Brings together the wartime experience of Company G through the words of their veterans.An all-round account of the actions of Company G of the 163rd Infantry Regiment, 41st Division, U.S. Army, during World War II in the Pacific. The narrative follows the company from training in the Pacific Northwest, to Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, and onto Japan. Each of the actions in which Company G participated is described at every leveldivisional, regimental, battalion, company, and individualto show how strategies and decisions made at the highest levels were experienced by individual soldiers.At the heart of the book are the stories of some of the men of Company G, including Jack Anderson, who had been with the 163rd as a National Guardsman before the war and served through the occupation of Japan; Doyle Bruce, a draftee from Texas who joined the U.S. Army in the weeks before Pearl Harbor and served through Company Gs last combat mission; Bruce Baird, a draftee from Ogden, Utah whose injuries at Biak resulted in rotation home in 1945; and Hargis Westerfield, who joined Company G as a replacement after the units first combat mission and survived to the end of the war. By combining their experiences with the elements of a more traditional military history the book provides a complete picture of one company's war.
An intimate account of the Pacific War, through the experiences of one infantry company.
Introduction
1: Before Deployment, December 7, 1941April 6, 1942
2: Australia, April 6December 25, 1942
3: New Guinea: Buna-Sanananda, December 25, 1942February 1, 1943
4: The Kumusi River Patrol, February 114, 1943
5: Rest for Some, Combat for Others, February 15July 14, 1943
6: Return to Australia, July 14,1943March 23, 1944
7: Hollandia and Aitape, March 23May 17, 1944
8: Wakde, May 1726, 1944
9: Biak, May 27, 1944February 27,1945
10: The Philippines, February 27April 1, 1945
11: The Sulu Archipelago, April 21July 4, 1945
12: The End of the War and the Occupation of Japan, July 4October 30, 1945
Epilogue
Brian Bruce is a retired history teacher who taught high school students and community college students for thirty-one years. He is the author of Thomas Boyd: Lost Author of the Lost Generation.