Battleground Pacific : a Marine rifleman's combat odyssey in K/3/5

Format:

Book

Title:

Battleground Pacific : a Marine rifleman's combat odyssey in K/3/5

Author:

Mace, Sterling.

ISBN:

9781250005052

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

xiv, 333 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, photograph ; 25 cm

Contents:

Sailing the South Ozone Sea -- A bunch of cannibals -- Hellzapoppin -- Run! -- A blast furnace in your soul: Sept 17th-Sept 25th, 1944 -- And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo: the Battle of Ngesebus -- The real Pacific war -- The five bitches -- A constellation of ghosts -- True confessions: Okinawa, 1945 -- Hope, like death -- Whatever happened to Junior Hudson?

Summary:

A rifleman's account of his experiences in the fabled 1st Marine Division in the Pacific War, describing the brush with the law that led to his enlistment and the harsh lessons he learned about bravery, death, and survival.

Personal Subject:

Mace, Sterling.

Mace, Sterling. (OCoLC)fst01992637

Corporate Subject:

United States. Marine Corps. Marine Regiment, 5th. Battalion, 3rd. Company K.

United States. Marine Corps -- Biography.

United States. Marine Corps. (OCoLC)fst00528845

United States. Marine Corps. Marine Regiment, 5th. Battalion, 3rd. Company K. (OCoLC)fst01800190

Subject(s):

United States. Marine Corps. Marine Regiment, 5th. Battalion, 3rd. Company K.

United States. Marine Corps -- Biography.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Pacific Area.

Marines -- United States -- Biography.

Geographic Term:

Genre:

Personal narratives -- American.

Added Author:

Allen, Nick, 1973-

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	940.545973 Mace 2012	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	940.545973 MACE 2012	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A POWERFULLY WROUGHT MEMOIR BY A MEMBER OF WWII'S FABLED 1ST MARINE DIVISION

Sterling Mace's unit was the legendary "K-3-5" (for Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division) and his story takes readers through some of the most intense action of the Pacific War, from the seldom-seen perspective of a rifleman at the point of attack.

Battleground Pacific is filled with indelible moments that begin with his childhood growing up in Queens, New York, and his run-in with the law that eventually led to his enlistment. But this is ultimately a combat tale--as violent and harrowing as any that has come before. From fighting through the fiery hell that was Peleliu to the deadly battleground of Okinawa, Mace traces his path from the fear of combat to understanding that killing another human comes just as easily as staying alive. He learns that bravery often equates to stupidity, leading to the death of close friends, but also that life goes on, with death on its heels.

Battleground Pacific is one of the most important and entertaining memoirs about the Pacific theater in WWII.

Author Notes

STERLING MACE enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942 and was stationed at Parris Island, Camp Lejeune, the Brooklyn Naval Yard, and then finally Pavuvu, before experiencing the toughest fighting the Pacific war had to offer, as a rifleman in K/3/5, at Peleliu and later on Okinawa. He was a consultant on E.B. Sledge's book, With the Old Breed. He lives in St. Pete Beach, Florida.

NICK ALLEN is the son of a combat rifleman who served in Vietnam and has been interviewing combat veterans for most of his life. He lives in Bellaire, Texas.

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

Pulpy yet engrossing account of the vicious combat encountered by U.S. Marines in the Pacific theater of World War II. Though co-authored by Allen, the main voice is that of Mace, who is unapologetic about his politically incorrect perspective (he often refers to his Japanese foes as "Nips" or in equally unpleasant terms). The intensity of his combat experience has clearly stayed with him all his life; recalling friends he never saw again after certain battles, he notes, "I suppose dying is just another way of saying good-bye." The author is disarmingly honest, as when the young soldier-protagonist visits a prostitute in order to lose his virginity before shipping out, and particularly in his vivid recollections of an oddly idyllic Depression adolescence in Queens, with no clue of the storm that lay ahead: "Where in the hell is Pearl Harbor? Nobody had the foggiest that 108,504 U.S. servicemen would have to dieto answer that question, to make things right." Mace describes the war in tactile, often gruesome terms, suggesting that the Pacific campaign was remarkably filthy and grueling, as when he encountered "Japanese corpses [that] have congested this open area with open wounds, glossy red tripe boiling from naked bellies." The tough-guy prose recalls James Ellroy, but the first-person perspective suggests authenticity with regard to the little-understood experience of the frontline rifleman in the Pacific theater. Young Marines like Mace contended not only with a formidable and little-seen enemy, but also with military bureaucracy, inter-service rivalries, supply problems and an unbearable physical environment. The author mingles increasingly dark humor with terror at the seeming randomness of violent death in war, yet the narrative also dramatizes the diverse humanity of the ordinary Americans who were sucked into the conflict. The book culminates in a poignant scene in which Mace visits the mother of a close friend who died in battle. A mostly valuable testimonial of the Pacific campaign's desperate brutality--will appeal to fans of The Pacific or Band of Brothers.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

It took television to bring home the terror and brutality of Vietnam and subsequent wars to the general public in real time. For prior wars, we relied on print journalism and the letters, diaries, and memoirs of participants. As survivors of the Pacific war against Japan dwindle, a tough, shockingly honest rendering of this marine rifleman's experiences is invaluable. Mace describes his youth in Brooklyn and Queens, including a family trauma and a minor brush with the law. The heart of his story, of course, begins with his basic training and concludes with the savage fighting on Peleliu and Okinawa. There is the expected recounting of the forging of manly bonds of comradeship, but this is primarily a grim chronicle of blood and death. There is no tribute here to noble opposing soldiers. Mace and his comrades are trained killers determined to survive by slaughtering an often faceless enemy. This is hard stuff, but necessary reading for understanding the reality of modern warfare.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Map of Pavuvu Island	p. xi
Map of Peleliu Island	p. xii
Map of Okinawa Shima	p. xiii
Map of K Company's forward position on Okinawa	p. xiv
Prologue	p. 1
1 Sailing the South Ozone Sea	p. 4
2 A Bunch of Cannibals	p. 26
3 Hellzapoppin'	p. 55
4 Run!	p. 72
5 A Blast Furnace in Your Soul	p. 88
6 And All the Monkeys Aren't in the Zoo	p. 106
7 The Real Pacific War	p. 145
8 The Five Bitches	p. 165
9 A Constellation of Ghosts	p. 187
10 True Confessions	p. 221
11 Hope, Like Death	p. 266
12 Whatever Happened to Junior Hudson?	p. 295
Epilogue	p. 326
Appendix A	p. 331

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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