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Pacific Warriors: The U.S. Marines in World War II: A Pictorial Tribute
FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA to the shores of Tripoli, as the Marine Corps Hymn relates, and more recently in the epic battle of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea and the siege of Hue City in Vietnam, America’s “soldiers of the sea” have fought their country’s baffles around the world for more than two centuries. From Belleau Wood in the Great War to the killing fields of Iraq, the fighting Leathernecks have been known for their valorous spirit—their ability to persevere in the face of nearly any odds.
The U.S. Marines earned their reputation of being the “First to Fight” on the South Pacific island of Guadalcanal, when on August 7, 1942, the 1st Marine Division stormed ashore to begin one of the most difficult and brutal campaigns of recent military history. This was just the first of an unbroken string of a dozen island victories across the Pacific: up the Solomons from Guadalcanal, on westward in 1943 from Tarawa in the central Pacific, and the climactic Western Pacific campaigns of 1945 on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Pacific Warriors covers all of the legendary Marine battles of the Pacific War in a tribute to the men who led the way against Japan. It also provides the reader with a look at the prewar Marine Corps and its remarkable base force to a full six divisions along with a modern Marine Corps air force. The rise and development of modern amphibious doctrine and training going back to the end of the nineteenth century are an important part of the story and receive detailed coverage.
Combined with nearly three hundred photographs—many never before published—and detailed captions, plus seventeen maps commissioned especially for this volume, the expert text by critically acclaimed military historian Eric Hammel will serve as a lasting tribute to the United States Marines of World War II.
The U.S. Marines earned their reputation of being the “First to Fight” on the South Pacific island of Guadalcanal, when on August 7, 1942, the 1st Marine Division stormed ashore to begin one of the most difficult and brutal campaigns of recent military history. This was just the first of an unbroken string of a dozen island victories across the Pacific: up the Solomons from Guadalcanal, on westward in 1943 from Tarawa in the central Pacific, and the climactic Western Pacific campaigns of 1945 on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Pacific Warriors covers all of the legendary Marine battles of the Pacific War in a tribute to the men who led the way against Japan. It also provides the reader with a look at the prewar Marine Corps and its remarkable base force to a full six divisions along with a modern Marine Corps air force. The rise and development of modern amphibious doctrine and training going back to the end of the nineteenth century are an important part of the story and receive detailed coverage.
Combined with nearly three hundred photographs—many never before published—and detailed captions, plus seventeen maps commissioned especially for this volume, the expert text by critically acclaimed military historian Eric Hammel will serve as a lasting tribute to the United States Marines of World War II.
- GenresHistoryWorld War II
256 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2005
21 people want to read
About the author
Eric Hammel
99 books50 followersEric Hammel was born in 1946, in Salem, Massachusetts, and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Central High School of Philadelphia in January 1964 and earned a degree in Journalism from Temple University in 1972. His road to writing military history began at age twelve, when he was stuck in bed for a week with a childhood illness. Eric's father bought him the first paperback book he ever owned, Walter Lord's Day of Infamy. As he devoured the book, Eric realized that he wanted to write books exactly like it, what we now call popular narrative history. Lord had pieced together the book from official records illuminated with the recollections of people who were there. Eric began to write his first military history book when he was fifteen. The book eventually turned out to be Guadalcanal: Starvation Island. Eric completed the first draft before he graduated from high school. During his first year of college, Eric wrote the first draft of Munda Trail, and got started on 76 Hours when he was a college junior. Then Eric got married and went to work, which left him no time to pursue his writing except as a journalism student.
Eric quit school at the end of his junior year and went to work in advertising in 1970. Eric completed his journalism degree in 1972, moved to California in 1975, and finally got back to writing while he operated his own one-man ad agency and started on a family. 76 Hours was published in 1980, and Chosin followed in 1982. At the end of 1983 Eric was offered enough of an advance to write The Root: The Marines in Beirut to take up writing books full time. The rest, as they say, is history.
Eric eventually published under his own imprint, Pacifica Press, which morphed into Pacifica Military History and IPS Books. At some point in the late 1990s, Eric realized he had not written in five years, so he pretty much closed down the publishing operation and pieced together a string of pictorial combat histories for Zenith Press. Eric nominally retired in 2008 and took up writing as a full-time hobby writing two novels, 'Til The Last Bugle Call and Love and Grace. Fast forward to 2018 and Eric was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and on August 25th 2020, Eric passed from this life to the next at the age of 74.
Eric quit school at the end of his junior year and went to work in advertising in 1970. Eric completed his journalism degree in 1972, moved to California in 1975, and finally got back to writing while he operated his own one-man ad agency and started on a family. 76 Hours was published in 1980, and Chosin followed in 1982. At the end of 1983 Eric was offered enough of an advance to write The Root: The Marines in Beirut to take up writing books full time. The rest, as they say, is history.
Eric eventually published under his own imprint, Pacifica Press, which morphed into Pacifica Military History and IPS Books. At some point in the late 1990s, Eric realized he had not written in five years, so he pretty much closed down the publishing operation and pieced together a string of pictorial combat histories for Zenith Press. Eric nominally retired in 2008 and took up writing as a full-time hobby writing two novels, 'Til The Last Bugle Call and Love and Grace. Fast forward to 2018 and Eric was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and on August 25th 2020, Eric passed from this life to the next at the age of 74.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 18, 2009
I got this book primarily because it offers some of the best pictures of the war in East Asia and the island campaigns. The text is good and informative; but the pictures make the book more valuable.
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