Watching the recent HBO 10-part series "The Pacific," I learned that the producers and writers used the wartime accounts of Robert Leckie and Eugene Sledge to write the screenplays. Fortunately, Leckie's 1957 memoir of his action in the South Pacific in World War II was reissued this year by Bantam Books in paperback.
Leckie, from New Jersey, departed for Marine boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He fought with the First Marine Division at Guadalcanal, New Guinea, New Britain, and Peleliu before he was injured and shipped home in 1944. He was awarded five battle stars. He went on to a newspaper career and wrote numerous books on military history.
Leckie's book not only provides realistic descriptions of the battles against Japanese soldiers on island after island in the South Pacific but also details the boredom, disease, insects, heat and humidity of the jungle that soldiers on both sides had to endure. He describes his fellow soldiers -- all of whom have nicknames (Runner, Chuckler, Eloquent, Lt. Big-Picture, Father Straight, etc.)-- with wit and candor.
Leckie's writing is eloquent and unsentimental, and his book one of the best first-person accounts of the Pacific war.