Helmet for My Pillow
by Robert Leckie · first published 1957
3mentions
3recommended by
3HN commenters
2015–2022first – last mentioned
100% recommend
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, pai
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
For more details on exactly why the USMC is so afraid of being without carrier support, see accounts of the Battle of Guadalcanal. I recommend "Helmet For My Pillow" by Robert Leckie, which was also one of the books used as a basis for the HBO miniseries "The Pacific".
on “F-35 stealth jet 'will not be able to fire its guns until 2019'” ↗…is a fascist tract have only watched the movie uncritically, or have bothered to read the book, but have no concept of what military people are like. The best way to understand Starship Troopers is as Helmet for My Pillow or another of the countless WW2 memoirs, but in space. That's the narrative structure it follows. > It says something about our desire for the fantastika that "Star Wars" (space wizards! Evil emperors!)…
on “Science Fiction’s Wonderful Mistakes” ↗…depictions of war that have been less sanitized. "The Pacific" comes to mind in TV, and "Fury" in movies, even if it's very formulaic. Memoirs can be raw too: - https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/Helmet-For-My-Pillow.ht... - https://gerikson.com/blog/books/read/With-the-Old-Breed.html And even before 1989 novels like Waugh's "Sword of Honour" trilogy problematized WW2.
on “The Real War 1939-1945 (1989)” ↗