****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I just bought the new paperbook edition of this book, I know that I must have read it casually many years ago, likely when I served in the US Army. But now all these years later, with more wisdom, I really could appreciate the real battle experiences portrayed in the book, the misery, the fight to stay alive, this is a great portrayal and thankfully not a military recruiting book, and thankfully not an anti-war book either in my opinion.I read this book rather fast, two evenings, and I have a real problem reading books that I buy all the way through. I was especially interested in his supposed choice of weapons, seems I have a more vested interest in all things m1 carbine, the nice little rifle that shot the non rifle cartridge ".30 m1 carbine" to be not confused with the M1 Garand. The m1 carbine was given to support personnel and it seems in the book we find out that Audie Murphy had an M1 Carbine alot, likely due to his stature of only five foot six inches tall, or it could likely have been that was due to his ever increasing rank, but he did use the carbine alot. Since I am also the same height, and strangely half of my family came from Texas as well from that same time period, I too would likely have been issued an m1 carbine in ww2, it was a popular weapon with a removeable 15 round box magazine, and soldiers carried more than just one mag. Seems Audie Murphy, not mentioned in the book, actually killed seven snipers with an m1 carbine, though in the book it does mention some work on several snipers with an m1 carbine, to include the day he was shot in the hip and just barely shot the german sniper in time with his carbine when he raised it up with one arm and shot pistol style, of which he was taken to a medic tent for three days before casualties could be evacuated, by that time he formed gangreane in the wound and for a month they pumped him full of penicillin and carved away dead flesh, GASTLY details, he actually returned to combat after that!You find out in the book that it almost seems his survival for three years of combat was sure luck of the draw, and the acts he performed were nothing anyone else couldn't have performed. The more I read of the book, I feel that there was a fact one can pick up to combat tactics, it seems alot of the guys that got picked off either exposed themselves, or were not in a good position to keep from catching shell fragments from artillery, and oh that is so true supposedly, one must not expose themselves and must take cover, and the parts in the book about keeping his mouth open for explosions is to prevent concussion death/injury, like popping lungs like a ballon instead of squeezing the air out of an open mouth, I learned that in the army.So yeah, if a young or older person is in the miltary or considering military service, this book could in theory save their life by learning basic combat survival skills.I guess I will need to read another book or account of the records of how or for what he received all his medals, just for good reading, cause it aint covered in his book, but that is good, cause those who likely seek glory get it posthumously anyway, I mean, seems all CMH awardees in the last ten years got it awarded after death. Its good that his awards and suffering got him a movie career, though by the time he died in a plane accident, his career was in decline and the vietnam war was in full swing(1971), you could say that the cmh and his awards left him dead prematurely, where as he could have become a humble farmer or such and died much later a regular citizen. People should read the book along with seeing the movie, since the movie is a little different, but hey, it's Audie Murphy himself in the movie, a priceless treat never again to likely ever be repeated, soldier to actor, later portraying himself.
