“This book gives the history of your unprecedented accomplishments over a period of four years of combat in World War II. They were, for many of you, painful years through which you fought your way valiantly, step by step, from Australia to the distant final objective, Japan. The magnificent manner in which our Division relentlessly met, defeated, and pursued the enemy shall forever be an inspiration to all military men who believe in Democracy and Freedom. “Herein are transcribed names and events which will help those who were not there to understand; and will be for those of us who stood together a permanent record of some of the experiences we shared. It is not possible to set down the full story in writing. Only a hint of the real hardships, sufferings and anxieties which we experienced; of the courage, determination, and heroism demonstrated in alt units, can be given. The full story can only be known by those who participated.”

This is the legacy of the FIGHTING JUNGLEERS in World War II Pacific theater. Detailed battle accounts from beach landings at New Guinea to the Philippines. Vivid photos.

This is the legacy of the FIGHTING JUNGLEERS in World War II Pacific theater. Detailed battle accounts from beach landings at New Guinea to the Philippines. Vivid photos.

In Fire and Fortitude—winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History—John C. McManus presented a riveting account of the US Army's fledgling fight in the Pacific following Pearl Harbor. Now, in Island Infernos, he explores the Army’s dogged pursuit of Japanese forces, island by island, throughout 1944, a year that would bring America ever closer to victory or defeat. “A feat of prodigious scholarship.”—The Wall Street Journal • “Wonderful.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch • “Outstanding.”—Publishers Weekly • “Rich and absorbing.”—Richard Overy, author of Blood and Ruins • “A considerable achievement, and one that, importantly, adds much to our understanding of the Pacific War.”—James Holland, author of Normandy ’44 After some two years at war, the Army in the Pacific held ground across nearly a third of the globe, from Alaska’s Aleutians to Burma and New Guinea. The challenges ahead were enormous: supplying a vast number of troops over thousands of miles of ocean; surviving in jungles ripe with dysentery, malaria, and other tropical diseases; fighting an enemy prone to ever-more desperate and dangerous assaults. Yet the Army had proven they could fight. Now, they had to prove they could win a war. Brilliantly researched and written, Island Infernos moves seamlessly from the highest generals to the lowest foot soldiers and in between, capturing the true essence of this horrible conflict. A sprawling yet page-turning narrative, the story spans the battles for Saipan and Guam, the appalling carnage of Peleliu, General MacArthur’s dramatic return to the Philippines, and the grinding jungle combat to capture the island of Leyte. This masterful history is the second volume of John C. McManus’s trilogy on the US Army in the Pacific War, proving McManus to be one of our finest historians of World War II.

Brings together the wartime experience of Company G through the words of their veterans. An all-round account of the actions of Company G of the 163rd Infantry Regiment, 41st Division, U.S. Army, during World War II in the Pacific. The narrative follows the company from training in the Pacific Northwest, to Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, and onto Japan. Each of the actions in which Company G participated is described at every level—divisional, regimental, battalion, company, and individual—to show how strategies and decisions made at the highest levels were experienced by individual soldiers. At the heart of the book are the stories of some of the men of Company G, including Jack Anderson, who had been with the 163rd as a National Guardsman before the war and served through the occupation of Japan; Doyle Bruce, a draftee from Texas who joined the U.S. Army in the weeks before Pearl Harbor and served through Company G’s last combat mission; Bruce Baird, a draftee from Ogden, Utah whose injuries at Biak resulted in rotation home in 1945; and Hargis Westerfield, who joined Company G as a replacement after the unit’s first combat mission and survived to the end of the war. By combining their experiences with the elements of a more traditional military history the book provides a complete picture of one company's war.