Devil dogs King Company, third battalion, 5th Marines from Guadalcanal to the shores of Japan

Historian David (Crucible of Hell) recounts in this stirring saga the WWII campaigns of Company K, the 1st Marine Division unit whose exploits at Peleliu and Okinawa were documented by Eugene B. Sledge in his celebrated combat memoir With the Old Breed. Drawing on diaries, letters, and published accounts from Sledge and others who served in the company at various points during the war, David documents their participation in the August 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal ("a pesthole that reeked of death, struggle and disease," in the words of war correspondent Richard Tregaskis) and the Battle of Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain, where it took "a Herculean effort" to dislodge the Japanese from their entrenched positions. Subsequent stops on the campaign across the Pacific included the capture of Peleliu, which Sledge described as "the absolute essence of the depths of Hell," and Okinawa, where Japanese soldiers launched ferocious, suicidal counterattacks, leading to a relentless series of last stands. Skillfully plumbing the rich array of firsthand accounts by Company K veterans, David vividly describes pillbox raids, accidental deaths, and hellish jungle conditions, and draws incisive portraits of Marine officers and their command decisions. The result is a captivating chronicle of the war in the Pacific. (Sept.)

Focusing on one small unit, King Company, Third Battalion, 5th Marines, David (military history, Univ. of Buckingham; Crucible of Hell) has produced a history of the Pacific War that examines all ranks right up to the decision-making brass. It explains what happened, but it also makes readers feel what it was like for the mostly brave--some not so brave-- soldiers, who had to fight their way from one Pacific island to the next in an exhausting and bloody three-year (1942--45) campaign to sweep deeply entrenched Japanese troops out of the way, all preparatory efforts to attack Japanese mainlands. Guadalcanal was first. Peleliu was second and the most debilitating battle of all. Then came Okinawa: in 22 hours at Maggot Ridge, K Company lost 50 men and one officer, reducing its effective strength below 60. It had started with 235. David draws on the written words of the veterans, interweaving these primary accounts with official archives, to dramatize the human narrative of how men learned to be brave. The result is an old story told in a new and compelling way. VERDICT Very well told. A must for enthusiasts of WWII history.--David Keymer