Helmet for My Pillow
by Robert Leckie
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert LeckieEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-03-01
ISBN: 0553763598
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Helmet for My Pillow
Book Review: Unsanitized account of war with the marines
Summary: 5 Stars
Leckie was with the 1st Marine Regt (2nd Bn) of the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal, New Britain and Peleliu. First published in 1957 it is a fairly raw account of life and battle as a Marine. Apart from the battlefields, Leckie writes of his training on Parris Island and extensively of leave in Melbourne. He covers things that others don't - being AWOL, being drunk and being in the brink. He doesn't sanitize things either or imply everyone was a big happy family. For instance he makes many pithy observations about officers, their ways, their airs and their privileges. At other times, the petty discipline and denial of home leave has tragic effects.
As for battle, there is a variety of experiences. Most of it is of being continually in the line on Guadalcanal. He is never faced with a direct attack, though he does deal with a few stragglers with his 30 cal (his later trip to gain souvenirs is unsettling in a number of ways). Even so the campaign is exceedingly wearing. The attacks by Japanese planes and big ships are constant and deadly. The debilitation caused by the tropics (Malaria is torture!) and inadequate food is also made clear. It was a close run thing but the Marines emerge with intense pride when the extent of their achievements is finally clear. On New Britain Leckie is mainly involved in patrols but he does use his personal weapon to deadly effect. Peleliu though is a hellish experience that overwhelms him. The Japanese resistance is ferocious and the casualties are very heavy (he is caught in the armoured counterattack). So in terms of battle experiences, there is a lot to read.
Leckie was a journalist before and after the war and is an impressive writer. There is some excellent description and imagery ("the sand clung to us like flour to a fillett" P38 and "A soldiers pack is like a woman's purse, it is filled with his personality." P34). Interestingly, he never writes about fellow marines by name. Everyone is given a nick-name: The Artist, Runner, Chuckler, Sergeant Straight Talk and Lieutenants Commando, Ivy-League and Racehorse. While simplistic, I found this devise to be effective in revealing personality types and it allows Leckie to write bluntly of deeds and misdeeds. The cult of Marine is also explored and aspects of this are quite stirring. It is a deeply considered and informative book and I found it amazing in many ways. Highly Recommended
Summary of Helmet for My Pillow
Here is one of the most riveting first-person accounts ever to come out of World War II. Robert Leckie enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in January 1942, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In Helmet for My Pillow we follow his odyssey, from basic training on Parris Island, South Carolina, all the way to the raging battles in the Pacific, where some of the war?s fiercest fighting took place. Recounting his service with the 1st Marine Division and the brutal action on Guadalcanal, New Britain, and Peleliu, Leckie spares no detail of the horrors and sacrifices of war, painting an unvarnished portrait of how real warriors are made, fight, and often die in the defense of their country.From the live-for-today rowdiness of marines on leave to the terrors of jungle warfare against an enemy determined to fight to the last man, Leckie describes what war is really like when victory can only be measured inch by bloody inch. Woven throughout are Leckie?s hard-won, eloquent, and thoroughly unsentimental meditations on the meaning of war and why we fight. Unparalleled in its immediacy and accuracy, Helmet for My Pillow will leave no reader untouched. This is a book that brings you as close to the mud, the blood, and the experience of war as it is safe to come.
Now producers Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman, the men behind Band of Brothers, have adapted material from Helmet for My Pillow for HBO?s epic miniseries The Pacific, which will thrill and edify a whole new generation.
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