No sympathy. No regrets.

[wombat_socho]

I probably should have posted this yesterday, the 70th anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on Nagasaki, but better late than never.
The annual whining in the press about the use of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki leaves me cold, but then, unlike most of the journalists and commentators, I actually know something about the war

Comments

[haikujaguar]

Everything I've read about the fights at Iwo Jima and Okinawa was frankly horrifying.

[wombat_socho]

Yeah, the whole chain of Central Pacific island assaults were not pleasant bedtime reading by any stretch of the imagination. I first read about them in Samuel Eliot Morison's magisterial History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, which is sixteen volumes of entertaining and awesome but doesn't pull any punches about how bloody and, yes, horrifying, the Marines' experience was on those atolls leading up to the Golgotha of Okinawa.

[haikujaguar]

I have read it, actually, as part of the research for my web serial. As well as "Helmet for my Pillow," which was from the same time period. ( I discussed my reaction to those books, as well as a book written my a living Marine officer, in this entry.)

Amazing and horrifying stuff.

[wombat_socho]

I actually came to With the Old Breed after reading William Manchester's Goodbye Darkness, but everything cipherpunk says about it is correct, as you know.

[jasolater]

I bought it after watching The War documentary by Ken Burns, which I now own on DVD. Sledge's book is amazing. I've heard about Goodbye Darkness, perhaps I'll pick it up.

[wombat_socho]

I like Goodbye Darkness a lot, but I would be the first to admit that it has flaws as a history and as a work of autobiography; it tries to do both, sort of, but even Manchester admits that no one Marine could have possibly survived all the battles from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. Still, I think it's worth reading.

[jasolater]

Cool thanks. I just finished Brotherhood of Heroes by Bill Sloan about Peleliu, which was a great read. It mentions a lot of the same people Sledge includes in his book, including Merriel "Snafu" Shelton, R.V. Burgin, Captain Andy "Ack Ack" Haldane, Lt. "Hillbilly" Jones, and Gunny Haney. In fact, one of the riflemen in the book who was in K/3/5, Sterling Mace, is my friend on Facebook! He's writing a book scheduled to come out next February on his 87th birthday. He's really great to talk to and is great about answering any questions you have.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=100001157525388&ref=ts

R.V. Burgin has a book called Islands of the Damned which I also plan on reading.

[wombat_socho]

Going to have to look into that. Thanks!

[jasolater]

We appear to have the same amount of interest in this subject, always happy to help!!

[jasolater]

Sledge and Leckie's books are both amazing.

[haikujaguar]

Agreed. Do you have any other recs?

[wombat_socho]

About military history in general, the Pacific campaign in WW2, or the Marine experience specifically?

[haikujaguar]

*thinks* Actually, you know, I don't know as much about Vietnam and the Korean war as I wish I did. Have you read any good stuff on that?

[wombat_socho]

Without question, the best Korean War book is T. R, Fehrenbach's This Kind of War, although the chapters in Manchester's American Caesar that deal with Korea (from MacArthur's perspective) are also good. I also like S.L.A. Marshall's The River and the Gauntlet, which is about the Chinese winter offensive that pushed the UN forces back from the Yalu River (almost) all the way back below the 38th parallel.

Vietnam...augh. I read way too much about Vietnam as a kid. This is a short review of my favorite book on it, although I'm also very fond of Lewis Sorley's A Better War, Neil Sheehan's A Bright Shining Lie, Harry Summers' On Strategy, Hal Moore's We Were Soldiers Once...and Young, and Jack Broughton's Thud Ridge. On the fiction side, John del Vecchio's The 13th Valley, James Webb's Fields of Fire, and William Butterworth's Orders to Vietnam, which is a young adult novel that doesn't read like one.

[jasolater]

I second this. Bought it twice now, read it three times.