Combat Officer: A Memoir of War in the South Pacific

by Charles Walker

Book Overview

TO HELL AND BACK For the U.S., Guadalcanal was a bloody seven-month struggle under brutal conditions against crack Japanese troops deeply entrenched and determined to fight to the death. For Charles... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345463854
• ISBN13: 9780345463852
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.5" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

An army officers combat filled war

Walker was an officer with 164th Infantry Rgt of the Americal Division. He fought on Guadalcanal, Bougainville and Leyte. Initially with the heavy weapons Co, he is promoted and most of his combat is as commander of E Co. As such he is in the line quite a bit and given the nature of the jungle war he encounters Japanese soldiers on a frequent basis and to put it bluntly, personally accounts for many of them. A lot of this is with grenades and his rifle but also, in a first for me in my memoir reading, his combat knife! So there is combat in spades. The 164th, a National Guard unit, is the first to assist the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal. Walker's role is positioning machine guns and seeing that they stay in action. His unit is hit hard in the attacks of late October and he encounters quite a few Japanese infiltrators. His thoughts on operating with the Marines are interesting (and I smiled to read about being on the receiving end of Marine `scrounging'). In the offensive phase he is frequently on patrols and involved in assaults. After rest in Fiji he spends a year on Bougainville and there are a lot of patrols, ambushes and company level actions. There is a lot of insight here into the role of a company level officer. The most notable campaign to me though was the fight for Leyte. Again Walker commands E Co but the intensity of the fighting is much greater. Walker's units (and Walker himself) account for large numbers of Japanese. The extent of these actions was news to me! Walker also deals with much else. He discusses the particular challenges of the tropics (including large poisonous centipedes!), disease and in particular weaponry. One of the more surprising aspects was issues with the officer Corps. Quite a number of the original National Guard officers were cowards, incompetents or arrogant fools. West Point trained officers were unfairly favoured and there were ridiculous jealousies and petulance and soldiers died as a result of these tensions. Walker has his share of run-ins but his priority is turning his company into a well trained and deadly force. It is interesting to read how he learned from his mistakes and also how he frequently out thought the enemy. He is also lucky. There were a number of occasions where he was nearly killed. The writing style is more straightforward and less intense than those of the top writers here. There is quite a bit of detail but at times I felt more could have been said. Walker is never boastful and probably quite properly, doesn't elaborate too much on killing. This said, he is keen to record the numbers of casualties his company inflicts. It was a very bitter war after all. This is a good memoir. It gives an army perspective on battles where the Marines received most of the coverage. It also reminds the reader that the wholly army campaigns were of a significant nature. So while I think it could all have been revealed in a more compelling manner, in terms of direct combat this is very impress

Excellent book

I enjoyed reading this book. The author compiled notes, diaries, and letters that he kept from battles in the Pacific during World War II. He also utilized the same sources from friends and colleagues to give their points of view of the battles they fought in. It is quite interesting to me that he waited so long before he actually wrote the book. I enjoyed the book so much that I bought another copy for a friend.

A Maverick's War

Better late than never. I was raised in the same town as Chuck Walker, went to school with one of his daughters. A few years later I spent a summer working for him during his bush pilot phase. Even then I knew he had been through the mill during the war, but that was about it. Until now. As something of a WWII history student, the content of the book is what I would expect--good, if rough narrative and unvarnished. Moreover, it captures the man as he was--and still is. Someplace there is a quote to the effect that if you hammer the American fighting man you forge the finest weapon in the world. This book describes that experience.

A Pacific War Combat Memoir

I thoroughly enjoyed this personal recollection of the author's participation in various campaigns as an Army officer in combat: Guadalcanal, Bouganville, and the Philippines, as well as R & R in New Caledonia. You get a real feel for what jungle fighting against a tenacious enemy was like. I highly recommend this well written and easy to read title.