To hell and back book

Navigation menu

Audie Murphy To Hell And Back Military Audiobook

The classic bestselling war memoir by the most decorated American soldier in World War II, back in print in a trade paperback. Originally published in , To Hell and Back was a smash bestseller for fourteen weeks and later became a major motion picture starring Audie Murphy as himself. More than fifty years later, this classic wartime memoir is just as gripping as it was then. Desperate to see action but rejected by both the marines and paratroopers because he was too short, Murphy eventually found a home with the infantry. He fought through campaigns in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany.

Transport land. Murphy, Audie PermaBooks Edition pages. Once in combat Murphy quickly regrets the decision, but resolves to follow through on his commitment. Through experience Murphy becomes very adept at combat. But the detailed descriptions make it very clear that skill and combat training are second to sheer luck when it comes to survival. So many casualties are due to mortar fire, larger artillery, that very first sniper shot that warns you that the area is no longer secure at the cost of another man, and land mines. Precautions are available for all of these hazards, but none of them are truly adequate.

There are good reasons for this. At one key juncture after another, its leaders and mobilised people created conditions, and ultimately catastrophes, to which other leaders and peoples could only — usually belatedly and ineffectively — react. It makes sense to focus a history of Europe in this era on the problem of Germany. But how to tell that story? After all we know how it all ends; the smouldering ashes of are visible from the start. Historians have dealt with that conundrum differently — some recovering ordinary lives, others piling on descriptions of atrocities to spur moral outrage.