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Brotherhood of Heroes: The Marines at Peleliu, 1944-The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War. By Bill Sloan. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2005. 386 pages. $26.00.
Authors write books for reasons, just as readers buy them with expectations. Bill Sloan accomplishes what he set out to do in Brotherhood of Heroes. I am not as sure, however, that this reviewer got what he expected. Sloan does a magnificent job of describing the absolute hell of island fighting in the Second World War. In so doing he performs a well-deserved service to our aging veterans of World War II and inadvertently contributes to the ongoing debate swirling around Harry Truman's decision to employ the atomic bomb. Study Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa-then try to convince yourself an invasion of the Japanese home islands would not have been a bloodbath of epic proportions.
If a "no holds barred" description of combat is your expectation, Brotherhood of Heroes will not disappoint. If, however, larger issues of strategy and senior officer combat leadership are your interest, you will come away only partially satisfied. Yet, it is in these areas that the real lessons of Peleliu lie buried. In fairness, Sloan's research is impressive and he touches on the issues of strategy and leadership, particularly in the book's Epilogue, but only enough to whet the appetite-especially for readers well-versed in the war in the Pacific.
Sloan follows a Marine rifle company through its month-long fight on the island of Peleliu, but the author also delves into...