Sign-In
Cart
Jungle Scouts: A Firsthand Account Behind Enemy Lines in World War II
Paperback
Biographies GeneralMilitary Biographies
ISBN13: 9780811778398
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: Nov 3 2026
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.54
Height: 0.41 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
They were a platoon of misfits--and proud of it. Soldiers like Rodney Orange, Myron Wadsworth Folsom, Tex Whaley, Vic Svagdis, Ace Meyer, and Bruiser Neerman, rebellious young men who bristled at military authority, who had a chip on their shoulder and something to prove. Among them were a Chicago cop, a Los Angeles milkman, a Pennsylvania coal miner--and a budding reporter, John Justin Smith, who joined them in a handpicked U.S. Army Intelligence & Reconnaissance Platoon that acted as their regiment's eyes and ears in the jungles of New Guinea in World War II. They didn't always get along, but they got the job done.
In this vivid, punchy memoir, Smith remembers the campaign for New Guinea--one of World War II's longest and most brutal--as experienced by this unit of free spirits and malcontents who rejected army discipline and just wanted to have a go at the Japanese. Recruited for their unmilitary demeanor and trained in commando-style warfare, Smith and his brothers-in-arms were infantry scouts tasked with conducting patrols--isolated and alone--out in front of the main body of American forces. In the unforgiving jungles of New Guinea, they lived in slime and squalor and often lacked food, proper clothing, and medical care. They endured torrential downpours, smothering humidity, filthy mud, and debilitating malaria. Over the course of 100 missions, they met a tenacious Japanese enemy prepared to fight to the last man with snipers, ambushes, boobytraps, and suicidal tactics.
John Justin Smith's narrative--a rare new World War II memoir--takes readers deep into the New Guinea jungle alongside an unorthodox band of brothers who fought the Japanese their own way. It is an unforgettable journey into the heart of the jungle, the heart of combat, and the heart of brotherhood.
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Trump, Mary L.
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Hardcover
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Kinney, David
Wittman, Robert K.
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover