Audiobook17 hours
Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines Against Japan
Written by Robert Leckie
Narrated by Johnny Heller
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Written by Robert Leckie, whose wartime exploits are featured in the Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg HBO miniseries The Pacific, Strong Men Armed is the perennial bestselling classic account of the U.S. Marines' relentless drive through the Pacific during World War II. As scout and machine-gunner for the First Marine Division, Leckie fought in all its engagements until his wounding at Peleliu.
In Strong Men Armed, Leckie uses firsthand experience and impeccable research to re-create the nightmarish battles of the Pacific campaign-from Guadalcanal to Okinawa-as ships, men, and guns moved over vast distances to fight an enemy that was willing to defend to its last man. Here is the whole sweeping epic of the Marines who battled-and won-on the bloody beaches at Guadalcanal, the unforgiving reefs at Tarawa, the rain-soaked mud of New Britain, the dark gray soil and deadly caves of Mount Suribachi, and the muddy slopes of Shuri Castle on Okinawa. It is a masterful narrative by a writer the New York Times praised as possessing the "rare gift of capturing all that is human in the most inhuman of man's activities."
In Strong Men Armed, Leckie uses firsthand experience and impeccable research to re-create the nightmarish battles of the Pacific campaign-from Guadalcanal to Okinawa-as ships, men, and guns moved over vast distances to fight an enemy that was willing to defend to its last man. Here is the whole sweeping epic of the Marines who battled-and won-on the bloody beaches at Guadalcanal, the unforgiving reefs at Tarawa, the rain-soaked mud of New Britain, the dark gray soil and deadly caves of Mount Suribachi, and the muddy slopes of Shuri Castle on Okinawa. It is a masterful narrative by a writer the New York Times praised as possessing the "rare gift of capturing all that is human in the most inhuman of man's activities."
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Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Challenge for the Pacific: Guadalcanal: The Turning Point of the War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Okinawa: A Decorated Marine's Account of the Last Battle of World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Strong Men Armed
Rating: 4.480769230769231 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
52 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Leckie produced a lively history of the actions in which the US Marine corps was the major force. It is tangentially, a pretty good history of the Central Pacific thrust towards Japan. There is little here about the New Guinea and Philippine fighting. the quality of the prose is workman like with a trend towards the sensational.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I greatly enjoyed reading this book, as a companion to watching the series, "The Pacific". I don't think the TV series makes it clear enough that the characters Lackey and Sledge ( "With the Old Breed") were real people, and the series' stories drawn from these two excellent books. For fans of the series, these books are a fantastic way to dive even deeper into the grueling island wars these brave Marines fought.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leckie is one of my favorite authors of historical non-fiction. His style is very well suited to describing both the big picture (why they were there) and the details (what was it like for them there). Without waxing poetic and gushing unnecessarily about the Marines in the Pacific Theatre in WWII, the author tells the powerful story very well. It is not surprising to learn that Leckie was a veteran of WWII. The book is written without footnotes, but Biographical Notes at the end of the work convince the reader that this is a serious work that was well-researched.One final inclusion is a list of Marines who were awarded the Medal of Honor in WWII.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well written look at the USMC in WW2. It is not, and does not pretend to be, an exhaustive and complete history of the war in the Pacific. It is strictly a look at the role of the Marine Corps. Leckie was a combat marine and is well qualified to share the lot of the Marines across the Pacific. The list of MOH holders is a welcome addition to the book. There are certainly books that are more complete for nearly any of the campaigns but this one is particularly well written and provides a sense of the Marine world from 1942 - 1945.