DEVIL DOGS: FIGHTING MARINES OF WORLD WAR I
George Clark
NEW. Presidio, 1998. First
Edition. Photographs, maps, notes, appendices, bibliography, index,
notes, 463 pp. "The U.S. Marine Corps has long enjoyed the reputation of
being America's premier fighting force. Whenever crisis looms, one hears
the familiar chorus, "Send in the Marines." How was this reputation first
earned? Historian George B. Clark tells the complete, never before published
story of the extraordinary contributions of the Marine combat service in
World War I. DEVIL DOGS is the first book to examine the entire experiences
of the Marine Corps in France. Bolstered with information taken from original
documents, as well as personal memoirs, both published and unpublished,
the reader will follow the men who became Marines, from their recruitment,
through training and shipment overseas, to the horrors of trench warfare
and the quest to survive on the battlefield known as the 'killing zone',
where it was common for the wounded and gassed to be put back into the
line of fire with minimal time for recovery. Author Clark not only covers
the Marines' most famous battle of the war, Belleau Wood, in substantive
detail, but also writes about the lesser-known but still epic battles of
Soissons, Blanc Mont, and the Meuse River campaigns. They are all here,
including the critical and often overlooked engagements at Verdun, Marbache,
and St. Mihiel. DEVIL DOGS shows how the Marine Corps stepped up and took
its place as a full-fledged member of America's armed forces in 1918. So
fierce was the 4th Marine Brigade in combat that the overwhelmed German
defenders dubbed them Teufelhunden, literally "Devil Dogs".
$40.00
