General Holland M. Smith, USMC Ret.
& Percy Finch

Battery Press, 1989. Reprinted from the Scribners 1949 edition. NEW, still in shrinkwrap. Hardcover. Gilt lettering & decorations on green boards. Eagle, globe & anchor on front cover & spine. Frontispiece, index, 287 pp. "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 for 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 imperilled 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."

$38.00