
Pacific Time on Target
Memoirs of a Marine Artillery Officer, 1943-1945
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mike Tanner
About this listen
As a married man and Stanford graduate student nearing thirty, Christopher Donner would likely have qualified for an exemption from the draft. Like most of his generation, however, he responded promptly to the call to arms after Pearl Harbor. His wartime experiences in the Pacific Theater were seared into his consciousness, and in early 1946 he set out to preserve those memories while they were still fresh.
During the spring of 1943 Donner joined the Marines' 9th defense Battalion and saw his first combat service in the campaign for New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. With the end of Japanese resistance in the Central Solomons, Donner's battalion was dispatched in June 1944 to serve in the liberation of the U.S. territory of Guam. When his unit was reactivated and its veterans sent home, Donner was not so fortunate.
In early 1945, Donner was reassigned to the 11th Marines, the 1st Marine Division's field artillery. His new commander decreed that Donner would serve as a field artillery forward observer just in time for the invasion of Okinawa. Teeming with close calls and near misses, frank yet sensitive observations of the brutality visited on Okinawa's civilians, and the horrors of frontline combat, Donner's account of his service with the Old Breed on Okinawa forms the core of his memoir. Miraculously unscathed by the Okinawa bloodbath, Donner was en route to California for his first opportunity for leave when he learned of the atomic bombs and the war's end.
Besides providing a candid, moving contemporary record of the combat experiences of a Marine Corps officer, Pacific Time on Targetis an invaluable account of the harrowing life of an artillery forward observer, as few of these men survived to tell their stories.
©2012 The Kent State University Press (P)2013 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
With the Old Breed
- At Peleliu and Okinawa
- By: E. B. Sledge
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Joe Mazzello, Tom Hanks (introduction)
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The celebrated 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific, winner of eight Emmy Awards, was based on two classic books about the War in the Pacific, Helmet for My Pillow and With The Old Breed. Audible Studios, in partnership with Playtone, the production company co-owned by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and creator of the award-winning HBO series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change, has created new recordings of these memoirs, narrated by the stars of the miniseries.
-
-
This is the second audio book of Sledge's work
- By Richard on 10-21-13
By: E. B. Sledge
-
D-Day
- June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of WW II
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Jesse Boggs
- Length: 25 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen E. Ambrose draws from hundreds of interviews with US Army veterans and the brave Allied soldiers who fought alongside them to create this exceptional account of the day that shaped the twentieth century. D-Day is above all the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their existence, when the horrors, complexities and triumphs of life are laid bare and courage and heroism come to the fore.
-
-
What an epic story what great men
- By Michael on 02-12-14
-
The Story of World War II
- By: Donald L. Miller, Henry Steele Commager
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought - and whose outcome was in greater doubt - than one might imagine. This is the war that Americans on the home front would have read about had they had access to previously censored testimony.
-
-
INCREDIBLE! WELL-RESEARCHED, COMPLETE & UNBIASED!
- By The Louligan on 07-15-14
By: Donald L. Miller, and others
-
Citizen Soldiers
- The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A masterful biography of the U.S. Army in the European Theater of Operations during World War II, Citizen Soldiers provides a compelling account of the extraordinary stories of ordinary men in their fight for democracy. From the high command on down to the enlisted men, Stephen E. Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews and oral histories from men on both sides who were there.
-
-
Required reading, excellent narration
- By Jeremy on 06-30-11
-
Bloody Ridge and Beyond
- A World War II Marine's Memoir of Edson's Raiders inthe Pacific
- By: Marlin Groft, Larry Alexander
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the killing ground that was the island of Guadalcanal, a 2,000-yard-long ridge rose from the jungle canopy. Behind it lay the all-important air base of Henderson Field. And if Henderson Field fell, it would mean the almost certain death or capture of all 12,500 marines on the island. But the marines positioned on the ridge were no normal fighters - they were the hard-fighting men of Edson's Raiders, an elite fighting unit within an already elite Marine Corps.
-
-
A Masterful Account
- By Arthur on 01-25-18
By: Marlin Groft, and others
-
The Liberator
- One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau
- By: Alex Kershaw
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From July 10, 1943, the date of the Allied landing in Sicily, to May 8, 1945, when victory in Europe was declared - the entire time it took to liberate Europe - no regiment saw more action, and no single platoon, company, or battalion endured worse, than the ones commanded by Felix Sparks, who had entered the war as a greenhorn second lieutenant of the 157th "Eager for Duty" Infantry Regiment of the 45th "Thunderbird" Division. Sparks and his fellow Thunderbirds fought longest and hardest to defeat Hitler.
-
-
Now I Know What a Hero Really Is
- By Steven on 11-27-12
By: Alex Kershaw
-
With the Old Breed
- At Peleliu and Okinawa
- By: E. B. Sledge
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Joe Mazzello, Tom Hanks (introduction)
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The celebrated 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific, winner of eight Emmy Awards, was based on two classic books about the War in the Pacific, Helmet for My Pillow and With The Old Breed. Audible Studios, in partnership with Playtone, the production company co-owned by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and creator of the award-winning HBO series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change, has created new recordings of these memoirs, narrated by the stars of the miniseries.
-
-
This is the second audio book of Sledge's work
- By Richard on 10-21-13
By: E. B. Sledge
-
D-Day
- June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of WW II
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Jesse Boggs
- Length: 25 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen E. Ambrose draws from hundreds of interviews with US Army veterans and the brave Allied soldiers who fought alongside them to create this exceptional account of the day that shaped the twentieth century. D-Day is above all the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their existence, when the horrors, complexities and triumphs of life are laid bare and courage and heroism come to the fore.
-
-
What an epic story what great men
- By Michael on 02-12-14
-
The Story of World War II
- By: Donald L. Miller, Henry Steele Commager
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought - and whose outcome was in greater doubt - than one might imagine. This is the war that Americans on the home front would have read about had they had access to previously censored testimony.
-
-
INCREDIBLE! WELL-RESEARCHED, COMPLETE & UNBIASED!
- By The Louligan on 07-15-14
By: Donald L. Miller, and others
-
Citizen Soldiers
- The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A masterful biography of the U.S. Army in the European Theater of Operations during World War II, Citizen Soldiers provides a compelling account of the extraordinary stories of ordinary men in their fight for democracy. From the high command on down to the enlisted men, Stephen E. Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews and oral histories from men on both sides who were there.
-
-
Required reading, excellent narration
- By Jeremy on 06-30-11
-
Bloody Ridge and Beyond
- A World War II Marine's Memoir of Edson's Raiders inthe Pacific
- By: Marlin Groft, Larry Alexander
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the killing ground that was the island of Guadalcanal, a 2,000-yard-long ridge rose from the jungle canopy. Behind it lay the all-important air base of Henderson Field. And if Henderson Field fell, it would mean the almost certain death or capture of all 12,500 marines on the island. But the marines positioned on the ridge were no normal fighters - they were the hard-fighting men of Edson's Raiders, an elite fighting unit within an already elite Marine Corps.
-
-
A Masterful Account
- By Arthur on 01-25-18
By: Marlin Groft, and others
-
The Liberator
- One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau
- By: Alex Kershaw
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From July 10, 1943, the date of the Allied landing in Sicily, to May 8, 1945, when victory in Europe was declared - the entire time it took to liberate Europe - no regiment saw more action, and no single platoon, company, or battalion endured worse, than the ones commanded by Felix Sparks, who had entered the war as a greenhorn second lieutenant of the 157th "Eager for Duty" Infantry Regiment of the 45th "Thunderbird" Division. Sparks and his fellow Thunderbirds fought longest and hardest to defeat Hitler.
-
-
Now I Know What a Hero Really Is
- By Steven on 11-27-12
By: Alex Kershaw
-
If Chaos Reigns
- The Near-Disaster and Ultimate Triumph of the Allied Airborne Forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944
- By: Flint Whitlock
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So said Brigadier S. James Hill, commanding officer of the British 3rd Parachute Brigade, in an address to his troops shortly before the launching of Operation Overlord - the D-Day invasion of Normandy. No more prophetic words were ever spoken, for chaos indeed reigned on that day, and many more that followed.
-
-
Allied Airborne in Normandy
- By Dr. Hu on 07-13-18
By: Flint Whitlock
-
The Bloody Battle for Suribachi
- The Amazing Story of Iwo Jima that Inspired Flags of Our Fathers
- By: Richard Wheeler
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The classic first-hand WWII narrative that chronicles the Marines’ savage five-day struggle to wrest Mount Suribachi from its tenacious Japanese defenders during their 35-day battle for Iwo Jima in 1945. Revised with a new introduction by the author and recently discovered photos, this book served as invaluable source material both for James Bradley’s best-seller Flags of Our Fathers as well as Clint Eastwood’s acclaimed film of the same name.
-
-
Incredible
- By Ed Hart on 06-09-22
By: Richard Wheeler
-
Islands of the Damned
- A Marine at War in the Pacific
- By: R. V. Burgin, Bill Marvel
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is an eyewitness - and eye-opening - account of some of the most savage and brutal fighting in the war against Japan, told from the perspective of a young Texan who volunteered for the Marine Corps to escape a life as a traveling salesman. R. V. Burgin enlisted at the age of twenty and, with his sharp intelligence and earnest work ethic, climbed the ranks from a green private to a seasoned sergeant.
-
-
Jerry
- By Anonymous User on 05-12-10
By: R. V. Burgin, and others
-
Against All Odds
- A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II
- By: Alex Kershaw
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the Allies raced to defeat Hitler, four men, all in the same unit, earned medal after medal for battlefield heroism. Maurice “Footsie” Britt, a former professional football player, became the very first American to receive every award for valor in a single war. Michael Daly was a West Point dropout who risked his neck over and over to keep his men alive. Keith Ware would one day become the first and only draftee in history to attain the rank of general before serving in Vietnam. In WWII, Ware owed his life to the finest soldier he ever commanded, a baby-faced Texan named Audie Murphy.
-
-
The Greatest Generation.
- By Jay Voigt on 05-28-22
By: Alex Kershaw
-
Hell in the Pacific
- A Marine Rifleman's Journey from Guadalcanal to Peleliu
- By: Jim McEnery, Bill Sloan
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In what may be the last memoir to be published by a living veteran of the pivotal invasion of Guadalcanal, which occurred almost 70 years ago, Marine Jim McEnery has teamed up with author Bill Sloan to create an unforgettably immersive chronicle of horror and heroism.
-
-
Badass
- By Rebecca Bennett on 11-06-15
By: Jim McEnery, and others
-
First Over There
- The Attack on Cantigny, America's First Battle of World War I
- By: Matthew J. Davenport
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At first light on Tuesday, May 28th, 1918, waves of American riflemen from the US Army's First Division climbed from their trenches, charged across the shell-scarred French dirt of no-man's-land, and captured the hilltop village of Cantigny from the grip of the German Army. Those who survived the enemy machine-gun fire and hand-to-hand fighting held on for the next two days and nights in shallow foxholes under the sting of mustard gas and crushing steel of artillery fire.
-
-
Outstanding storytelling.
- By David on 04-26-21
-
The Longest Day
- June 6, 1944
- By: Cornelius Ryan
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
> The Longest Day is Cornelius Ryan’s unsurpassed account of D-day, a book that endures as a masterpiece of military history. In this compelling tale of courage and heroism, glory and tragedy, Ryan painstakingly re-creates the fateful hours that preceded and followed the massive invasion of Normandy to retell the story of an epic battle that would turn the tide against world fascism.
-
-
Horrendous narration makes it impossible to listen
- By Mary on 03-18-12
By: Cornelius Ryan
-
The Pacific
- Hell Was an Ocean Away
- By: Hugh Ambrose
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this companion to the HBO miniseries - executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman - Hugh Ambrose reveals the intertwined odysseys of four US Marines and a US Navy carrier pilot during World War II. Between America's retreat from China in late November 1941 and the moment General MacArthur's airplane touched down on the Japanese mainland in August of 1945, five men connected by happenstance fought the key battles of the war against Japan.
-
-
Big let down
- By Howard on 03-28-10
By: Hugh Ambrose
-
The Greatest U.S. Marine Corps Stories Ever Told
- Unforgettable Stories of Courage, Honor, and Sacrifice
- By: Iain Martin, Colonel Joseph H. Alexander - introduction
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Friday, November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress approved a resolution for the organization of the Corps, creating what would become the hallowed few, the proud - the Marines. Since then, the men and women of the United States Marine Corps have created the finest traditions of service and honor, and supplied a pantheon of heroes who have upheld them.
-
-
Marines Will Hate This Narrator.
- By Blaine E. Moyer on 04-18-17
By: Iain Martin, and others
-
The Americans at D-Day
- The American Experience at the Normandy Invasion
- By: John C. McManus
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
June 6, 1944, was a pivotal moment in the history of World War II. On that day the climactic and decisive phase of the war in Europe began. Those who survived the intense fighting on the Normandy beaches found their lives irreversibly changed. That day ushered in a great change for the United States as well, because on D-day America began its march to the forefront of the Western world. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, almost one out of every two soldiers involved was an American.
-
-
Great Book
- By Byron Sarchet on 01-15-21
By: John C. McManus
-
Victory Fever on Guadalcanal
- Japan's First Land Defeat of World War II
- By: William H. Bartsch
- Narrated by: Bill Nevitt
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following their rampage through Southeast Asia and the Pacific in the five months after Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces moved into the Solomon Islands, intending to cut off the critical American supply line to Australia. But when they began to construct an airfield on Guadalcanal in July 1942, the Americans captured the almost completed airfield for their own strategic use. The Japanese Army countered by sending to Guadalcanal a reinforced battalion under the command of Col. Kiyonao Ichiki.
-
-
This a great Guadalcanal book, with caveats.
- By S. H. Moore on 11-19-19
-
Invasion Diary
- By: Richard Tregaskis
- Narrated by: Pat Grimes
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943 were bloody and pivotal, securing the Mediterranean, capitalizing on the overthrow of Mussolini, and pinning down German troops that could have been used on the Russian Front or in France after D-Day. The men who made the Allied victories in Sicily and Italy possible - soldiers and officers, bombardiers and drivers, doctors and generals - are honored and remembered in these minutes by famed war correspondent Richard Tregaskis.
-
-
Great story
- By James Polk on 04-20-25