Blue Ribbon Books, 1926. VG--. Early reprint edition. Spine faded, corners frayed. Interior clean. Illustrated with drawings made in the field & frequently while under fire, by the author. 248 pp.

Thomason has long been recognised as the finest artist and one of the finest fiction writers to come out of the Marine Corps. This was his first book. He se rved in WWI with the Marine Brigade, 2nd Division AEF, as second in command of 49th Co., 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. He participated in all major engagements of the Brigade and was awarded the Navy Cross for assaulting a machine-gun nest at Soissons . After the war he served in Peking, in Latin America, & at Pearl Harbor, to name a few of his postings, and commanded a detachment of Marines aboard the USS Rochester. He died in 1944, having achieved the rank of Colonel and lasting fam e a s aut hor and artist.

EXCERPT: Beyond them was the 6th Regiment of Marines, arms stacked in the fields by the river. Each battalion took the road in turn, and presently the whole Marine Brigade was swinging down the Marne in the slanting sunlight . Ve ry solid and businesslike the brigade was, keen-faced and gaunt and hard from the great fight behind them, and fit and competent for greater battles yet to come. The companies were under strength, but they had the quality of veterans . They had met the Boche and broken him, and they knew they could do it again. The rumble of the guns was behind them, and the rumor of the leave area still ran strong enough to maintain a slow volubility among the squads. They talked and laughed, but they did not sing. Veterans do not sing a great deal.

$25.00