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From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, and more recently from the jungles of Vietnam to the killing fields of Iraq, America’s "soldiers of the sea" have fought their country’s battles with famed valor, skill, and perseverance in the face of long odds. But where did the U.S. Marines earn their reputation as being the "first to fight?" It was on the South Pacific Island of Guadalcanal. There, on August 7, 1942, the 1st Marine Division stormed ashore to begin one of the most difficult and brutal campaigns of military history—and an unbroken string of victories staged across the Pacific.

Up the Solomons from Guadalcanal, westward into the islands of the central Pacific, and on to the climactic campaigns of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, these are the legendary battles celebrated in this volume, a lavishly illustrated tribute to the men who led the way against Japan. Nearly 300 combat photographs, many never before published, capture the fighting Leathernecks in training and in battle, landing and mopping up, making inexorable headway through the Pacific theater. Pacific Warriors also gives readers a look at the prewar Corps and its phenomenal growth from a modest two-regiment force to a full six divisions with its own modern air force..
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The US armed forces were responsible for many tactical innovations during the years 1941-5, but in no field was US mastery more complete than amphibious warfare. The US armed forces pioneered amphibious warfare in the Pacific and later in the Mediterranean but it was against Fortress Europe that the most famous and the most successful amphibious assault took place. On D-Day the Allies invaded German-held Normandy in a pre-dawn amphibious assault by American, British and Canadian forces. The US had perfected the special equipment and tactics for this extraordinarily difficult and risky form of warfare and despite large casualties during the beach assaults they were ultimately successful. This book explains, in accessible terms, the many problems associated with amphibious warfare and how they were overcome in the Mediterranean and European Theaters, and is illustrated with photographs, maps, diagrams and colour plates that support the explanations and bring the whole complex process to life.

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In this latest addition to his acclaimed U.S. warship design history series, Norman Friedman describes the ships and the craft of the U.S. amphibious force, from its inception in the 1920s through World War II to the present. He explains how and why the United States successfully created an entirely new kind of fleet to fight and win such World War II battles as D-Day and the island landings in the Pacific. To an extent not previously documented, his book lays out the differing views and contributions of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marines as well as the British, and how they affected the development of prewar and wartime amphibious forces. Current and future amphibious forces and tactics are explained, together with their implications for ships and craft, from 40,000-ton amphibious carriers down to tracked amphibious vehicles. As in earlier volumes in the series, this study uses previously unpublished sources to illustrate not only what was actually built but what was planned and never brought into service. For example, the book offers the first comprehensive and fully illustrated account of abortive attempts in the 1960s and beyond to build new fire support ships (LFS). With nearly two hundred photographs and specially commissioned line drawings and extensive appendixes, the work conveniently brings together details of the ships and their service histories found elsewhere only in scattered official references..
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The first authoritative history of any of the more than 350 attack transports or attack cargo ships of World War II, Combat Loaded: Across the Pacific on the USS Tate contains gripping combat narratives alongside the sometimes heartwarming, sometimes tragic details of daily life on board the ships of Transport Squadron 17 during the waning days of World War II.

Author Thomas E. Crew interviewed over fifty veterans of the Tate, including all her surviving officers. Crew weaves a rich tapestry of voices, combining it with extensive analysis of the Tate's daily action reports and ship's logs, accented by lively letters of the period from private collections--including previously unpublished accounts of the last days of famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle.

Crew also presents a rare unit-level perspective of joint operations involving the infantry fighting ashore and the navy transports that sustained them with their vital combat cargo. The resulting richly illustrated work presents perhaps the most comprehensive account to date of the experiences and courageous contributions of those who served on amphibious transports during World War II..
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In this unforgettable narrative of D-Day, Joseph Balkoski describes the minute-by-minute combat as it unfolded on Omaha Beach, allowing soldiers to speak for themselves as they recall their attempts to maneuver bombers through heavy cloud cover, the claustrophobic terror aboard transports, and the relentless fire that greeted them on the beach. Equal parts oral history and meticulous reconstruction, Omaha Beach is the closest the modern reader can get to experiencing the Normandy landings firsthand..
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The Pacific War changed abruptly in November 1943 when Adm. Chester W. Nimitz unleashed his Central Pacific drive, spearheaded by U.S. Marines. The sudden American proclivity for bold amphibious assaults into the teeth of prepared defenses astonished Japanese commanders, who called them "storm landings" because they differed sharply from earlier campaigns. This is the story of seven now-epic long-range assaults executed against murderous enemy fire at Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa - and a potential eighth, Kyushu. The author describes each clash as demonstrating a growing U.S. ability to concentrate an overwhelming naval force against a distant strategic objective and literally kick down the front door. The battles were violent, thoroughly decisive, and always bloody, with the landing force never relinquishing the offensive. The cost of storming these seven fortified islands was great: 74,805 combat casualties for the Marines and their Navy comrades. Losses among participating Army and offshore Navy units spiked the total to 100,000 dead and wounded. Award-winning historian Joseph Alexander relates this extraordinary story with an easy narrative style bolstered by years of research in original battle accounts, new Japanese translations, and fresh interviews with survivors. Richly illustrated and abounding with human-interest anecdotes about colorful "web-footed amphibians," Storm Landings vividly portrays the sheer drama of these three-dimensional battles whose magnitude and ferocity may never again be seen in this world..
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This book covers the US Marine Corps in the Vietnam War, centring on the structure and function of the two Fleet Marine Force (FMF) divisions and the corps command level, III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF). This detailed examination of III MAF explores its infantry, armor, artillery, aviation, service and engineer elements. Author Ed Gilbert explains how they functioned and highlights tensions that arose in the command structure as the war progressed. He also illustrates how the two FMF divisions bore the brunt of the fighting in the more conventional war against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units, and the very different role of the four Combined Action Battalions based in Viatnamese Villages..
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Winner of the Foundation for 2008 Coast Guard History Book AwardThe images of soldiers and marines coming ashore on hostile shores are embedded in our collective memory of World War II. But what of the sailors who manned the landing craft, going back and forth under fire with nowhere to take cover, their craft the special targets of enemy gunners?

In this book, Ken Wiley, a Coast Guardsman on an Attack Transport in the Pacific, relates the intricate, often nerve wracking story of how the United States projected its power across 6,000 miles in the teeth of fanatical Japanese resistance. Each invasion was a swirl of moving parts, from frogmen to fire support, transport mother ships to Attack Transports, the smaller Higgins boats (LCVPs), and during the last terrifying stage the courageous men who would storm the beaches.

The author participated in the campaigns for the Marshall Islands, the Marianas the Philippines and Okinawa, and with a precise eye for detail relates numerous aspects of landing craft operations, such as ferrying wounded, that are often discounted. He conveys the terror and horrors of war, as well as, on occasion, the thrill, while not neglecting the humor and cameraderie of wartime life.

An exciting book, full of harrowing combat action, Lucky Thirteen also provides a valuable service in expanding our knowledge of exactly how World War II's massive amphibious operations were undertaken.

REVIEWS

"... A personable and engaging tale of World War II from an oft-overlooked point of view."www.midwestbookreview.com 4/2007

".. It's quite a different view of the war, interesting and well worth reading. And keep in mind that the kid who got his parents permission to go into the Coast Guard was only 17. Within a very few years, he was a full fledged man, still too young to drink or vote, but a man."Books On Line 4-18-07

"The author knows whereof he speaks.As a coastguard LCVP coxswain, he served in amphibious assaults from the Marshalls and Marinas, to the Philipines and Okinawa. His tale cogently imparts both fear and certain dark humor of war."Proceedings 06/2007

"For unknown reasons, there are virtually no first person books by or about US Coast Guard coxswains in World War II. Ken Wiley corrects that oversight with LUCKY THIRTEEN, a book to be treasured."WWII History Magazine, 09/2007

"...provides a valuable service in expanding our knowledge of exactly how World War II's massive amphibious operations were undertaken."The U.S. Coast Guard Reservist 05/2007

"...This very-well written and organized account of D-Days in the Pacific with the US Coast Guard should appeal to both scholars and the general public and should be in every library of every World War II and Coast Guard historian."Journal of Military History 11/2007

"...an engaging, honest account of boys becoming men in a dangerous and utterly unpredictable environment." Military History of the West 01/2008

"...an ideal book for the younger generation, veterans, recruits, and Officer Candidates. Lucky Thirteen is highly recommended"Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 04/2008

"...a well-written and equally well-illustrated memoir of life aboard an LST during World War II, a role the Coast Guard played which is often overlooked by history texts today... unprecedented contribution to the field of Coast Guard History..."Foundation for Coast Guard History, 09/2008

"...fills the gaps of the Coast Guard's significant and important role during World War II and the officers and men of the Coast Guard's contribution to victory in the Pacific."Steamboat Historical Society, Fall 2008

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Price: $21.58 [Notify me when price goes down.]