With the Old Breed is a great book. There are all sorts of good books about the Pacific War, not nearly so many about the European War. Hard to know why. The Thin Red Line is the best of all of them, I think. The description of being in combat is so bleak and terrifying and true. I have not seen the movie, but the book is as good as any movie could be.
A really great book that had a strong influence on me was Barbara Tuchman's Stillwell and the American Experience in China. I knew absolutely nothing about the whole era, and nothing about Stillwell, and had little interest in the machinations of Chiang Kai-Shek when I picked the book up. I read it spellbound for about two days, couldn't put it down -- the way the blurbs say. I have read it two or three times since. Still my model for how to write history.

yours,

Peter T.