Customer Reviews

To Hell and Back [1955]

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have always admired Audie Murphy, and once you've read this account of his personal war time experiences I am positive you will too.

This is a blood and guts no holds barred account by a man who is modest to the end when telling of his bravery and loyalty to his comrades. I'm not surprised that he won the Congressional Medal of Honor, and many other bravery decorations.

What I particularly love about this book is that it is about all fighting men and does not criticise any other nation or in the same vain hype up the actions of one particular Army.

I recommend this enthralling and modest account to anyone with an interest in truth. You won't regret or forget it.

It is not often that heroes get to play themselves on Film. Audie Murphy does so with such skill that it is difficult to believe that he did it all for real to become America's most decorated soldier during World War 2. A brilliant and highly recommended war film.

Audie Murphy showed just how the war was.How friends were made and then lost, how the the green men were turned into fighting soldiers. I was there , every step of the way,he told it the way it was.I found it hard to put down. It made me re-think my views on war.

This is a potential 1000 page book stripped of all the frills that make modern bestsellers so boring,and,condensed into a raw and gritty 275 pages. The narrative takes the reader from North Africa,through Sicily,Italy and on into France. THe book is stripped of all emotion, and little of the man is discovered in it. Friends and enemies all die with the same matter-of-fact inevitability. The blood, the gore, the maimings and deaths especially at Anzio left me reading it with little or no feeling for what must have been an horrendous ordeal. An odd book but I still ate it up.

At first I was skeptical about the book. It is obviously ghostwritten. However, the ghostwriter is talented, his style a synthesis of Hemingway and Mickey Spillane. And Audie Murphy has a great and heroic tale to tell. Murphy's war is a lot different than say Eisenhower's and Patton's. Murphy became a master at small unit infantry tactics. He was one of the men. Ike and Patton were masters of strategy and were not really part of the men. What Murphy's story also illuminates is it is often just pure chance whether a soldier survives a war. Two pals of his were wounded in the right spots. Another had his heart pierced by a small shell fragment. Another buddy trusted a group of Germans faking a surrender and received a chest full of German lead for his trouble. For all those who liked the fictional "Battle Cry", you will like this book.

I first read this book as a young man before entering high school. The book and Audie Murphy became a symbol of not only what one man can do, but what one man can stir in the friends and comrades around him.

Murphy's acts, thoughts, and efforts described in this book make him an absolute hero not only during the war, but should be displayed for generations to come as a man that believed in our country and the American Cause. It is the ideals that he fought for, and the American people that he believed in that make this book a must read for all types of people that would want to feel good about the United States of America and to be personaly uplifted and moved by the challenges that this soldier endured and overcame.

This book does not glorify war. This book does not glorify the exploits of America's most decorated soldier. (He won 21 medals including The Congressional Medal of Honour, French Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre with Palm)
This book tells the truth about the things that 'Company B, 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division' went through during 2 years of HELL!
Murph tells the reader about his friends and colleagues, the people he fought beside. How they lost life and limb (some just hours away from being sent home. Like Lattie Tipton)
He tells of their and his fears but, he never once mentions his medals, in fact he skims over the action where he won them. He was content to tell the story of his unit and their bravery. Of friends he found and lost. Of the cold and the wet and the mud. The foot rot, the blood and the sweat and the tears.
I went 'To Hell and Back' reading this book, but it was worth it.
Every school library should have a copy of this book in their history section.
Read it. Live it. Laugh, cry, be absorbed by it.
Go To Hell and Back with LT.Audie L Murphy. Company B. 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division...

If you didn't know that this was a true story, you'd swear it was all too Hollywood and probably implausible.
But it is a true story and it marks Audie Murphy as a truly extraordinary man.
Murphy plays himself in this movie, based upon his own book, which tells the remarkable story of his exploits during world war 2.
He was underage when he joined up and was initially thought to be unfit for combat, an opinion he proved wrong many times over as he went on to become the most decorated veteran of the campaign.
But much more than this he had already quit school at age 12 so he could get a job to feed his family!
This is a guy whose selfless dedication and relentless spirit should be an example to every one of us.
Yes the film has its flaws, but they are few and far between. I easilly rate this as one of the best war films ever made!

Audie Murphy's true story is fascinating. Even though his early years are trimmed to fit the traditional feature length movie of the 50s, the roots of his subsequent bravery are clearly established. Playing himself as a young boy is a challenge but his youthful looks enable the viewer to suspend disbelief and engage with his story. At times his army career seems slightly confusing but the action sequences are well realised given the limitations of the era. In short an enjoyable addition my collection of WW2 movies.

this is based on audies true war experience's from which he became the usa's most decorated soldier ,audie was a couragous little fella and was turned into a film star on the back of his war actions . however back to this film its a run of the times war flick really based on action and suspense and cannot be classed with the great war films like the longest day or the bridge on the river kwai ,to hell and back isn't anywhere near the same class of those such films but it is enjoyable and is worth buying just to see how audie earned those military medals ! audie fans will love it of course.