The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II
Book by Buzz Bissinger
DETAILS
Publisher : Harper; First Edition (September 13, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 480 pages ISBN-10 : 0062879928 ISBN-13 : 978-0062879929 Item Weight : 1.4 pounds Dimensions : 6 x 1.34 x 9 inches Best Sellers Rank: #338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in WWII Biographies #1 in Football (Books) #1 in World War II History (Books) , Instant New York Times Bestseller “Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights is an American classic. With The Mosquito Bowl , he is back with a true story even more colorful and profound. This book too is destined to become a classic. I devoured it.” — John Grisham An extraordinary, untold story of the Second World War in the vein of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat , from the author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war – the invasion of Okinawa—their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled: Former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly twenty men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL. When the trash-talking between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as “The Mosquito Bowl.” Within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players in “The Mosquito Bowl” would be killed at Okinawa, by far the largest number of American athletes ever to die in a single battle. The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave and beautiful young men, those who survived and those who did not. It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them. It is a story of a far more innocent time in both college athletics and the life of the country, and of the loss of that innocence. Writing with the style and rigor that won him a Pulitzer Prize and have made several of his books modern classics, Buzz Bissinger takes us from the playing fields of America’s campuses where boys played at being Marines, to the final time they were allowed to still be boys on that field of dirt and coral, to the darkest and deadliest days that followed at Okinawa. Read more
REVIEW
“THE INHUMANITY OF ALL THAT ONCE WAS HUMAN, THE REMARKABLE SACRIFICE THAT MEN ARE STILL WILLING TO MAKE EVEN WHEN THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD, UNITED BY THAT THING YOU CANNOT EVER CONTROL IN WAR, HOWEVER BRAVE OR CAREFUL OR FEARFUL OR RAGING WITH REVENGE: WHO DIES.” (From book) I must state for the record… and for ongoing clarity… of why I feel qualified to make comments related to the innate emoting of the power and accuracy of the very words and phrases… that the author spreads with an almost surreal poetry… of life… death… dreams… filled and unfilled of men in war… and their athletic dreams and accomplishments in peacetime… and as I am testifying to… the unique different… intrinsic… make up of competitive athletes… that transfer inherently… in the most meaningful “game” on earth… a full-blown World War! I am an Honorably Discharged Viet Nam Era Veteran… and was an athlete who competed at high levels for decades… until my body said no more. The competitive DNA… the very definition of being WIRED DIFFERENTLY… which may be a negative for a high percentage of other portions of life… is exactly what the Generals in the highest chambers of decision making would draw up as the perfect soldier. The author grasps this phenomenon that at times is a curse… EXPERTLY! This whole glorious… pull-no-punches- graphic… expose’… of not only the true horror of war culminating in the bloodiest battle of the Pacific in Okinawa… but the author somehow writes and carries this story of college and NFL players… from their youth… their immigrant parents struggle to survive in America… their high school and college… and in some cases professional football exploits… and the author is so nimble and expressive… his literary prowess is akin to a ballet dancer… cloned with a tap dancer… cloned with a blues singer… whose main talent is the ability to tell it like it was… while leading the reader by the HEART… as much as by the hand! As far as accuracy… the braggadocio between soldiers being trained… being ready for battle… and chomping at the bit… to get out to the front lines and have the chance to kill or be killed… couldn’t be more accurate. And I must add… these are not like today’s phony tough guy pro players… who always say “I’d go to war with this guy”… when they won’t play a child’s game with a hang nail… and they have every opportunity to go fight for their country… and instead take their millions and stay home. As the late great Hall of Famer… Gil Hodges… who played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943 at nineteen years old… and then ELEVEN DAYS LATER **VOLUNTEERED** AND ENLISTED IN THE MARINES… AND SERVED IN THE BLOODBATH KNOWN AS OKINAWA. Years later when managing the Mets… a player asked him what is was like there… and the quiet hero succinctly said… “IF YOU WANT TO KNOW… YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE THERE!” This book is about the HERO’S THAT WENT THERE! Bissinger’s research for this story is above amazing with over one-hundred-pages of documentation such as NOTES ON SOURCES… BIBLIOGRAPHIES. But I didn’t need to check that documentation innumerable times… because specific items such as his detailed description of a D.I. (Drill Instructor) in basic training… was so spot-on… that it so fully and immediately… unleashed… heretofore… buried for over fifty-years… in the hell-fire-furnace-of-memories that I never wanted to dredge up again… to the point I have thought of nothing more than wishing today I could choke into eternity right now that S.O.B. “THEY WERE MASTER PSYCHIATRISTS IN BREAKING KIDS INTO NOTHING AND THEN BUILDING THEM UP INTO MARINES, TEACHING THEM THAT THE ONLY PERSON THEY COULD EVERY TRULY DEPEND ON IN THEIR ENTIRE LIFE WOULD BE THE GUY NEXT TO THEM IN THE FOXHOLE, AND IF THEY DIDN’T DO EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO PROTECT ONE ANOTHER, THEY WERE THE WORST THING THEY COULD BE CALLED IN THE MARINE CORPS (OR ANY BRANCH) WHICH WAS A COWARD.” … “AND TEACH THEM TO TAKE EVERY ORDER BIG AND SMALL WITHOUT QUESTION AND LOVE THEIR RIFLE MORE THAN THEIR DICK.” Personal Note: To my Granddaughters who read all my reviews after they’re posted. Sorry for the bad word… but that’s the absolute truth. If you were smart you would sleep with your rifle holding it close to you like a child hugs a teddy bear! The story amazingly and almost magically intertwines the story of SIXTY-FIVE FORMER NFL OR COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYERS on Guadalcanal with the 4th and 29th Marine Regiments… after endless ball-busting and predictions of superiority on the gridiron… from PFC’s to Generals… finally led to a football game in the middle of World War II… in the middle of the Pacific…in the dirt and coral… a game named THE MOSQUITO BOWL WAS PLAYED ON DECEMBER 24, 1944… April 1, 1945 through June 22, 1945… the battle of Okinawa was raged… TWELVE OF THE SIXTY-FIVE PLAYERS NOTED ABOVE… WERE KILLED… TWENTY WOUNDED… FIFTY-THOUSAND AMERICAN… MARINES… ARMY… AND NAVY… WERE KILLED…. TWENTY-THOUSAND TAKEN OFF-LINE FOR COMBAT FATIGUE… IN A BATTLE THAT LASTED EIGHTY-TWO-DAYS! This battle is probably one of the main reasons that President Harry Truman dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. No punches are pulled by the author… every ugly wart and scar of our history is thrown right out on the literary table… including but not limited to… our countries anti-Semitism… racism… against African Americans and Asians. This book is a rare… rare… combination of history of war and football… and the imperfection of man!
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