They were young, brash, highly skilled and fearless. And they were deadly. Those warriors of the Second Marine Division, who smashed the elite troops of the Japanese Empire between 1942 and 1945, were the ones who fired the first shots and the last shots of the ground offensive in the Pacific theater. They stormed ashore in the Solomons, Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa. A few were professionals, but most were farm boys, ranchers, college students and tough inner-city kids. The core group were deer hunters from the North, elk hunters from the West, squirrel hunters from the South and grouse hunters from the East. They were dead shots who became deadlier with training and skilled leadership. Like every generation of American warriors, from Yorktown to New Orleans, to Gettysburg and the Argonne, they did not hesitate when their nation, their neighbors, and their families were threatened. Only a few are left who survived the roar of artillery fire, the howl of bombs, the chattering din of automatic weapons, the blood, pain, and stench of war in the jungle. This is the gripping, true story of some of those men, written by a Marine sergeant who survived the first four invasions and was training for the landing on mainland Japan when the war ended in 1945. These were warriors who trained, fought, partied and laughed while they lay their lives on the line for their country. Like all Marines of history, they obeyed two rules of warfare: Never retreat. Never surrender. Their legacy survives.
Bob Cary
(2005, 2007), 2009, 5½x8½, paper, 262 pp.
ISBN: 9780788432279
101-C3227
