering if any of you have read either of the source books for HBO's series: Helmet for My Pillow, by Robert Leckie, or With the Old Breed, by Eugene Sledge.
Descriptions (from the publisher):
Here is one of the most riveting first-person accounts ever to come out
of World War II. Robert Leckie enlisted in the United States Marine
Corps in January 1942, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor. In Helmet for My Pillow we follow his odyssey, from basic
training on Parris Island, South Carolina, all the way to the raging
battles in the Pacific, where some of the war’s fiercest fighting took
place. Recounting his service with the 1st Marine Division and the
brutal action on Guadalcanal, New Britain, and Peleliu, Leckie spares no
detail of the horrors and sacrifices of war, painting an unvarnished
portrait of how real warriors are made, fight, and often die in the
defense of their country.
From the live-for-today rowdiness
of marines on leave to the terrors of jungle warfare against an enemy
determined to fight to the last man, Leckie describes what war is really
like when victory can only be measured inch by bloody inch. Woven
throughout are Leckie’s hard-won, eloquent, and thoroughly unsentimental
meditations on the meaning of war and why we fight. Unparalleled in its
immediacy and accuracy, Helmet for My Pillow will leave no
reader untouched. This is a book that brings you as close to the mud,
the blood, and the experience of war as it is safe to come.
---
In The Wall Street Journal, Victor Davis Hanson named With the
Old Breed one of the top five books on epic twentieth-century
battles. Studs Terkel interviewed the author for his definitive oral
history, The Good War. Now E. B. Sledge’s acclaimed first-person
account of fighting at Peleliu and Okinawa returns to thrill, edify, and
inspire a new generation.
An Alabama boy steeped in American
history and enamored of such heroes as George Washington and Daniel
Boone, Eugene B. Sledge became part of the war’s famous 1st Marine
Division–3d Battalion, 5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was
shocked to be thrown into the battle of Peleliu, where “the world was a
nightmare of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.” By the time
Sledge hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with
fear but no longer with panic.
Based on notes Sledge secretly
kept in a copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with
utter simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the
fierce Pacific Theater. Here is what saved, threatened, and changed his
life. Here, too, is the story of how he learned to hate and kill–and
came to love–his fellow man.
---
I'm planning on picking up one, or both, after I finish Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South. Sometimes I really, really love my job.
COMMENTS
I’m glad that you’re as excited as I am about this. I’ve been following this through production on Dale Dye’s web site ( www.warriorsinc.com/cfblog/ ) during the filming in 2008. I’ve been hooked on these Pacific Island battles since watching the Sands of Iwo Jima and other USMC themed Hollywood films back in the early 1970’son TV.
In the UK, this series appears to be being shown on Sky Movies starting at Easter which is a subscription channel.
I hope that the powers that be at Osprey use this opportunity to promote some of their related Pacific island battle titles. For those who don’t know, the main battles focused on will be Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. All of these except Cape Gloucester are covered by Campaign titles. Personally I think that the Guadalcanal title needs redoing as it was one of the first CAM’s published. The Peleliu and Iwo Jima titles are both a couple of Osprey’s best. I own but have not yet read the Okinawa title.
I’ve not read either of the two principle sources but I note that ‘Helmet for my pillow’ has got consistently excellent reviews on Amazon so is now on my to-do list for this year.
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There's a great fansite for the series as well: pacificfans.com, if you're looking for more info on production and whatnot.
My boss brought in his copies of these two books, so hopefully I'll have some downtime to get some reading done shortly. Will post reviews if that happens! As per your research, I'll start with Helmet for My Pillow.
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In other words, another HBO farce. All Marines, almost no Army although the Army did most of the heavy lifting. I notice Osprey covers just about all the Marine campaigns in the Pacific (even Peleliu gets its own book), but Aitape-Hollandia, The Admiralties, North-West New Guinea, the Northern Solomons, or any of the Philippine campaigns (Leyte Gulf covers only the naval battle) are conspicuous among the missing.
This might be a good time to fix that.
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I'm somewhat amazed that anyone with an interest in WW2 history, especially the PTO should have any gripes about at TV company spending $ 200 million on a project of this sort of quality. Regardless of inter-service rivalries between the Army and USMC this production should be welcomed without qualification. The aim is after all to honour the participants and engage a new generation in what these men went through.
I do however agree that US Army ops in the SW Pacific and Phillipines are badly under represented in Osprey's CAM series. I flagged this up at the end of 2009 when the call went out for suggestions. I am sure these would be welcome additions and hopefully the HBO series will assist in raising interest.
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I agree with Nick on both points.
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