Battle Cry

This is a story about a platoon of Marine radiomen in WWII, told from the viewpoint of a grizzled sergeant, a career NCO named Mac, who is in charge of training a group of young men in boot camp near San Diego at the outset of the war and later leads them into combat in the South Pacific. Interestingly, though it is a war novel, actual combat scenes make up a small proportion of the novel. The book is about the young men themselves, their lives before enlisting, their training, their lives and loves as they go through boot camp and later stage and train in New Zealand, and their interactions with one another. This approach to the novel is excellent, because the reader not only experiences the young men binding with one another, but also binds with them himself and glimpses the sadness the men feel when not so good things happen to their buddies in combat. Leon Uris builds on his own experiences in the Marines in WWII in the Pacific. Perhaps the greatest strength of this novel is the dialogue, which is beautifully done and music to the ears of anyone who appreciates a well-turned phrase. There are many incidental vignettes scattered throughout the book, which I also liked. In terms of war books, I would rank it with "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge and "Matterhorn" by Karl Mariantes. These are three very different books all written by Marine combat veterans; Sledge's book is non-fiction, whereas the other two are fiction. All of them converge in the impressions the reader receives about the Marines. "Battle Cry" gives perhaps the best insight into the training that goes into making a Marine. I thoroughly enjoyed this book; while it is slow-paced, I found it interesting at all times.

As always, a magnificent story teller! It’s hard for me to believe that Battle Cry was his first book. It’s that good. The characters are alive as only Mr. Uris could make them. The breadth of emotion, the bonds between fighting men and the sadness of their sacrifices breaks the heart while lifting that spirit for a cause well fought.

After World War II , numerous young Americans wrote novels that paralleled their personal experiences in that war. I have read perhaps a dozen such novels including Battle Cry. This is my personal favorite of those eight. It was the first novel published by Leon Uris. In my estimation it reflects the effort of a young, somewhat inexperienced author. It may not be a great novel from the standpoint of great literature. But it is an very readable, enjoyable, straight forward work. It has no obscene language or pornographic portrayals and as far as I am concerned, a parent can comfortably allow a high school aged child to read this novel. I intend to read all of Leon Uris' works, in order, after reading this novel. The most famous novel he wrote as far as I know is Exodus. I have become a Leon Uris fan.If one is interests in studying these post World War II semi autobiographical American Novels, one might consider reading the Naked and The Dead by Norman Mailer before or after reading Battle Cry. Both novels are set in the Pacific Theater authored by former enlisted men. But Norman Mailer's work seemed much darker and cynical to me. When Norman Mailer entered the service as an enlisted man, he was a college graduate of an Ivy League school. Leon Uris was a high school drop out, and a teenager. I cannot help but wonder if those two different backgrounds affected their perceptions of the services.

Leon Uris was famous for his meticulously researched books. He traveled many miles and visited many countries to ensure that his books - usually a well-written blend of fiction and history - were an accurate depiction of the historical events that his fictional characters participated in. in "Battle Cry" he drew on his own experiences to tell the story of Marines and the Marine Corps before and during WWII. Before Pearl Harbor, the USMC was the poor cousin of military services, having to make do with the equipment that the Army and Air Corps had made obsolete by upgrading to more modern weapons and aircraft; the Marines were issued and fought with the bolt-action Springfield '03 even after the Army was issued the clip-loaded, semi-automatic M1, and Marine aviators flew the Army's cast-off aircraft. This is a quasi-autobiographical novel about Marine radio operators in the Pacific Theater; Uris brings the story to life because he lived it - he was a Marine radio operator and fought in the island-hopping battles in the Pacific. He also was an infantry rifleman, because in the Corps, every Marine is a rifleman. The smallest military outfit can't afford to have non-combatants in the field. Uris' characters are true-to-life men who accurately portray Marines in combat, in peacetime bivouacs, and on liberty. In my 22 years of Naval service (as a radio operator) I knew many Marines: my father-in-law was one, and I served with Marines in more than one duty station. In the characters of this novel I could almost recognize Marines I have known. This book is good; Read It!