{"product_id":"9780253109477","title":"With the 41st Division in the Southwest Pacific: A Foot Soldier's Story","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"[W]e began our advance toward the Mokmer Airstrip.... The road climbed a\u003cbr\u003e ridge 15 or 20 feet high and we found ourselves on a flat coral plateau sparsely\u003cbr\u003e covered by small trees and scrub growth.... As we moved westward along the road, two\u003cbr\u003e of our destroyers were sailing abreast of the lead elements of the advancing column.\u003cbr\u003e The first indication of trouble was the roar of heavy artillery shells sailing over\u003cbr\u003e our heads... aimed at our destroyers.... Shortly after that our forward movement\u003cbr\u003e stopped, and we heard heavy firing from the head of the column.... As we waited, we\u003cbr\u003e began to hear heavy fire from the rear.... We were cut off and surrounded!\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the enormous literature of the Second World War, there are\u003cbr\u003e surprisingly few accounts of fighting in the southwest Pacific, fewer still by\u003cbr\u003e common infantrymen. This memoir, written with a simple and direct honesty that is\u003cbr\u003e rare indeed, follows a foot soldier's career from basic training to mustering out.\u003cbr\u003e It takes the reader into the jungles and caves of New Guinea and the Philippines\u003cbr\u003e during the long campaign to win the war against Japan. From basic training at Camp\u003cbr\u003e Roberts through combat, occupation, and the long journey home, Francis Catanzaro's\u003cbr\u003e account tells of the excitement, misery, cruelty, and terror of combat, and of the\u003cbr\u003e uneasy boredom of jungle camp life. A member of the famed 41st Infantry Brigade, the\u003cbr\u003e \"Jungleers,\" Catanzaro saw combat at Hollandia, Biak, Zamboanga, and\u003cbr\u003e Mindanao. He was a part of the Japanese occupation force and writes with feeling\u003cbr\u003e about living among his former enemies and of the decision to drop the atom bomb.\u003cbr\u003e With the 41st Division in the Southwest Pacific is a powerful, gritty, and moving\u003cbr\u003e narrative of the life of a soldier during some of the most difficult fighting of\u003cbr\u003e World War II.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Indiana University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47084694372592,"sku":"9780253109477","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780253109477_p0.jpg?v=1763681744","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780253109477","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}