Devil Dogs, Saul David
Devil Dogs, Saul David
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Devil Dogs
From Guadalcanal to the Shores of Japan

Author: Saul David

Narrator: Adam James

Unabridged: 17 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/27/2022


Synopsis

The "Devil Dogs" of King Company, Third Battalion, 5th Marines—part of the legendary 1st Marine Division—were among the first American soldiers to take the offensive in World World II—and also the last.

They landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in August 1942—the first US ground offensive of the war—and were present when Okinawa, Japan's, most southerly prefecture finally fell to American troops in June 1945.

Ordinary men from very different backgrounds, and drawn from cities, towns, and settlements across America, the Devil Dogs were asked to do something extraordinary: take on the victorious Imperial Japanese Army—and defeat it. This is the story of how they did just that and, in the process, forged bonds of brotherhood that still survive today.

The company contained an unusually high number of talented writers, whose first-hand accounts and memoirs provide the color, emotion, and context for this extraordinary story. In Devil Dogs, award-winning historian Saul David sets the searing experience of the Devil Dogs into the broader context of the brutal war in the Pacific and does for the U.S. Marines what Band of Brothers did for the 101st Airborne.

About Saul David

Saul David is a critically renowned military historian and broadcaster. He is the author, most recently, of Operation Thunderbolt; Crucible of Hell; and The Force. He lives outside of Bath, England, where he is a professor of military history at the University of Buckingham.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mike on June 17, 2024

This was one of the rare books that has off the charts positive ratings on Goodreads that I did not love. Overall the books does a great job sharing the stories of the soldiers who fought, but I could not at all follow where they were or any individual people beyond a few. There were simply too many......more

Goodreads review by David on December 08, 2022

It started good, became great about midway through and then toward the end it was impossible to put down. Saul David can really paint a picture with his words, and the words of others he has chosen to include. Bravo!......more

Goodreads review by Darren on February 01, 2023

I am unashamed to say that I did not finish this book with dry eyes. David took a little while to really hook me in, perhaps because of the slightly misleading "first in, last out" subtitle - the "two campaign" replacement policy meant that no individual served in K Company for the whole war - so th......more

Goodreads review by Marshall on January 27, 2023

A very well done “biography” about a Marine Rifle Company during WW II. Unusually for a unit like K/3/5, a number of its survivors wrote accounts of the war. The author provides an excellent narrative of King Company’s combat in 4 major battles, with lots of personal stories of the Marine participan......more

Goodreads review by Bre on March 23, 2024

Don’t usually write reviews, but it deserved saying that Devil Dogs is a staggeringly impressive work of scholarship and truly one of the best, most engaging, comprehensive books I’ve ever read. An essential history of the war in the Pacific, brought to life through the lens of an incredibly excepti......more