I Company: The First and Last to Fight on Okinawa (review)

George R. Nelson's uncle was killed in action while a member of Company I, 305th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division. Nelson, a retired executive with Grumman Corp., decided to research the circumstances of his uncle's death, and extended his research to the history of the company throughout the war. He records that a Donald Nelson was killed on Leyte (p. 187), but the uncle is not specifically identified. The book begins with the activation of the 77th Infantry Division in March 1942, and follows Company I through its two-year training period and its combat actions at Guam, Leyte, the Ryukyus, and Okinawa. The divisional history, published memoirs, and other printed sources provide the chronological framework for the book. There are 57 maps and photos, but the maps are small and difficult to read. Nelson has probed the archives with unusual thoroughness, which enables him to add detail to his narrative and prepare a cluster of remarkable appendixes. Anyone doing small-unit history can benefit from examining his method. He identified 47 living members of I Company whom he interviewed or corresponded with, and their oral history comprises the body of the book. When I Company was formed, they received a large number of over-thirties, which gave them the nickname, "The Old Bastards." The rapid turnover typical of infantry companies probably made them a representative collection of draftees eventually. Celebrities were Winthrop Rockefeller, a liked and respected officer whose Hollywood girlfriend provided rides to town in her flashy convertible, and Ernie Pyle, who was killed while conversing with members of I Co. at Ie Shima.

The book raises a familiar question: "What is the contribution of books such as this to our understanding of World War II?" The answer is already well established: (1) the unmilitary nature of most draftees and their responsiveness to the requirements of the military life, and (2) the adaptability of ordinary Americans to the challenges of war in a great variety of terrains and climates. As a superior example of its genre, Nelson's book confirms those points. The veterans contribute colorful anecdotes about individuals and battles, sometimes in surprising detail. Nelson's reconstruction of a battle, platoon by platoon (pp. 157–66), is quite an accomplishment. No overall assessment of performance is offered, although Company I appears to have been a pretty good outfit. Replacements are mentioned in passing; typically, one of them who was shot shortly after arrival was known only as "the red-headed kid." The book makes a useful contribution to the story of the formation and training of the selective service divisions that filled out the U.S. Army in World War II. Nelson describes the training routines they carried out for two years at various hell-hole camps. As one who spent seventeen weeks at Camp Roberts, California, and was shipped immediately to the Third Infantry Division on the Anzio beachhead, I was impressed by the thoroughness of the process. On this point, see also the account of the 99th Division in Charles P. Roland, My Odyssey through History, pp. 28–40 (reviewed, JMH 68 [April 2004]: 644–47).