MacArthur's Bloody Butchers

An intimate account of the Pacific War, through the experiences of one infantry company.

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An all-round account of the actions of Company G of the 163rd Infantry Regiment, 41st Division, U.S. Army, during World War II in the Pacific. The narrative follows the company from training in the Pacific Northwest, to Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, and onto Japan. Each of the actions in which Company G participated is described at every level—divisional, regimental, battalion, company, and individual—to show how strategies and decisions made at the highest levels were experienced by individual soldiers.At the heart of the book are the stories of some of the men of Company G, including Jack Anderson, who had been with the 163rd as a National Guardsman before the war and served through the occupation of Japan; Doyle Bruce, a draftee from Texas who joined the U.S. Army in the weeks before Pearl Harbor and served through Company G’s last combat mission; Bruce Baird, a draftee from Ogden, Utah whose injuries at Biak resulted in rotation home in 1945; and Hargis Westerfield, who joined Company G as a replacement after the unit’s first combat mission and survived to the end of the war. By combining their experiences with the elements of a more traditional military history the book provides a complete picture of one company's war.