Not surprisingly, the piece provoked a firestorm of controversy. At Esperitu Santo, where the 27th Division survivors were recuperating from the Saipan fighting, the article exploded among the ranks like some sort of literary nuclear bomb. “The Sherrod article hurt and stung them,” Sergeant John Thorburn wrote to Ralph Smith of the pain the men felt when they read the piece. “With a few biased, nasty words he cut into their very hearts.”
