The Ghost Mountain Boys

Posted on 12 July 2018 by James Campbell

Campbell brings to vivid life one of the forgotten, grislier campaigns of World War II, the Buna Trail campaign in New Guinea The Japanese were trying to get a foothold on the south coast of the island, opposite Australia The American Thirty second Infantry Division had the job of driving them back over the Owen Stanley Mountain It succeeded, at the cost of than 10,000 casualties, four fifths of them from tropical diseases contracted in the face of heavy rain, astonishing depths of mud, rugged terrain, perpetually rancid weather, shortage of supplies including medicines , and, not incidentally, the Japanese The most poignant part of the book consists of the letters of an army surgeon who eventually committed suicide, but every part of the book entitles it to a berth in WWII collections. New Read The Ghost Mountain Boys Author James Campbell For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I read this book because my father fought in the Battle of Buna Though not a Ghost Mountain Boy, he, too, was a Michigan farm boy who was sent off to New Guinea to fight the Japanese as a soldier in the 127th Infantry, Company L of the Army s 32nd Red Arrow Division Throughout the book, I could hear my dad s voice retelling the details of malaria, jungle rot, mud, torrential rain, poor or non existent food, death and miscalculated strategies that he and his fellow soldiers experienced The dif I read this book because my father fought in the Battle of Buna Though not a Ghost Mountain Boy, he, too, was a Michigan farm boy who was sent off to New Guinea to fight the Japanese as a soldier in the 127th Infantry, Company L of the Army s 32nd Red Arrow Division Throughout the book, I could h...The first time I ever heard of the Red Arrow division was from my father when I was a small boy A late uncle of mine was one of the reservists National Guardsman called up to fight the Japanese in New Guinea However, as my father explained, my uncle was unable to answer the call because he was bedridden with TB My dad ended that story with they the 32nd Division were wiped out somewhere in the Pacific I had wondered what happened to them ever since.This book is about ill trained and unde The first time I ever heard of the Red Arrow division was from my father when I was a small boy A late uncle of mine was one of the reservists National Guardsman called up to fight the Japanese in New Guinea However, as my father explained, my uncle was unable to answer the call because he was bedridden with TB My dad ended that story with they the 32nd Division were wiped out somewhere in the Pacific I had wondered what happened to them ever since.This book is about ill trained and under equipped National Guardsman from primarily Michigan and Wisconsin They ...The addition of veteran and veteran s families interviews in the many years since the war has deeply enhanced the history The official history and the early histories on this battle Lida Mayo s Bloody Buna focused on interviews with high ranking officers, leaving out the experiences of the lower ranks and the enlisted It is very difficult to get a truly unbiased view of the early battles of New Guinea because so much rivalry between MacArthur and his Australian Allies led to each dispara The addition of veteran and veteran s families interviews in the many years since the war has deeply enhanced the history The official history and the early histories on this battle Lida Mayo s Bloody Buna focused on interviews with high ranking officers, leaving out the experiences of the lower ranks and the enlisted It is very difficult to get a truly unbiased view of the early battles of New Guinea because so much rivalry between MacArthur and his Australian Allies led to each disparaging the other s contribution It seems clear, however, that both the American and Australian soldiers endured great suffering in the struggle to defeat the Japanese attempts to isolate Australia from her Allies through the conquest of Papua New Guinea and nearby South Seas islands...This was an informative look at the Papuan campaign and it was interesting in that Campbell focused on several Soldiers involved in this campaign, but it could ve been so much better He really only scratched the surface of an incredibly brutal campaign which saw heroism on a daily basis from not only the infantryman, but the cooks and mechanics, as well The units involved were Mich...This non fiction tale of the 32nd division during the Pacific campaign of World War II was informative but a tad dry So many soldiers were discussed it was hard to keep track of them all and I hated MacArthur s c...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 The battle for Buna, New Guinea November 1942 through January 1943 , isn t as well known as others like Guadalcanal The 32nd Army Infantry Di...In The Ghost Mountain Boys James Campbell tells the story of the 32nd Division s campaign in New Guinea, their trek across the Owen Stanley range and the eerie Ghost Mountain, and their struggle to overrun the Japanese at Buna Campbell s account is excellent on a number of levels First, he does a very good job of personalising the story, tracking a number of Division members from senior officers to enlisted men, based on interviews, letters sent home and archival research We get to know the m In The Ghost Mountain Boys James Campbell tells the story of the 32nd Division s campaign in New Guinea, their trek across the Owen Stanley range and the eerie Ghost Mountain, and their struggle to overrun the Japanese at Buna Campbell s account is excellent on a number of levels First, he does a very good job of personalising the story, tracking a number of Division members from senior officers to enlisted men, based on interviews, letters sent home and archival research We get to know the men, their personal history and family circumstances Second, he provides amble contextualisation with regards to New Guinea and its strategic position in the war, the history of the division and its campaign, the war in general and in particular MacArthur s decision making Third, by translating Japanese war diaries, he manages to detail the campaign from the Japanese s point of view Fourth, he manages to convey, with a g...In brief, the subject matter is fascinating, but the writing comes up short The story of what the men of the 32nd Division suffered through in 1942 43 on the island of New Guinea is amazing How the US Army thought they could dump a bunch of poorly trained and equipped midwestern farm boys into the jungles and mountains of New Guinea and expect them to be effective is mind blowing But they were effective Fighting alongside the Australians for coverage of whom, see Kokoda , they managed to In brief, the subject matter is fascinating, but the writing comes up short The story of what the men of the 32nd Division suffered through in 1942 43 on the island of New Guinea is amazing How the US Army thought they could dump a bunch of poorly trained and equipped midwester...The battle for New Guinea was brutal jungle warfare Though Guadalcanal is much better known, the number of dead in New Guinea was three times larger than at Guadalcanal MacArthur was the commander, and one can see how he earned the derisive nickname of Dugout Doug While his men were fighting, he remained comfortably ensconced in a mansion some hundred miles away, devising plans for battle He never visited the battlefield to see what conditions were like As a result, thousands of Allied tr The battle for New Guinea was brutal jungle warfare Though Guadalcanal is much better known, the number of dead in New Guinea was three times larger than at Guadalcanal MacArthur was the commander, and one can see how he earned the derisive nickname of Dugout Doug While his men were fighting, he...Well done book on a forgotten campaign Something I knew very little about, I knew of it but not the details The author does a good job of weaving the picture on the ground with first hand accounts and diary entries with the general overview from the command side Sadly yet a...

English
12 July 2018

James Campbell