War in the South Pacific: Out in the Boondocks, U.S. Marines Tell Their Stories

"I was in one of the last landing barges to hit the beach of Gavutu Island. We were halfway in when the Japanese machine guns got their range. Bullets slapped the water and whined as they ricocheted off the barge. Some of us ducked; some of us fell to the floor; and all of us prayed."



Here, in heart-stopping human detail, are twenty-one personal accounts told by the men themselves.



They are the stories of men who lived in hell and lived to tell of it.



There is the story of Sgt. Albert Schmid...