Who was this GI Joe and what was battle like for the American combat soldier and marine? Using mostly primary sources-letters, diaries, on the spot historical surveys, memoirs, oral histories-"The Deadly Brotherhood" examines and answers these questions fully, not as a stolid examination of military doctrine and strategy, but as a work full of the flesh-and-blood realities of survival through the cataclysm that was World War II. "The Deadly Brotherhood" provides accounts from veterans of nearly every division (armor, infantry, airborne, marine) that saw combat in World War II. These soldiers carried out the same dirty, monotonous, dangerous job day after day and did it successfully. Not only did they do it in radically different circumstances against different enemies, but they themselves often came from completely different regional or ethnic backgrounds. Ultimately the most basic question is why they did it. Why did these American combat soldiers endure what should be have been unendurable? What made them perform effectively and cohesively and draw on reserves of courage that they probably thought they did not possess? The author discovers that to a great extent they fought for one another, made real by a bond that is accurately termed a "brotherhood." The GI leaving his foxhole in the Ardennes might not have liked the soldier next to him, but he would do almost anything to help him. The same was true for his counterpart in Italy and the Pacific. The brotherhood was not unique to any one unit, sector, or theater. It was pervasive among the troops who fought the war. Numerous works from military history have been written from the perspective of those at the top. Up until now, the stories of the ordinary soldier who carried out the polices and did the fighting has not been adequately related or understood. Now it is the dogfaces' turn to talk.

Copies 2-21 with isbn 0891417214 are "apparently" 2000 Presidio paperback reprints - xiv, 353 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 22 cm.

Part 1. The world of the combat soldier. The combat soldier: who was he? -- Food, equipment, and weapons -- The conditions: Europe -- The conditions: Pacific -- The fighting -- Becoming a casualty / Part 2. The soul of the combat soldier. Attitudes toward the Japanese -- Attitudes toward the Germans -- The leadership factor -- Motivation, attitudes, and effects of combat -- The truth about replacements -- The deadly brotherhood / Epilogue.