We recently surveyed a biography and three autobiographies of young men -- two junior officers and two enlisted men -- providing a "worm's-eye view" of the war. This time around we take a look at four newly arrived biographies of figures -- three generals and a journalist -- who had a larger impact on the way the war was fought and perceived, including the man who coined the term "worm's-eye view".

Autry, Jerry. General William C. Lee: Father of the Airborne. Raleigh, NC: Airborne Press, 1995.

ISBN 0-934145-24-5
203 pages

Acknowledgments; Preface; Introduction; photos; documents; Selected Bibliography.

While the names Matthew Ridgway, Maxwell Taylor, Jim Gavin, and even Anthony "Nuts" McAuliffe are widely identified as the leading figures of US airborne forces in WWII, less is remembered of Bill Lee, the founding father who pioneered the Army's first parachute platoon in June 1940. His "Provisional Parachute Group" expanded to a battalion, the 501st, and then the 502nd, 503rd, and 504th battalions. In March 1942 Lee was named head of the Army Ground Force's Airborne Command and expansion continued to accelerate with the creation of glider forces, airborne artillery, and ever-larger units.

As senior American airborne officer -- and oldest jump-qualifed commander -- Lee made his first trip to England in the company of Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mark Clark, and "Hap" Arnold for consultations and planning with senior British officers for the Allied invasion of Europe. In August 1942 he took command of the new 101st Airborne Division and began training at a relentless pace, returned to England for further planning sessions, and wrote the airborne operational doctrine for what became Operation Overlord.

On 5 February 1944 while in the UK with his division Bill Lee suffered a serious heart attack. He protested orders returning him the States for recuperation, but a second heart attack forced him to Walter Reed Hospital and, in December 1944, official retirement. By then he could at least take pride in the achievements of the airborne force he had pioneered.

Binder, L. James. Lemnitzer: A Soldier for His Time. Washington, DC: Brassey's, 1997.

ISBN 1-57488-107-8
386 pages

Foreword; Acknowledgments; photos; Notes; Index.

Lyman L. Lemnitzer spent fifty-one years as an officer in the United States Army. He entered West Point in 1918 while World War One still raged in Europe, but the succeeding years meant slow advancement in the small peace-time Army of the United States so that, as an officier in the Coast Artillery, not until 1935 was "Lem" finally promoted to captain.

Advancement came more rapidly afterwards. By 1942 Lemnitzer was a Brigadier General and took part with Major General Mark Clark in one of the most exciting -- and amusing -- secret misions undertaken by American generals during the war. Together with a few additional officers, Clark with Lemnitzer as his deputy landed by submarine on the coast of French North Africa near Algiers to confer with high-ranking Vichy officers about cooperation during the upcoming Operation Torch. In a hair-raising but Keystone Kops adventure the Americans while hiding in a wine cellar ("empty -- repeat -- empty" according to the Yanks) were nearly captured by Vichy policemen, almost drowned while trying to return to the sub in a heavy surf, lost an undisclosed amount in gold coins, but finally returned safely to Gibraltar. Two weeks later he was aboard a B-17 piloted by General Jimmy Doolittle when it was attacked by Luftwaffe fighters.

Lemnitzer went on to become Field Marshal Harold Alexander's deputy in the Mediterranean theater and in March 1945 undertook another secret mission when he entered Switzerland to help arrange the surrender of German forces in Italy. After World War II Lemnitzer continued a distinguished career in Korea and as Army Chief of Staff and Chairman of the JCS.

Mets, David R. Master of Airpower: General Carl A. Spaatz. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1997.

ISBN 0-89141-639-0
430 pages

Acknowledgments; photos; Author's Acknowledgments; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Carl "Tooey" Spaatz graduated from West Point in 1914 then underwent aviation training and became one of the Army's first flyers in 1916. In France he headed the AEF's aviation training center and managed to shoot down three German planes while temporarily attached to a combat formation.

His World War II career began as an observer during the Battle of Britain. He then became head of Air Material Command and in 1941 was promoted to chief of staff to "Hap" Arnold. In January 1942 Spaatz activated the 8th Air Force, then successively moved to Northwest Africa Air Force, Western Desert Air Force, Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, and USSAFE (United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe). Following the end of the war in Europe he headed to Guam and there established U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces for operations against the Japanese home islands. "He was the only officer to attend the surrender ceremonies of both Germany and Japan."

After the war Spaatz became commander of the Army Air Force and in 1947 he was the first Chief of Staff when the Air Force became an independent branch of service.

Tobin, James. Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II. New York: The Free Press, 1997.

ISBN 0-684-83642-4
312 pages

Prologue; photos; Epilogue; Notes; A Note on Sources; Acknowledgments; Index.

Appendix: An Ernie Pyle Sampler.

More familiar to the American public during the war than Lee, Lemnitzer, and Spaatz combined was legendary journalist Ernie Pyle. Already in his forties at the time of Pearl Harbor, he spent the war as a correspondent grinding out hundreds of columns from front-line positions in North Africa, Italy, and France in the company of men young enough to be his sons.

Popular beyond belief with the troops and with the public back home, tempted with softer jobs and higher pay, and dazzled by powerful men and women out to make money off his name and fame, Pyle chose to remain true to his calling-- reporting the war from a "worm's-eye view". For him, telling the simple, unadorned truth about the young soldiers and their war proved to be the most important aspect of his life. Modest and unassuming, he went about his business doggedly, a man who could see more clearly than most the inhuman horror of war, but one whose uncomplicated, sincere prose could bring out the human face of all those who fought the battles. The relentless presence of death, however, took its toll on such a sensitive man.

"I damn near had a war neurosis. About two weeks more and I'd have been in a hospital. I'd become so revolted, so nauseated by the sight of swell kids having their heads blown off, I'd lost track of the whole point of the war. I'd reached a point where I felt that no ideal was worth the death of one more man."

After the liberation of Paris, physically and emotionally at a low point, Pyle returned home to New Mexico. His fame as a war correspondent could have enabled him to end his career in the front lines and remain safely with his wife, who was undergoing her own serious psychological problems. But by January 1945 he was en route to the Pacific where the war against Japan was reaching a bloody crescendo. On Ie Shima, near Okinawa, on 17 April 1945 Ernie Pyle, as he customarily did, came within range of enemy weapons.

At about ten o'clock a Japanese Nambu machine gun chattered. Pyle, Coolidge and the other men in the jeep leaped out and jumped into a ditch along the road. After a moment Ernie raised his head and the machine gunner fired again, hitting him in the left temple just below the line of his helmet.

All four are available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from the publishers.

Thanks to the publishers for providing these review copies.