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World War II solider in helmet, looking to his left, Pacific War Stories In the Words of Those Who Survived in red and white font to bottom right.

Pacific War Stories

In the Words of Those Who Survived

By (author) Rex Alan Smith

£19.99

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  • This is the most extensive collection published to date of first-person oral histories on so many diverse aspects of the war in the Pacific—told in gripping, eyewitness accounts by more than seventy veterans from all branches of service
  • This is an important book for military buffs as well as for the survivors of World War II and their families
Full Description

In this new book by the authors of Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory of World War II in the Pacific, the history of the War in the Pacific comes vividly to life in the words of those who witnessed it first-hand. The editors create for the reader, as the veterans themselves recall it, what that war was like – how it looked, felt, smelled, and sounded. The stories collected here are a unique portrayal of the mundane, exotic, boring, terrifying, life-altering events that made up their wartime experiences in World War II in the Pacific, a war fought on countless far-flung islands over an area that constitutes about one-third of the globe. What the veterans saw and lived through has stayed with them their entire lives, and much of it comes to the surface again through their vivid memories. This is an important book for military buffs as well as for the survivors of World War II and their families. The narratives, grouped into 15 thematic, chronologically arranged chapters, are stirring, first-hand accounts, from front-line combat at the epicentre of violence and death to restless, weary boredom on rear area islands thousands of miles from the fighting. While their experiences differed, all were changed by what happened to them in the Pacific. These are not the stories of sweeping strategies or bold moves by generals and admirals. Instead, we hear from men and women on the lower rungs, including ordinary seamen on vessels that encountered Japanese warships and planes and sometimes came out second best, rank-and-file Marines who were in amtracs churning toward bullet-swept tropical beaches and saw their buddies killed beside them, and astounded eyewitnesses to the war’s sudden start on December 7, 1941.

About the Author

Rex Alan Smith and Gerald A. Meehl are the co-authors of Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory from World War II in the Pacific. Smith is a veteran of 36 months with the Army Engineers in the Pacific. He is also the author of Abbeville's One Last Look and The Carving of Mount Rushmore. Gerald A. Meehl has travelled extensively in the South Pacific over the last 30 years and has photographed every major Pacific battlefield and site.

Specifications
Publisher
Abbeville Press
ISBN
9780789208170
Published
1st Oct 2004
Binding
Hardback
Territory
World excluding USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Australia
Size
239 mm x 163 mm
Pages
512 Pages
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