Heroes of World War II

The U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest official accolade, is awarded for individual combat action of ``intrepidity and courage at risk of life in the presence of an armed enemy.'' Murphy, founder-director of the Medal of Honor Historical Society, here integrates scores of capsule biographies and descriptions of heroic WW II exploits into a succinct and moving account of America's naval, ground and air combat at Pearl Harbor, Midway, Bataan, the Solomons, the Philippines, Tarawa, Iwo, North Africa, Italy, France and Germany. Major Dick Bong, who shot down 40 Japanese planes, most-decorated U.S. soldier Audie Murphy and Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, who led the first Tokyo air raid, share equal billing here with those men who were blown up while manning their targeted ships or killed after refusing to bail out while bringing in a crippled bomber with wounded aboard. Almost overwhelming in its scope and its depiction of the ravages of war, this chronicle challenges Americans to acknowledge a personal debt to the largely forgotten fighters who won the Medal of Honor, most often posthumously, between 1941 and 1945. (Dec.)