Author: Jack H. McCall
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 1621907589
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 467
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Book Description
Jack H. McCall Sr. was a born storyteller, an inveterate practical joker, and a proud Tennessean whose flaws included a considerable taste for candy, or “pogiebait” in Marine parlance. Like so many other able-bodied young people in on the eve of World War II, he decided to enlist in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Much more than a family memoir or nostalgic wartime reminiscence, this painstakingly researched biography presents a rich, engaging study of the U.S. Marine Corps, particularly McCall’s understudied unit, the Ninth Defense Battalion—the “Fighting Ninth.” The author provides a window into the day-to-day service of a Marine during World War II, with important coverage of fighting in the Pacific Theater. McCall also depicts life in wartime Franklin, Tennessee, and offers a poignant and personal tribute to his father. McCall dramatizes some of the classic themes of the war memoir genre (war is hell, but memories fade!), but he sets riveting descriptions of decisive action against rarely seen views of mundane work and daily life, supported with maps, photographs, and fresh interpretations. Another distinction of this work is its attention to the action on Guam, a very unpleasant late-war “mopping up” that has received relatively little scholarly attention. In his portrait of the bitter island-hopping war in the Pacific, the author shows how both U.S. and Japanese soldiers were often eager innocents drawn to the cauldron of conflict and indoctrinated and trained by their respective governments. Reflecting on the action late in life, Jack (as well as several other Ninth veterans) came to a begrudging respect for the enemy.
Author: Jack H. MacCall
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780738857640
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496
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Book Description
As we remember America´s involvement in World War II, we recognize that the ranks of our surviving veterans of that war are rapidly thinning. Yet, the successes of movies like "Saving Private Ryan" and books like Stephen E. Ambrose´s "Citizen Soldiers," James Bradley´s and Ron Powers´"Flags of Our Fathers" and Tom Brokaw´s "Greatest Generation" series suggest that even as the number of survivors of the war decreases daily, interest in and an appreciation for their contributions and sacrifices have only increased in the public´s eye. With few exceptions, much of the recent wave of interest in the Second World War has focused largely on the European Theater of Operations. Considerably fewer books have appeared regarding the war and its long-term consequences on the soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who fought in the Pacific. And little at all has ever been written on one unsung branch of the Marine Corps, the Defense Battalions. One of the veterans of these units was Jack McCall, Sr., better known as "Pogiebait" from an old navy term for candy, a reference to his unquenchable sweet tooth. From Boot Camp to V-J Day and the war´s chronic effects on postwar life, "Pogiebait´s War" surveys the life and times of a young Marine artilleryman and his peers in the Marines´ "Fightin´ Ninth" Defense Battalion. Galvanized into action by President Roosevelt´s call to arms after Pearl Harbor, young Jack McCall joins the rush to volunteer for the Marines. Less than one month later, he leaves his Tennessee home to experience the rigor (and unintended humor) of life as a lowly and harassed "boot"--the "world´s most unexalted specimen of humanity"--at the Corps´s infamous Parris Island training camp. By early 1942, Pogiebait McCall and 800 other Marines are molded into a battalion at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. During their Cuban sojourn, where the Marines figure in the capture of a Nazi U-boat crew, Pogiebait McCall and his buddies lust for action. They would soon get their wish. Jack McCall and the Ninth Defense receive their baptism by fire on Guadalcanal and nearby New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, where the Allies wage a bitter and now largely forgotten campaign against Japan. The "Fightin´ Ninth" and its sister units suffer terrible losses early in the struggle for New Georgia. Harried by air raids, and plagued by malarial outbreaks and logistical snafus, Pogiebait and his pals make their mark in military history by setting yet-unbroken records for shooting down an entire enemy bomber squadron within a matter of minutes and for perfecting new means of tank and electronic warfare in a jungle environment. By 1944, Jack and the men of the Ninth play a key role in the triumphant liberation of the American territory of Guam, the first U.S. possession to be freed from Japan after a brutal occupation period. Yet, the Ninth´s campaigns are fraught with controversial incidents that almost derail the Allied plans for victory in the Pacific, including the accidental sinking of the flagship of the New Georgia invasion fleet; the horrors of friendly-fire casualties and the first medical diagnoses of "combat neurosis;" and the terrors of Japanese bombardments and banzai attacks. "Pogiebait´s War" is an unstinting and eye-opening look at the tedium, terror, anger, pride and occasional humor that marked the life of the average U.S. Marine and his buddies in the Pacific Theater. The product of three years of extensive research, it combines archival source materials with first-person interviews and is extensively illustrated, including many never-before-published photographs. "Pogiebait´s War" depicts why veterans of America´s last "good war" could justly say, like Pogiebait McCall, that they "lived a lifetime in four years."
Author: Emma Bland Smith
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
ISBN: 1684371716
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 49
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Book Description
Here is a true story of how the great nations of America and England almost went to war in 1859 over a pig—but learned to share instead. In 1859, the British and Americans coexist on the small island of San Juan, located off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They are on fairly good terms--until one fateful morning when an innocent hog owned by a British man has the misfortune to eat some potatoes on an American farmer's land. In a moment of rash anger, Lyman Cutlar shoots Charles Griffin's pig, inadvertently almost bringing the two nations to war. Tensions flare, armies gather, cannons are rolled out . . . all because of a pig! Emma Bland Smith's humorous text and Alison Jay's folksy illustrations combine in this whimsical nonfiction picture book that models the principles of peaceful conflict resolution.
Author: Tod Olson
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545928125
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 143
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Book Description
LOST IN THE PACIFIC is the first book in a new narrative nonfiction series that tells the true story of a band of World War II soldiers who became stranded at sea and had to fight for survival. World War II, October 21, 1942. A B-17 bomber drones high over the Pacific Ocean, sending a desperate SOS into the air. The crew is carrying America's greatest living war hero on a secret mission deep into the battle zone. But the plane is lost, burning through its final gallons of fuel.At 1:30 p.m., there is only one choice left: an emergency landing at sea. If the crew survives the impact, they will be left stranded without food or water hundreds of miles from civilization. Eight men. Three inflatable rafts. Sixty-eight million square miles of ocean. What will it take to make it back alive?
Author: Gary Jeffrey
Publisher: Graphic Modern History: World
ISBN: 9780778741978
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Describes the Pacific battles of World War II in graphic novel format, including stories of Pearl Harbor, kamikaze attacks, and the atomic bomb.
Author: Nel Yomtov
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1496628241
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32
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Book Description
In the 1930s Louis Zamperini was a promising Olympic track athlete. But when World War II broke out, he enlisted and served as a bombardier with the U.S. Army Air Corps. In 1943 Zamperini miraculously survived when his bomber crashed in the Pacific Ocean. But that was just the beginning of his ordeal. After surviving for more than six weeks on a raft at sea, he was captured by Japanese forces and sent to a POW camp. For the next two years Zamperini endured brutal treatment at the hands of the Japanese officer who chose to make an example of him. But no matter how horrible things things became, Zamp refused to be broken. Learn all about Louis Zamperini and his unbreakable spirit as a prisoner of war in World War II.
Author: Barbara Williams
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
ISBN: 9780822501381
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 106
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Book Description
Chronicles the Pacific Theater of the Second World War, highlighting major battles, life on the homefront, and the war's end.
Author: Tim Cooke
Publisher: World War II: The Full Story
ISBN: 9781781212318
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Includes an index and bibliographical references (page 47-48).
Author: Karen Latchana Kenney
Publisher: Childrens Press
ISBN: 9780531188378
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32
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Book Description
Discusses war and its consequences, including peace, war crimes, nuclear and chemical weapons, land mines, life in a war zone, refugee camps, relief organizations, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Author: Audrey Couloumbis
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0375893024
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
Based on a true story of World War II. For 12-year-old Petros, World War II feels unreal and far away. What’s real is working in his papa’s garden. Playing marbles with his friends. Fighting with his older brother, Zola. Zola, who must always be first. Who must always be best. But when the Germans invade Greece, the war suddenly comes impossibly close. Overnight, neighbors become enemies. People begin to keep secrets (Petros’s family most of all). And for the first time, Petros has the chance to show Zola that he’s not just a little brother but that he can truly be counted on. Soon what were once just boys’ games become matters of life and death as Petros and Zola each wonder if, like their resistance fighter cousin, they too can make a difference.
