Devil Dogs: First In, Last Out – King Company from Guadalcanal to the Shores of Japan cover art

Devil Dogs: First In, Last Out – King Company from Guadalcanal to the Shores of Japan

First In, Last Out – King Company from Guadalcanal to the Shores of Japan

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Devil Dogs: First In, Last Out – King Company from Guadalcanal to the Shores of Japan

By: Saul David
Narrated by: Adam James
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About this listen

A Times History Book of the Year 2022 From Sunday Times bestselling historian Saul David, the dramatic tale of the first American troops to take the fight to the enemy in the Second World War, and also the last.

The ‘Devil Dogs’ of K Company, 3/5 Marines, were part of the legendary first Marine Division. They landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in 1942 – the first US ground offensive of the war – and were present when Okinawa, Japan’s most southerly prefecture, finally fell to American troops after a bitter struggle in June 1945. In between they fought in the ‘Green Hell’ of Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain, and across the coral wasteland of Peleliu in the Palau Islands, a campaign described by one K Company veteran as ‘thirty days of the meanest, around-the-clock slaughter that desperate men can inflict on each other.’

Ordinary men from very different backgrounds, and drawn from cities, towns, and settlements across America, the Devil Dogs were asked to do something extraordinary: take on the victorious Imperial Japanese Army, composed of some of the most effective soldiers in world history – and defeat it. This is the story of how they did just that and, in the process, forged bonds of brotherhood that still survive today.

Remarkably, the company contained an unusually high number of talented writers, whose first-hand accounts and memoirs provide the colour, emotion, and context for this extraordinary story. In Devil Dogs, award-winning historian Saul David sets the searing experience of K Company into the broader context of the brutal war in the Pacific and does for the U.S. Marines what Band of Brothers did for the 101st Airborne.

Gripping, intimate, authoritative and far-reaching, this is a unique and incredibly personal narrative of war.

Saul David’s previous book SBS -Silent Warriors was in the Sunday Times Bestseller Chart in the 35th and 36th week of 2021.

Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Armed Forces Military Military & War Naval Forces World War II War Suspenseful Imperial Japan

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Critic reviews

PRAISE FOR DEVIL DOGS

‘Exquisite detail…subtly textured… the Pacific War is rendered in painful and poignant detail… A narrative that reads like war in real time. It's war unplugged: cruelty, destruction, pain, but also love, kindness and camaraderie. I cried for these men and then thanked God that I will never have to send my son to war.’ Times

‘Brilliant… A chronicle that is part Hollwood film-script, but never less than vigorously researched history. David has a claim to be our finest military historian… Superb’
Daily Telegraph

‘David recounts in this stirring saga the WWII campaigns of Company K, the 1st Marine Division unit … Skillfully plumbing the rich array of firsthand accounts by Company K veterans, David vividly describes pillbox raids, accidental deaths, and hellish jungle conditions, and draws incisive portraits of Marine officers and their command decisions. The result is a captivating chronicle of the war in the Pacific’
Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR SBS: SILENT WARRIORS

A SUNDAY TIMES #4 BESTSELLER

A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021

‘This is a terrific book, written with all the gusto, thrills and heady excitement these SBS operations richly deserve. It really is one of the most enjoyable histories I’ve read in many a year’
James Holland, Daily Telegraph, five stars

‘It’s an extraordinary trawl through the archives, backed up with diaries and interviews; an accomplished act of storytelling… David has written a book that often gladdens the heart, but also makes you think about the nature of sacrifice’
Times

‘A brilliant account of how the SBS was born from wartime needs, and just how much the organisation and its affiliated units were able to achieve in those early years’
Daily Mail

All stars
Most relevant
I got audible because I find it hard to sit down a read a book but I remember seeing this one in a store and thinking wow this looks up my ally. so after a year I bought audible and I am not disappointed with this book. the stories of Guadalcanal to Okinawa were informative and kept me listening. the description of what the men saw and there emotions felt were impeccable and cheering for k35 when things went right and feeling the blues when things didn't. I think it's time to buy this book physically and listen again and again so I can enjoy it more than I did the first time, may have even found my new favourite author

detailed history and amazing story

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Being European my history of ww2 is mostly centred around the European theatre of operations. This helps me understand what brave men went through. With no Hollywood BS. A great read even if you don’t have a love of military/world war 2 history.

A great story

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I enjoy personal memoirs, not so much books about war by 3rd party. This book was somewhere between so I gave it a go. the narrator is actually really good, the only reason I didn't give 5 star, is he occasionally forgets which accent to do and when he realises it changes mid sentence, but definitely good when he gets it right. the book follows marines through the Pacific, and I'm sure that one of the main characters has written their own book, because every so often I'm thinking "I've heard this bit before somewhere" and so I conclude the author took a bunch of existing books of personal memoirs, and combined them into 1 "group memoir" - which he did really well, 9/10 overall. I still prefer the original memoirs, as this book lacks a lot of the emotion in the moment, but spends extra time reflecting on what happened, where and the numbers. each to their own, but I definitely don't regret that spent credit.
if you're into ww2 / Pacific / marines / USA V Japan, then it's a must have.

This book follows a group in a unique way

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Really great, Saul knows how to write. This covers the right amount of personal recollections and factual information. My only gripe is the narrator and his incorrect pronunciation of Corpsman.

Incorrect pronunciation

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Really enjoyed this, I know little about the pacific campaign and this was told brilliantly.

Truly brilliant

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