Private Jim Mays is a recon scout for the outfit drawing World War II’s shortest stick. Green Michigan and Wisconsin National Guardsmen form the 39th Infantry Division which gets to spearhead General Douglas MacArthur’s inept first offensive in New Guinea. Told they’d shoulder aside starving, diseased enemies, the troops plunge into chest-deep malarial swamps and stifling jungles. Mays quickly discovers that hardened Japanese veterans both outnumber and outgun the inexperienced GIs. How do the Yanks prevail? Tough battle-wise Aussies help Mays and his comrades become expert warriors. In the end, the 39th racks up more combat days than any other American division. If you enjoyed Mailer’s The Naked And The Dead or Tregaskis’s Guadalcanal Diary try The Green Hell, a story of the Army’s forgotten war in the Southwest Pacific. Buy this tale of men who go as far as possible into the dripping jaws of death and still come out alive.