|
Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific
|
| List Price: | $24.95 |
| Price: | $16.47 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Price as of Fri 25th May,2012 01:56 am CDT
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
124 new or used available from $2.39
Average customer review:
(51 customer reviews)
Product Description
Watch author RV Burgin discuss Islands of the Damned and The Pacific.
See R.V. Burgin in the award winning documentary film Peleliu 1944: Horror in the Pacific. Click here for more information.
This is an eyewitness-and eye-opening-account of some of the most savage and brutal fighting in the war against Japan, told from the perspective of a young Texan who volunteered for the Marine Corps to escape a life as a traveling salesman. R.V. Burgin enlisted at the age of twenty, and with his sharp intelligence and earnest work ethic, climbed the ranks from a green private to a seasoned sergeant. Along the way, he shouldered a rifle as a member of a mortar squad. He saw friends die-and enemies killed. He saw scenes he wanted to forget but never did-from enemy snipers who tied themselves to branches in the highest trees, to ambushes along narrow jungle trails, to the abandoned corpses of hara kiri victims, to the final howling banzai attacks as the Japanese embraced their inevitable defeat.An unforgettable narrative of a young Marine in combat, Islands of the Damned brings to life the hell that was the Pacific War.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #37624 in Books
- Published on: 2010-03-02
- Released on: 2010-03-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.06" h x 6.16" w x 9.44" l, 1.15 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
This well-narrated tale of a marine’s Pacific campaigns on New Britain, Peleliu, and Okinawa inevitably invites comparison with E. B. Sledge’s famed With the Old Breed (1981). Indeed, Sledge was part of Burgin’s mortar platoon in the latter two campaigns. But Burgin’s tale is more plainly told, as he was a Texas farm boy instead of a college student who dropped out of OCS to get into combat. But they were both good marines, who carried their weight through some of the ugliest fighting Americans have ever faced. One reads Burgin’s narrative knowing that he survived and smiles when he comes home to marry his Australian fiancée and settle down to a career in the Postal Service and a retirement of attending First Marine Division reunions. --Roland Green
Review
-Tom Hanks
"[A] well-written, excellently detailed personal narrative....A taut, engrossing, haunting book."
-The Dallas Morning News
"An honest, straightforward memoir by an honest, straightforward man. Burgin has written an unforgettable, moving description of his experiences as an infantry Marine, from New Britain to Okinawa. The result is a classic combat account. I highly recommend this book."
-John C. McManus, author of Alamo in the Ardennes and The Deadly Brotherhood
About the Author
As a Marine in World War II, R.V. Burgin was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.
Bill Marvel is a retired features writer for the Dallas Morning News.
