 | Price Comparisons: Rental | | Sorry, the textbook you were looking for is not available as Rental, at any of the stores we searched. | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | Lying due north of Australia, New Guinea is among the world’s largest islands. In 1942, when World War II exploded onto its shores, it was an inhospitable, cursorily mapped, disease-ridden land of dense jungle, towering mountain peaks, deep valleys, and fetid swamps. Coveted by the Japanese for its strategic position, New Guinea became the site of one of the South Pacific’s most savage campaigns. Despite their lack of jungle training, the 32nd Division’s Ghost Mountain Boys were assigned the most grueling mission of the entire Pacific campaign: to march 130 miles over the rugged Owen Stanley Mountains and to protect the right flank of the Australian army as they fought to push the Japanese back to the village of Buna on New Guinea’s north coast.
Comprised of National Guardsmen from Michigan and Wisconsin, reserve officers, and draftees from across the country, the 32nd Division lacked more than training—they were without even the basics necessary for survival. The men were not issued the specialized clothing that later became standard issue for soldiers fighting in the South Pacific; they fought in hastily dyed combat fatigues that bled in the intense humidity and left them with festering sores. They waded through brush and vines without the aid of machetes. They did not have insect repellent. Without waterproof containers, their matches were useless and the quinine and vitamin pills they carried, as well as salt and chlorination tablets, crumbled in their pockets. Exhausted and pushed to the brink of human endurance, the Ghost Mountain Boys fell victim to malnutrition and disease. Forty-two days after they set out, they arrived two miles south of Buna, nearly shattered by the experience.
Arrival in Buna provided no respite. The 32nd Division was ordered to launch an immediate assault on the Japanese position. After two months of furious—sometimes hand-to-hand—combat, the decimated division finally achieved victory. The ferocity of the struggle for Buna was summed up in Time magazine on December 28, 1942, three weeks before the Japanese army was defeated: “Nowhere in the world today are American soldiers engaged in fighting so desperate, so merciless, so bitter, or so bloody.”
Reminiscent of classics like Band of Brothers and The Things They Carried, this harrowing portrait of a largely overlooked campaign is part war diary, part extreme adventure tale, and (through letters, journals, and interviews) part biography of a group of men who fought to survive in an environment every bit as fierce as the enemy they faced. |
Average Customer Rating:   Eye-opening account of the Battle for New Guinea I wasn't very familiar with the Battle for New Guinea prior to reading this book.
The book provides an eye-opening account of the battle and the horrific conditions
under which both sides of the battle fought. The book is very well written.
The only minor problem I had with the book was that, in some instances, the maps
did not provide enough detail to locate particular areas/villages mentioned
in the text. This problem appeared only a few times -
mainly towards the beginning of the book. Perhaps this was
corrected in the paperback edition (I read the hardcover edition).
Otherwise the book was excellent and I highly recommend it. Welcome to Hell The battle for Buna, New Guinea (November 1942 through January 1943), isn't as well-known as others like Guadalcanal. The 32nd Army Infantry Division (National Guard) was tasked with defeating a Japanese army poised for devastating strikes on Australia. Unfortunately, the 32nd was poorly trained and supplied, and had to fight both the Japanese and the jungle. MacArthur and other top brass grossly underestimated the strength and condition of the enemy, which, contrary to their belief was numerous and *not* starving. They were also very deeply entrenched on the island and the 32nd had to resort to "primitive tactics" that guaranteed high casualties, and so many young men were sacrificed needlessly. Weeks of constant fighting turned the green troops into hardened soldiers and they eventually defeated the Japanese, but at terrible cost.
James Campbell does an excellent job of recounting the terrifying battle, striking a good early balance between MacArthur's overall strategy and the experience of the men on the ground - American, Australian, and even Japanese. He effectively points out the folly of generals who "fight" far from the actual fighting (and then take the credit), as MacArthur blamed the National Guardsmen for failing to quickly defeat their enemy without knowing the true conditions or even visiting the island. Told with frequent quotes from letters and journals (Japanese soldiers, too), Campbell puts a very human face on the war, and I couldn't help but wonder at the madness of it all. He regularly quotes from Army surgeon Simon Warmenhoven's letters to home, and one to a young daughter is especially touching.
For readers who want a real whiff of jungle battle, this is an excellent account that reads as easily as a novel and makes you feel like you've been there in the mud with bullets tearing up the foliage all around you. I listened to the audio version, which is read extremely well by Stephen Hoye. EXCELLENT ACCOUNT OF MACARTHUR'S ARMY IN NEW GUINEA "Ghost Mountain Boys" is an excellent piece of work and I could not recommend it to you more highly, both for its depth of research, and Mr. Campbell's ability to spin a story like a master novelist.
I spent a decade among former cannibals in New Guinea as a boy, and our playground was the downed aircraft of WWII. There are several historians who have "covered" Supreme Commander and American General Douglas MacArthur's war against the Japanese on the savage island, but few who, like James Campbell, actually went around the world and walked the nearly impossible trails that those poor American, Australian (and Japanese) troops had to endure! Truth truly is stranger than fiction, and if you "made up" the appalling conditions under which these boys had to fight, live and die, many would not believe you. This is gut-wrenching stuff, but essential reading for those with an interest in the world clash between the Cowboy and Samurai nations.
"Ghost Mountain Boys" was revealing and essential reading for my own research for my brawling adventure set on the island where I grew up. I highly recommend "Ghost Mountain Boys."
Timothy James Dean
Author
Teeth - The Epic Novel with Bite (The New Guinea Trilogy, Volume 1)
Kindle Edition
TEETH - The Epic Novel With Bite (The New Guinea Trilogy) About the more personal aspects of the Papua Campaign I read the Ghost Mountain Boys right after reading the "US Army in WWII: Victory in Papua" as I wanted to get some more details on this campaign. The two books complement each other nicely. Victory in Papua was more focused on what made for the success and failures of the campaign from a leadership point of view.
The Ghost Mountain Boys instead focuses on the more personal aspects of the campaign. It does a tremendous job of introducing you to the various characters and then discusses what happens to them throughout the campaign giving you a deeper insight into the tremendous suffering, anxiety and tragedies the troops went through. Additionally, it gives you much greater details on the implications of sending troops into battle without the proper equipment and training and indirectly compares and contrasts two different leadership styles demonstrated by the Americans and the Japanese as they grapple with conflict during this campaign. Lastly, this book gives some interesting observations regarding one of the most controversial characters of WWII Gen. Douglas McAurthur.
I recommend the but but also suggest you read the "Victory in Papua" if you want a more traditional US military leadership viewpoint of the campaign. The Ghost Mountain Boys Excellent reading. A very graphic description of the terrible conditions suffered by the Red Arrow 32nd Div in their New Guinea campaign. James Campbell is to be commended for his descriptive story.
It would make a great film. |  |
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