To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of To Hell and Back
Book Review: One of the Best War Books Written
Summary: 5 Stars
This is on of the best books ever written about war. I'm a NCO in the Army and I believe that this book should be a preferred read on any soldiers list. I've served in Iraq on the front lines and the emotions that Audie Murphy writes about in this book are still identical in today's war.Book Review: One of the best war memoirs out there
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read this book about 4-5 times, and each time I pick it up, I'm drawn in by the small but significant details Audie Murphy gives about his experience with an epic battle-front that the allies fought in WWII. This is a very personal memoir; every time I read this I find myself becoming attached to Audie Murphy's brother's in arms, and I find myself envying their bond and their determination. This is a very real, very heartbreaking book, and I highly recommend it to anyone. This is not about war, it's about the men who are caught up in it.Book Review: Rubbish
Summary: 1 Stars
I am an ex-soldier of 13 years service with the Australian Army. I have seen active service and read many soldiers’ accounts of war. This book is truly awful. Poorly written (which is his editor’s fault), it attempts to glorify himself and war and includes a seemingly endless list of clumsily used clichés in an attempt to make the reader care about the characters, and fails miserably. The book aside, a hero - in the true sense of the word - Audie Murphy is not, a successful killer – absolutely, a sociopath – extremely likely. If you want to read a truly exceptional book written by a surviving soldier of WWII, then throw this book away and read Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut.Book Review: THE American War Hero
Summary: 5 Stars
The cover of this new edition of "To Hell And Back" shows a very young soldier with an incredible display of decorations, behind the cover are the exploits of how the most decorated combat soldier of WWII earned those medals, although you would never know that from the text of this book. Nowhere in this book does Audie Murphy mention that he was ever decorated, the deeds speak for themselves. Because of several bios of Audie Murphy it is known that while Audie wrote, or told to a writer, the combat stories in this book are is own, Audie's ghost writer connected his first hand accounts with pages of banter from Audie's fictionalized platoon buddies. When Audie Murphy tells his story it rings true. Only a combat veteran would write that when he stood alone, blazing away with a 50 cal. machine gun on top of a burning vehicle against six tanks and infantry that "...for the first time in three days, my feet were warm." This book follows Audie from his first day, as a green soldier on the beaches of Sicily and follows him through combat in Italy, France, and Germany. When Audie landed in France, in August of '44 he had been awarded two Bronze Stars, from August to January '45 he would earn the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, three Purple Hearts, and the Medal of Honor. Germany made two errors in WWII, one was attacking Russia, the other was on the first day that Audie Murphy landed in France they killed his best friend, after they pretended to surrender. The last paragraph of this book is as powerful as anything that you will read in war fiction. This is a great book, I'm glad that the legend of Audie Murphy is available to new generations.Book Review: The Modest Hero
Summary: 4 Stars
Audie Murphy's To Hell and Back is one of the quintessential front-line soldier accounts of the Second World War. The book is not a memoir or autobiography, since Murphy wrote little of it himself and describes little of his life before or after his combat experiences. Nor does Murphy even mention any of awards, including the Medal of Honor, or the fact that he served the entire war in B Company, 1-15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division. The book focuses entirely on the period July 1943 to March 1945, with most of the emphasis on the Anzio, Southern France and Vosges campaigns. On the negative side, Murphy's account is extremely self-effacing and at times is more focused on his squad members, whose GI Joe conversations appear fake and silly. Nevertheless, Murphy's comrades appear as real human beings and the reader will regret the death of each. To Hell and Back is not particularly well written - it is in fact a rather pedestrian account that wanders at times - but what it lacks in style it delivers in frank reality. Murphy's wartime account is often brutal - sometimes humorous - but it makes other more recent homogenized efforts like Band of Brothers seem contrived in comparison. Currently, the myth has been propagated that only highly trained specialists in peak physical and mental condition should engage in close infantry combat. Audi Murphy, the scrawny, orphaned teenager from Texas who was rejected by the marines and paratroopers, stands to discredit that myth. In combat, Murphy found his niche in life. With a carbine in his hands, Murphy became a real killer. Quick reflexes, common sense and a certain amount of luck gave him the edge and allowed him to survive all his original squad mates. A great deal has been written and speculated about Murphy's psychology and motivations; there is no doubt that he sought out combat even when he could have avoided it. Was he a war-lover or have a death wish? No. Murphy fought because he was good at it. As the main character in the French film Capitaine Conan noted, "millions were in the war but only a few thousand actually fought it." Murphy was one of those soldiers who was never content just to survive the war but rather, he was strongly motivated to play an active role. While Murphy never cracked under the strain of nearly two years of combat, there is little doubt that the war marked him indelibly. By Anzio, Murphy had become imbued with a tough, no-nonsense set of values. At the end of To Hell and Back, Murphy writes, "when I was a child, I was told that men were branded by war. Has the brand been put on me? Have the years of blood and ruin stripped me of all decency? Of all belief? Not of all belief. I believe in the force of a hand grenade, the power of artillery, the accuracy of a Garand. I believe in hitting before you get hit, and that dead men do not look noble."
Unfortunately, the weakest aspect of To Hell and Back is the author's failure to paint a complete portrait of himself. Important issues, like how did a combat-wise Sergeant Murphy deal with his inexperienced lieutenants in Anzio or France are virtually ignored. The fact that Murphy rose from squad leader, to platoon sergeant, to platoon leader to company commander in the same company is never addressed, but would have been very interesting. How did Murphy handle the transition from enlisted, to NCO to commissioned officer surrounded by his peers? To Hell and Back is enhanced by the fact that it was written only shortly after the war when memories were still sharp, but the rush to publish a "blood and guts" account undermines the value of Murphy's story. The brief introduction by Tom Brokaw also appears a blatant attempt to market a dead hero, as if his name was brand-name merchandise. Brokaw says nothing of value in this introduction, and it should have been written by somebody who actually knew the man, rather than some publicity-hog talking head from NBC who never met him or served in the military.
Hopefully, the reprint of To Hell and Back will help to keep alive the notion that America can produce fine soldiers from places other than West Point. Murphy's book should also be compared with other war memoirs from other authors and other wars. Recently, I read the Persian Gulf War memoir entitled The Eyes of Orion, and was struck by the authors' near-obsession with post-war graduate school plans while remaining virtually oblivious to their potential for battlefield death. Murphy said, "until the last shot is fired, I will go on living from day to day, making no postwar plans." Compared with the pretentious, homogenized, backbiting Band of Brothers, Murphy's book seems incredibly modest and civil. Although Murphy's unit suffered heavy casualties and was often short of food in the front-line, the author never complained about his superiors or the US Army. Murphy's unselfish and uncritical reflection of his wartime service should stand as an example of others who serve and write.