Helmet for My Pillow (Robert Leckie)

Another book* on which the HBO miniseries The Pacific was based, Helmet for My Pillow is Robert Leckie's memoir of his time in the 1st Marine division during WWII.  Starting with his enlistment, we see him go through stateside training and on to a horrible conflict- Guadalcanal.  After that, it was months of recovery in Australia, followed by shorter (but no less horrifying) battles on Cape Gloucester and Peleliu.  Injured in the latter, his contribution to the war (and the book) ended there.

With the Old Breed still fresh in my memory, I found myself making the inevitable comparisons between it and Helmet for My Pillow.  Both are fantastic and well-written accounts, conveying the horror of battle and strength of combatant camaraderie.  The differences are as follows:
- Leckie, a journalist by trade and professional author who would go on to write almost 40 other books, has a beauty to his prose that was missing from Sledge's account.  At times, this almost felt like a poem.  Both are excellent; Leckie's is more 'polished' and includes cultural commentaries or observations lacking in Sledge's account.
- Sledge's book focuses on the fighting and often gives broader context to the conflicts- where other units were in relation to his and the enemy, when they attacked, what regions they held, etc.  Leckie's, on the other hand, was almost entirely focused on what happened to him and his immediate comrades.  There was little to no mention of overall troop movements or objectives, and a good deal of the work is away from the war entirely- on leave in Melbourne or at field hospitals, Leckie tells all, with no apparent preference (as weighted in length) given towards the more glorious aspects.
- Leckie's disposition is more contrarian and obstinate than Sledge's, and it shows in their respective accounts.  Leckie gets in trouble more than once, ends up in the brig (twice), and is frequently in conflict with superiors and others.  Sledge is more of a 'passive,' agreeable fellow.

In the end, Helmet for my Pillow is excellent, and an appropriate complement to With the Old Breed.  Read both if you can.  As I did with the latter, I'll conclude with a quote from the former:

"A woman . . . said to me: 'What did you get out of it?  What were you fighting for?' . . .  For myself, a memory and the strength of ordeal sustained; for my son, a priceless heritage; for my country, sacrifice.  The last is enough for all, for it is sacrifice- the suffering of those who lived, the immolation of those who died . . . it is to sacrifice that men go to war.  They do not go to kill, they go to be killed, to risk their flesh, to insert their precious persons in the path of destruction."

Rating: A

*the first, With the Old Breed, is reviewed here