This image is the cover for the book To Hell and Back

To Hell and Back

The classic WWII memoir by America’s most decorated soldier shares a “vivid, gripping, mature picture of combat” (The New York Times Book Review).

Originally published in 1949, To Hell and Back was a bestselling phenomenon and later became a major motion picture starring Audie Murphy as himself. It remains one of the most harrowing personal narratives of the Second World War and a perennial classic of military nonfiction.

Rejected from both the marines and the paratroopers because he was too small, Murphy was desperate to see action and determined to serve his country. Eventually, he found a home with the infantry and fought through campaigns in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. Although still under twenty-one years old on V-E Day, he was credited with having killed, captured, or wounded 240 Germans. He emerged from the war as America’s most decorated soldier, having received twenty-one medals, including our highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Audie Murphy

Audie Murphy was the most decorated American soldier during World War II. He went on to a long film career, starring in The Red Badge of Courage, The Quiet American, and his own To Hell and Back. He was killed in a plane crash in 1971 at age forty-six.