Description

Filling an essential gap in the understanding of warfare during World War II, author Donald E. Anderson describes life as a young enlisted man in Hawaii prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor when he had only six months left in his tour. In Combat Infantry, he provides an emotional and firsthand account of the Pearl Harbor bombing and his next four years of service as he fought disease and injury, spending time in New Caledonia and New Zealand. A member of the 35th Regiment, 25th Division, he captures in vivid detail the fighting in the jungles of Guadalcanal and later, five months of continuous combat on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Anderson describes the grueling combats and deprivations faced by army infantrymen to liberate the islands. Anderson tells of a soldier's world that was confined to muddy foxholes, a dustclouded stretch of mined road, or a rocky, fog-shrouded mountain ridge where fear and fatigue took its toll. In Combat Infantry, he pays tribute to those who were killed in action. They are not just names carved on a stone monument, but living, breathing souls who gave their lives for freedom.