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Title: To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy, Tom Brokaw ISBN: 0-8050-7086-9 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A must read
Comment: Audie Murphy is truly a hero. This is self-evident. His book deals very well with giving the feeling of being a soldier, with the incredible stress that comes from being in a life-and-death situation. This feeling includes anger, and apathy, and friendship. Murphy describes the events of his time in service straight-forwardly and clearly.
For anyone studying war, whether in terms of history, military science, morality in war, etc., this book is a must read. In the bird's eye view of war, one sees strategies, tactics, political imperatives, and the like. This work will always serve to remind scholars and interested amatuers of the costs of battle, and the strength of the men who risk their lives for their country. The reader will remember, not just that battles occur, but that in these conflicts, soldiers must face (as Murphy talks about) friends dying, men they were just talking to being vaporized by a mortar, good soldiers having their nerves suddenly break (having heard one bomb too many), and the like.
This book helps those who study war to always remember the human element - both in terms of the tragedy for those involved, but also the courage of those involved. Highly recommended.
Rating: 2
Summary: Bad
Comment: This is one of the corniest and poorly written books I have ever read. With GI Joe conversations and mentality, it boasts about American superiority in everything. The book doesn't even really describe Murphy himself, since the descriptions seem to focus on secondary characters. And how does Murphy know how many soldiers he incapacitated? What, did he carve notches in his gun? REAL soldiers aren't proud of how many people they killed. Anybody can pin a whole bunch of medals on somebody; they don't have to deserve it. Those medals could have gone to soldiers who really deserved them. This book is a joke. If you want REAL heroism, check out Ghost Soldiers or The Forgotten Soldier. Don't waste your time.
Rating: 5
Summary: Honest and humble memoir
Comment: It was interesting to read this account of Audie Murphy's travails in World War II (Murphy was one of the most highly decorated soldiers of that war) having read Ambrose's eulogy Band of Brothers .
Murphy received (every major medal, some more than once, that the army has to offer). He joined the army at age 17 to support six siblings after his mother died (his father had left the family earlier), and he doesn't talk about how the war haunted the rest of his life.
He portrays a brutal, harsh struggle to survive, where the only thing that matters is keeping oneself and one's friends alive. There are moments of great poignancy, others of humor. Once, hungry, dirty and wet, mired in their foxholes, they notice they are under a tree with ripe cherries. Not daring to stick a head up, let alone climb out of the foxhole, Murphy's buddy gets the idea of shooting down the branches with his machine gun, and soon they are delighted to have cherry branches falling on them, making the day just a little brighter.
Not once does Murphy mention his numerous awards, Clearly, Murphy believed that luck played as much a part in his survival as anything he did. He was however, the kind of person who tried to control his destiny, doing what was necessary and taking the initiative in order to get through the day. A little piece of Murphy died every time a friend was killed, and soon almost all of his friends were gone. He was delighted if they received a wound that would return them to the rear, away from battle. He sympathized and worried for the lieutenant who had been badly injured and returned voluntarily to the front only to lose his nerve under the intense shelling. It must have been horribly traumatic to develop such close bonds and to have them ripped apart.
At the risk of sounding a little chauvinistic, I quote from the last lines of his book:
" When I was a child, I was told that men were branded by war. Has the brand been put on me? Have the years of blood and ruin stripped me of all decency? Of all belief? Not of all belief. I believe in the force of a hand grenade, the power of artillery, the accuracy of a Garand. I believe in hitting before you get hit, and that dead men do not look noble.
"But I also believe in men like Brandon and Novak and Swope and Kerrigan; and all the men who stood up against the enemy, taking their beatings without whimper and their triumphs without boasting. The men who went and would go again to hell and back to preserve what our country thinks right and decent.
"My country. America! That is it. We have been so intent on death that we have forgotten life. And now suddenly life faces us. I swear to myself that I will measure up to it. I may be branded by war, but I will not be defeated by it.
"Gradually it becomes clear. I will go back. I will find the kind of girl of whom I once dreamed. I will learn to look at life through uncynical eyes, to have faith, to know love. I will learn to work in peace as in war. And finally - finally, like countless others, I will learn to live again."
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Title:To Hell and Back ASIN: 6300181154 Publisher: Universal Studios Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $9.98 |
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Title: American Hero: The Life and Death of Audie Murphy by Charles Whiting ISBN: 0953867706 Publisher: J Whiting books Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $26.99 |
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Title: Baa Baa Black Sheep by Gregory Pappy Boyington ISBN: 0553263501 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 January, 1977 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Incredible Victory (Classics of War) by Walter Lord ISBN: 1580800599 Publisher: Burford Books Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title:Biography - Audie Murphy ASIN: B000006QGL Publisher: A & E Entertainment Pub. Date: 04 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $19.95 |
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