Customer Reviews

Above the Cry of Battle

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This is an excellent book and is illustrated with a few photos and also drawings done by another member of the US military.

Chuck Holsinger arrived in the Philippines in 1945 as a G.I. in the fight to retake the Philippines from the Japanese. As he learned of the atrocities of the Japanese, he developed a hatred for the enemy. He gives vivid accounts of battles he fought in, and helps a non military person understand the stress of battle and the fears that our military experienced. He also tells stories of how Filipinos assisted the US Military with valuable intelligence gathering and in other ways. He includes how his personal faith in God supported him in the stress of battle.

After the war, Chuck and his wife returned to the Philippines as missionaries. He found that he still hated the Japanese, until God enabled him to forgive them. He was given opportunities to share this message of forgiveness with Filipino Christians which helped set them free from their own hatred and bitterness toward the enemy.

The lessons he shares many be helpful to individuals who struggle with hatred and bitterness toward those who have wronged them.

Holsinger served with K Co 35th Infantry Regt of the 25th Infantry Division. He saw a little action on Guadalcanal and Vella LaVella but the combat he writes of here is wholly concerned with events on Luzon in 1945. His first role is that of squad scout and he writes reasonably interestingly of this dangerous job. He is lucky to survive on a few occasions and his stories of what happened to less fortunate scouts and squads emphasize this. He is involved in quite a few battles and there is quite a bit of variety in his stories. He encountered Japanese tanks, suicide attackers and strongly held defensive positions. Several times he mentions that of the men who landed with his company, 35 were killed. This is a graphic reminder that the fighting for the Philippines was very costly. His confrontations with the Japanese, in addition to what he sees of their treatment of the local people, leaves him with a lot of hatred towards them.

Holsinger certainly kills, though he never writes of it too specifically, but he was very much at the forefront of the action. This was particularly the case when he won the Silver Star for singlehandedly holding of a night attack that wiped out all the men around him. So yes this is an account of combat, if not of a grisly nature. It is also very much an account of how his religious faith fortified him on a daily basis. He frequently thanks God for his survival and after the war he returns to The Philippines to serve as a missionary. The last third of the book covers his experiences here, though he ties in some more war recollections to illustrate how he believed he was preserved for this mission.

This is in my reading a fairly unique war memoir. Many veterans were religious but Holsinger writes with a strong focus on his faith. I'm sure that readers with a strong Christian faith will find it inspiring but those that don't may find this aspect jarring. With that said, there is a lot to enjoy about Holsinger's book. He was proud to be a liberator (and the ongoing gratitude of the local people is very evident) and through his faith was eventually able to overcome his wartime anger. On both these fronts this book is of interest. My star rating here reflects the level of combat revealed in comparison with the other Pacific Theatre memoirs on my list.