The Contribution of Individual Heroes to The Victory of The United States in The World War 2 Over Japan

A memoir, To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy, and a non-memoir The Flags of Our Fathers by James D. Bradley were fantastic books. The books To Hell and Back and the Flags of our Fathers are super detailed books that have interesting events and day-by-day details of the war that occurred during World War II. The intense details that were in these books were events that real live military soldiers, that are now listed as some of the bravest soldiers during World War II today went through and what they saw happen with their own eyes.

Flags of Our Fathers

The book, Flag of Our Fathers was written by James D. Bradley with Ron Powers. James D. Bradley wrote the Flag of Our Fathers because he found details that his father John Bradley left behind, his father did not say much about what he experienced or the details that went on when he was at war, but his son did the research to find out what really went on, and what went on at Iwo Jima and the events of World War II and the happenings that led to the raising of the United States flag over Iwo Jima, Japan. James Bradley captured the horrific events, the inheritance of the six famous men who raised the flag, and the sixteen hundred United States Marines around them.

The marines that went to Iwo Jima, Japan for war trained at a camp. The United States Marines trained at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California. There were around sixteen hundred troops that were assigned the third platoon on the island of Iwo Jima. When the United States Marines landed on the Japanese, the United States quickly realized that they were outnumbered. The Japanese had twelve thousand Japanese soldiers in a range of eight square miles. The American soldiers realized the Japanese had some strong, intelligent tactics like blockhouses, foxholes, pillboxes, and structures that advanced the Japanese military.

The reason this book is so popular is that there were six United States Marines that lifted the United States flag on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945. The six United States Marines that lifted the flag were Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley, Harlon Block, Mike Strank, and Rene Gagnon. Later a couple of the United States Marines were later misidentified during the famous picture of the United States flag being raised. The raising of the flag was because of a famous picture and two-hundred daily newspaper companies released that picture and forty-eight thousand people requested copies just after the newspapers printed pictures of the raising of the flag. James Bradley said regarding the flag that “SO EVERY SON OF A BITCH ON THIS WHOLE CRUDDY ISLAND CAN SEE IT!” There were lots of other pictures that were taken during the strict-intense warfare, which made none of those pictures different besides the raising of the flag, people were getting sick of wartime pictures, and this picture was a sign that war could be coming to an end.

To Hell and Back

The book, Hell and Back was written by Audie Murphy. Audie Murphy wrote this book because the war was literally hell, he has very decrypt details of what happened to Audie Murphy during the war, from him being sick, to him fighting on the front lines. Audie Murphy was a such a quintessential American hero it was if someone had invented him. He was a brilliant and courageous warrior with deep feeling about his fellow men fighting, their safety, and their common mission. Tom Brokaw said that “Audie Murphy, was the most decorated combat veteran of World War II, stared at his interrogator for a moment and then said in a familiar Texas voice, “If I had, do you think I would have missed?

Audie Murphy’s home life was rough, if his father would have exercised more foresight, undoubtedly his family would have fared much better then they had. He was not lazy but he had a genius for not considering the future. One day he just gave up. He walked out on the Murphy family, and they never from him again. Audie Murphy’s mother was attempting to keep her brood together, she worked harder than ever, but illness took over her. Gradually, she grew weaker and sadder. At sixteen she died. God knows where my pride came from. After the death of my mother, Audie Murphy was more determined than ever to enter the military. When the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor, I was half-wild with frustration.

On Audie Murphy’s eighteenth birthday, he hurried to a marine corps recruiting station, with everyone saying his weight was not high enough to be enlisted, he was angry. He still somehow, someway got to enlist and he went overseas landing in North Africa as a replacement for an infantry company. After a couple of days in North Africa, he got extremely cold, and he felt like hell. He got malaria, a fever that is caused by a parasite that invades the red blood cells. It took a week for him to be able to be fit for duty.

The adventures and hell that Audie Murphy experienced was everything from The snow, some frost, the rain, the Volturno river to the tunnels he stayed in while hiding from the German soldiers. Audie Murphy and his group of soldiers were shooting at a pack of Germans, and Audie Murphy bends over at a couple wounded Germans and one of them puckers his lips and fumbles with a coat pocket and starts vomiting. The weather was rainy and caused pools of water around the Germans bodies.

Audie Murphy got sick, really sick, and was going to be a boatload of replacements that were going to replace the soldiers in Anzio, the German were like watching hawks, there were planes everywhere. Once in Anzio, the United States soldiers slept in caves. The caves were noisy, and it was very hard to sleep. The attack was coming the next afternoon. The attack from the Germans counter backing becomes more imminent. Spring was upon them, they realized in May, a vast operation was upon them. The Germans were answering us with intense attacks and precise ammo. During the months of Anzio, it was bitter, and they only dreamed of a triumphal entry into a great city, Rome.

The soldiers prowled through Rome like ghosts, finding no satisfaction there. Brandon, Audie Murphy’s friend says “Murph, you’re getting to be a plump cynic. They’ve had enough.” Audie Murphy looked at the Germans as enemies to be hated only impersonally, seeing the war as it as, an endless series of problems involving the blood and guts of men. Still, at war with Germany, Murphy was by a mortar shell that exploded, and he spent a few days in the hospital. After he was released, the war went down with him and there were some surprises from the German soldiers, good thing he knows how to prepare for a battle. Audie Murphy was hurt, his hip felt like a white-hot brand had been raked across it. The doctor just stared at him, and Audie Murphy was not impressed. Audie Murphy was hospitalized for a month, the doctors pumped him full of penicillin and whittled away at dead and poisoned flesh. Audie Murphy felt nothing, there was no sense of triumph, and no reason to be alive.

The snow was melting, leaf buds were finally appearing on the trees. The end was near, it was time for Audie Murphy to get back to the states, it’s time for me to find myself a blonde. Audie Murphy said that “My Country! America,” That it is it. We have been so intent on death that we forgot about life itself. I will learn to live again! Audie Murphy was part of the numerous heroes that emerged. He won every single medal in the United States Army including the Medal of Honor before the age of 19. He earned the Medal of Honor after his commitment to being in the military for only a year.

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