US Marine Corps Pacific Theater of Operations 1944–45

Osprey Battle Orders #8

by Gordon L. Rottman

In late1944 the US Marine Corps prepared for the toughest battles of the war. It had grown to 35,598 officers, 5,384 officer candidates, and 366,353 enlisted Marines, totaling 431,573 personnel, and now comprised of two amphibious corps, six divisions, 26 non-divisional artillery battalions, and numerous support and service units. Following on from Battle Orders 1 and 7, this book examines the continuing development of the Corps' organization, its training, tactics, weaponry, and command structure. It details the formation of the 5th and 6th Marine Divisions and the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, and examines the Corps' performance in the brutal battles on Guam, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and its deployment as an occupation force.

Genres: War

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 22, 2004

About the author

Gordon L. Rottman served for 26 years in the US Army in Special Forces, airborne infantry, long-range reconnaissance patrol, and military intelligence assignments in the Regular Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve. He has worked as a Special Operations Forces scenario writer for 14 years at the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, Louisiana where he developed training exercises for Special Forces.
Gordon began writing military history books in 1984 and is currently a full-time author. He has written 50 books for Osprey. He is married with four children and lives in Cypress, Texas.

Reviews

[William Corrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall this is a pretty good book. The author was definitely limited in what he was able to include due to the small sizes of these books. There's a very brief overview of how the Marine Corps organized itself during 1944-45 and an equally brief overview of the battles fought by the Marines in these years. The only reasons I give this 3 stars are because, one, the battles quickly become a list of numbers and movements (i.e. 1st Mar Div moved west while (insert unit) moved south) and lose meaning as well as depth, and two, the overall lack of depth of information.