World War II Database

Full Title: Always Faithful: US Marines in World War II Combat

With over 12,000 photographs here in the WW2DB photo gallery, I imagine that WW2DB visitors could easily see that I value war-time photographs. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Needless to say, when I received Always Faithful in the mail a few weeks ago, I dove into its pages immediately, especially for that the book claimed to feature "the 100 best photos". Perhaps the publisher put that up to drive sales figures, but this collection of Eric Hammel's was indeed stunning. Weapons such as the Garand, BAR, and the M1 Carbine were shown in stunning detail in this oversized book, while in the other photos I could count the leaves on the trees. But alas, the detail was not in the weapons nor the landscape, for that many of them featured the Marines who fought the battles across the Pacific. With their eyes staring into the cameras, perhaps focusing on some distance behind them, I could see, despite being separated by ink, paper, and 60-some years of time, just a little bit of the trauma that they must had seen that made them appear so apathetic. Seeing these photos, I could almost hear some them asking themselves why they were in the jungle, why they aimed at fellow human beings, and why they had survived the recent mortar barrage but not their buddies. I would not say that these were "the 100 best photos", but I had most definitely appreciated this glimpse into the ugly side of the war, reminding me once again that war should never be glorified.

A review copy or review sample of this product was provided by the publisher or vendor to WW2DB; opinions expressed in this review are not influenced by this fact.