THIS BOOK HAS BEEN SOLD
CORAL AND BRASS
General Holland M. Smith, USMC Ret
VG/VG--. First Edition. Slight edgewear to boards.
Dust jacket worn & fairly tattered around extremities (see picture),
with an irregular triangular chip missing from
bottom of back panel of jacket, ending in a closed tear which
extends across spine. Price-clipped. Jacket in mylar jacket.
Frontispiece, index, 289 pages. "One of the most important,
picturesque and controversial figures of WWII, 'Howlin' Mad'
Smith here tells his story--and the story of the Marine Corps'
magnificent achievement in the war with Japan. General Smith
was big brass himself: pioneer in amphibious warfare, commanding
general at Tarawa, Saipan and Iwo Jima, eventually commander
of all Marine land operations against Japan. But he has not
been inhibited by the chilly altitude of the high echelons.
His book possesses all the explosive vigor and forthrightness
that have made ' Howlin' Mad' Smith famous. He pulls no
punches in demanding full recognition his beloved Marines.
The major part of this book deals with the Pacific War; and
when General Smith describes a campaign, it is no military-
textbook account; it is a fighting man's story. You
won't forget his account of the Saipan battle or his picture
of the bloody beaches of Tarawa. Whenever the General thinks
mistakes were made, he says so-- frequently with blistering
effect. He says that the seizure of Tarawa was
unnecessary; that time and again the Navy failed to prepare
the way for invasion with sufficient bombardment; that
Admirals who wanted to act as Generals imperiled victory
in the coral islands. In describing the long-suppressed
controversy over Saipan, when he removed the Army's
General Ralph Smith from his command, the General claims
that the episode has been magnified out of all proportion
by inter-Service jealousies. 'Howlin' Mad' Smith has
always stood up for his Marines. Since WWI he has fought to
win for the Marines equal participation with other branches
of the service. It was a battle to obtain support for the
revolutionary methods of amphibious invasion worked out by
the Marines before the war -- a battle against traditionalism,
stupidity and apathy on the part of the big brass. How the
technique of assaulting supposedly impregnable beaches was
developed makes an absorbing story. The portrait of a great
fighting man emerges from these pages -- a man who typifies
the spirit of the Marine Corps."
Increasingly difficult to find, especially with dust jacket.
OUT OF PRINT
$150
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